Women in development : defining the issues

Since women are half the world, every Government decision, and every economic process affects them. The definition of what constitutes a women's issue must be more restrictive than this. Three approaches are suggested. On one, policies are seen as women's issues to the extent that they affect women differentially. The report suggests that this might indeed apply to a wide range of policies. On a second, the report distinguishes problems into equity-based and efficiency based. The third, and most emphasized classification, is in gender specific processes. Four such processes are distinguished, together with their interactions. Women's issues then are a matter of understanding how these processes can be alleviated.