Despite various decades of research and claim-making by feminist scholars and movements, gender remains an overlooked area in development studies. Yet, as is shown in Under Development: Gender (Palgrave Macmillan), a new study edited by Christine Verschuur, Senior Lecturer at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Isabelle Guérin and Hélène Guétat-Bernard, without gender it is impossible to understand development – and the development of under-development. This volume is part of a series that brings together specialists from different parts of the world and various disciplines, who look at various key issues in development studies through the prisms of gender and feminism.

What are the origin and purpose of this collective research?

This book brought together well-known gender scholars working on development issues, from the Global North and the Global South, from English-, French- and Spanish-speaking countries and academic traditions, and, particularly, from different disciplines. They presented their papers during an international conference organised by “Pôle genre et développement” at the Institute in 2012 and further discussed their ideas and articles in preparation for this book.
The purpose of the book is to show how gender sheds new light on disciplines used in development studies as well as other fields of study, uncovering central issues that are usually disregarded. It aims at bridging gaps between scholars working in different contexts and linguistic areas, and who do not know enough about each other's work. And finally, the idea is to share with a wide audience on gender, which is far too often not understood as a tool of analysis.

You say that gender is an expression of power and an indispensable analytical category for social change. Why is this new tool essential to development studies?

Gender is a way of expressing power, and power is central to understand development issues. Gender as a tool of analysis has helped to give social and economic visibility to women, to explain the male bias in development and the consequences of policies and programmes for women, but also to deconstruct the victimized and disempowered image of women in development. This way of thinking has opened paths to reflect on how people constitute their identities. For instance, it has stimulated thought on hegemonic masculinities. We show that all fields, including security and law, are gendered and that a gender analysis is required in order to understand them more comprehensively.

You see feminist theory as a fresh way to think and achieve social change, which means that it is not only a methodological, but also a political tool. Do you really think that gender can be an alternative to global capitalism?

Above all, gender helps us to think about social change, and to see people as subjects of their own history. Gender studies, born from interaction between feminist academics and feminist movements, are interested in listening to the voices of the voiceless. Feminism, as a social movement, can contribute to social change, while diverse feminist theories are by essence critical of society and concerned with injustice. By reflecting on issues not only of recognition, but also of redistribution and representation, feminist theories help to renew critical approaches to the dominant development model.

Is the gender approach a relative theory, depending on the cultural views each part of the world can offer?

As I have said, feminist theories have been built in interaction between academics and feminist movements. Women are not a homogeneous category, feminist movements are themselves diverse, and there are multiple feminisms in all parts of the world. Sometimes hegemonic feminism has dominated in the production and dissemination of knowledge. However, what we call local feminisms, or decolonial feminisms, have also contributed to the construction of feminist theories and allowed diverse visions, issues or forms of struggle to be brought to the forefront. Gender as a category constructed by feminist theories insists on taking into consideration the way each person or group, from different cultures and at different historical moments, sees the world from their experience and point of view and wants to change it for more justice. While gender justice is a universal goal, there are different ways of struggling to achieve it.

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