5A.PYQ — WID/WAD/GAD, globalisation, theory & colonial history (2016–2020) — Gender Studies

Expanded foundation — development approaches and globalisation

✅

Use a causal chain: development policy → access to assets and services → division of paid and unpaid work → control over decisions → gendered outcome. This turns descriptive bullets into analysis.

Formal definitions

Development: a contested process of economic, social, political and human change; it is broader than growth in national income.
WID (Women in Development): an approach that seeks to include women in existing development programmes through employment, credit, training and services.
WAD (Women and Development): an approach influenced by Marxist and dependency thinking that stresses women's existing productive role and their incorporation into unequal economic structures.
GAD (Gender and Development): an approach that analyses relations among genders, institutional power, social reproduction and control over resources.
Practical gender needs: immediate needs arising within existing roles, such as water, healthcare or childcare.
Strategic gender interests: changes that challenge unequal relations, such as property rights, freedom from violence and decision-making power.
Globalisation: increasing cross-border integration of production, finance, migration, communication and culture.

In plain English

WID asks, “How can women join the project?” WAD asks, “How does the economic system already use women's work?” GAD asks, “Who controls resources and decisions, and how do gender relations shape the project's results?” The three lenses can be combined, but they ask different questions.

Worked example

A microcredit programme may count the number of loans given to women. That is a useful WID indicator. A deeper analysis asks whether market prices and contractor arrangements keep producers poor, which reflects WAD. A GAD analysis also asks who owns the asset, who decides how the loan is spent, whether unpaid care leaves time to run the enterprise, and whether men and women share the new income. Counting access without examining control may exaggerate empowerment.

Globalisation example

Export work or online freelancing can provide income and bargaining power. The same job may be insecure, poorly paid or combined with unpaid household work. The correct conclusion is conditional: outcomes depend on contracts, skills, mobility, care services, digital access and labour protection.

Model expanded paragraph

Structural functionalism argues that social institutions perform tasks that contribute to stability. Applied uncritically, it may portray a male breadwinner and female caregiver as complementary. The weakness is that stability is not the same as justice: a role arrangement may persist because women have fewer assets or choices. A gender analysis therefore asks who benefits, whose labour is unpaid and whether roles can change without harming social wellbeing.

Evidence rule: Identify the country, year and source of any employment, poverty or digital-access statistic.

📖

These are distinct, question-specific answer frameworks: concepts → named theories → causal mechanisms → developing-country/Pakistan illustration → limitations → conclusion. Use about 35–40 minutes for a 20-mark answer in Part-II.

✍️

Revised model-answer standard: The answers below are written in developed, exam-ready prose, not one-line bullet outlines. Under every subheading, the paragraph states a claim, explains how or why it operates, uses a concrete case or example and identifies its significance or limitation. Keep the introduction, critical evaluation and conclusion, then adapt the emphasis to the exact FPSC command word. Ten-mark short notes are intentionally shorter than 20-mark responses.

2016 Q8 — Critically review WID, WAD and GAD (20 marks)

Introduction. Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD) and Gender and Development (GAD) are approaches that identify different problems in development planning. WID emphasises women's exclusion from programmes, WAD examines unequal economic structures, and GAD studies the relationships and institutions distributing work, resources and power. A critical review must compare their explanations and limitations through a single practical example.

1. WID: making women visible in development

WID emerged prominently in the 1970s to challenge the practice of treating women mainly as dependants rather than economic participants. A development agency might train only male farmers even when women perform major agricultural tasks. WID would bring women into extension courses or credit schemes, making an overlooked group visible to planners. The weakness is that participation in a training programme says little about who owns the land or controls crop earnings; the original unequal structure can remain unchanged.

2. WAD: examining global and class relations

WAD, influenced by dependency and Marxist analysis, begins from the view that women already contribute to production but often do so within exploitative arrangements. Consider a woman stitching export garments at home while a contractor controls prices and a distant buyer receives most of the profit. A WAD inquiry would trace the economic chain rather than describe her as simply insufficiently integrated into work. Its emphasis on class and international markets illuminates structural relationships, although critics observe that household-level patriarchal constraints also require attention.

3. GAD: relations and control over resources

GAD broadened analysis during the 1980s by examining how gender norms shape labour, ownership and household decisions. A female farmer may receive training and credit but still have little say over where the loan is used. GAD asks who controls finance, who performs unpaid care and who participates in the project's decisions. This creates a more relational explanation of unequal outcomes. Implementation is demanding, however, because changing a reporting form is much easier than changing established patterns of control.

4. Practical needs and strategic interests

A further GAD contribution is the distinction between immediate living conditions and the underlying arrangements creating inequality. A closer water supply meets a practical need by reducing daily collection time. Participation in local water management, or equal access to property and decision-making, addresses a strategic interest. The two are not opposites: a water project can offer immediate relief and create opportunities for broader participation. The policy question is what an intervention actually changes, not which label sounds more progressive.

5. Comparative Pakistan example

Imagine an agricultural-credit programme in rural Pakistan. WID counts whether women receive loans and training. WAD asks whether input costs, intermediaries and commodity buyers keep small producers dependent. GAD also asks whether female borrowers control the money, have time to use training and can participate in decisions. These questions yield different kinds of evidence; none is answered simply by counting female beneficiaries. Combined analysis avoids confusing presence with empowerment.

Critical evaluation. All three approaches contributed useful questions, and they need not be treated as mutually exclusive historical replacements. WID can meet immediate barriers, WAD examines global structures and GAD explores unequal relations, yet each requires reliable local data.

Conclusion. The critical evolution is from improving women's presence in development to explaining the economic and social structures that determine whether participation produces meaningful change.

2017 Q6 — Globalisation and gender issues in developing countries (20 marks)

Introduction. Globalisation connects markets, labour forces, communications and institutions across national boundaries. For women in developing countries, the consequences can include new income and educational opportunities alongside insecure work, changing care responsibilities and unequal access to technology. A gender analysis asks who receives the opportunities, who bears the costs and what mechanisms account for the difference.

1. Global production and employment

Export manufacturing can draw women into paid work that was previously unavailable to them, potentially increasing their independent income. However, competitive supply chains may favour short-term contracts, low wages or production conditions that restrict workers' bargaining power. Garment production in Bangladesh illustrates why the same industry can create employment and expose workers to occupational risks. The relevant question is not whether global trade is inherently beneficial or harmful but under what labour protections and market arrangements workers participate.

2. Migration and care chains

Migrant domestic and care work can connect employers in wealthier regions with workers from lower-income countries. A migrant caregiver may earn more than she could locally and send remittances to relatives, yet separation creates new care needs at home. Another family member, frequently a woman, may take on those responsibilities without pay. This transnational chain makes visible how paid work in one household can depend on reallocated or unpaid work in another. Conditions also depend on migration status and enforceable employment contracts.

3. Communication and transnational ideas

Internet access enables education, banking, professional networking and remote income earning. A woman able to sell products online may reach customers beyond her immediate district. But high handset costs, limited digital skills or family restrictions can prevent others from joining the same market. Globalisation therefore does not remove pre-existing inequalities automatically; it often interacts with them. Online harassment additionally illustrates how a new communication opportunity can create new safety problems.

4. Cultural and institutional effects

Media, universities and international organisations circulate arguments about gender rights, work, schooling and social roles. These influences may provoke new conversations or resistance depending on local history. For example, an international development framework may encourage a school project to gather sex-disaggregated attendance data. That can reveal an overlooked problem, but adopting new language does not guarantee the school has transport, teachers or accessible buildings. The institutional mechanism must be examined separately from the spread of the idea.

5. Political economy and variation

Low-income informal workers, urban professionals and migrants without secure documentation occupy different places in the global economy. Their incomes, rights and bargaining power vary because of class, legal status and local regulation. An analysis comparing these groups is more informative than describing all women in developing countries as uniformly empowered or exploited. Researchers should also distinguish a general global trend from evidence specific to Pakistan or another named country.

Critical evaluation. Globalisation is not a single policy with one uniform effect. Labour regulation, welfare systems, household bargaining and technical access determine much of the distribution of benefits and risks.

Conclusion. Its gender implications lie in the interaction between new cross-border opportunities and the unequal economic and social conditions through which people access them.

2017 Q8(b) — Gender and Development (GAD) (10 marks)

Introduction. Gender and Development (GAD) is an approach that examines how gendered relationships and institutional power influence the effects of development. It differs from approaches that only count how many women are included in a project because it asks who controls resources and who performs the work.

1. Gender as a relationship

GAD considers families, markets, public services and local organisations as connected settings. For example, providing an agricultural loan to a woman may not expand her economic choices if another family member decides how to spend it. A gender analysis therefore examines control over money, responsibilities for unpaid care and the role of both men and women in the household. This identifies mechanisms hidden behind a simple number of beneficiaries.

2. Practical and strategic gender needs

Practical needs concern pressing conditions such as nearby water, shelter, transport and healthcare. Strategic interests concern the unequal authority or ownership that shapes those conditions. A water pump can save women time without altering who manages the system. If affected women also participate meaningfully in deciding where it is built and how it is maintained, the project engages questions of authority. The distinction helps explain different levels of intervention without dismissing immediate welfare.

3. Strength and limitations

GAD expands project evaluation to include time use, decision-making and institutional rules. It encourages planners to ask whether benefits last beyond a training course or one financial grant. However, the approach can become bureaucratic when organisations merely add gender indicators to reports without allocating resources or monitoring outcomes. Its value depends on evidence of the relationships being examined.

Conclusion. GAD interprets development through gendered responsibilities and power, not simply access to a programme. It links immediate services with longer-term questions of control and participation.

2018 Q6 — Global political economy and Pakistani women's lives (20 marks)

Introduction. Global political economy concerns the relationships linking trade, finance, labour, technology and institutions across countries. Pakistani women's experiences of these forces differ according to education, income, location, employment type and family responsibilities. The key task is to explain the channels through which global changes affect daily work and access to resources.

1. Export markets and insecure labour

Export-oriented industries can create paid employment and connect producers with buyers abroad. Yet price competition and subcontracting may transfer commercial risks to workers who lack stable contracts. A woman sewing garments at home, for example, may earn per piece while an intermediary determines rates and work volume. She is participating in a global production chain, but not necessarily gaining secure wages or control over the value she creates. The quality of opportunity depends on labour standards and market arrangements.

2. Informal work and invisible contribution

Many forms of female work occur in agriculture, family businesses or homes and may be inadequately captured by conventional paid-employment measures. A woman sorting grain or managing family livestock can contribute to production without receiving a separate wage. When global commodity prices change, the household may gain or lose income even though her contribution remains statistically obscure. This example shows why a gender analysis should distinguish employment status, economic activity and personal control over earnings.

3. Migration and household care

Global labour migration creates remittance opportunities and changes who works or cares for dependants. When a family member migrates, others may take on additional unpaid work, creating pressures that employment figures do not capture. A household receiving remittances could improve its ability to finance girls' education while simultaneously requiring greater caregiving from a woman who remains at home. The effect cannot be inferred from migration alone; household organisation and control over remitted income matter.

4. Technology and service work

Digital platforms, freelancing and online commerce can reduce some restrictions caused by distance from large labour markets. An educated woman might earn remotely without commuting daily, yet internet cost, banking access and domestic care can still limit her capacity to work. Online customer acquisition can open markets while introducing dependence on platform rules and risks of digital abuse. The distribution of gains therefore depends on both global technology and local infrastructure.

5. Economic shocks and services

International price changes and domestic fiscal decisions can affect transport, food and access to healthcare. Where households face tighter budgets, gendered expectations about who reduces personal consumption or provides additional unpaid care may shape the experience of an economic shock. An examination answer should describe this as a possible mechanism and use dated evidence before claiming that a particular crisis produced a specified outcome.

Critical evaluation. International markets do not act independently of Pakistan's education systems, labour laws or household norms. The same global opportunity may generate different outcomes for a salaried professional and a home-based informal worker.

Conclusion. A gendered view of Pakistan's political economy follows production, income, technology and care across borders while asking which institutions determine who captures the benefits.

2018 Q8(a) — Practical and strategic gender needs (10 marks)

Introduction. Practical gender needs and strategic gender interests are categories used in development analysis, particularly associated with Caroline Moser. They separate improvements in immediate living conditions from changes in the underlying social relationships that can produce inequality.

Practical needs: immediate conditions

Practical needs include accessible water, sanitation, transport, childcare and healthcare. For example, a closer water source can shorten a woman's daily journey and free time for rest, study or paid work. The mechanism is a direct reduction in a task made difficult by existing social arrangements. Such an improvement matters even if ownership of local resources and patterns of household authority remain unchanged. Meeting an urgent need should not be dismissed merely because it does not instantly transform social relations.

Strategic interests: structural position

Strategic interests concern issues such as equal control of resources, the ability to influence decisions and freedom from discriminatory constraints. A woman who receives agricultural training but cannot own land or decide how crop income is used may still face structural obstacles. A programme investigating land documentation and women's participation in cooperative decisions addresses those relationships more directly. The distinction matters because attendance at a training event is not equivalent to control over the economic outcome.

Relationship and applied illustration

A well-designed water scheme may meet both kinds of needs: it supplies reliable water immediately and creates opportunities for women to help select locations and manage maintenance. The categories are therefore analytical, not competing moral priorities. In an examination, explain what changes in daily life and what changes in power rather than simply memorising two lists.

Conclusion. Practical needs focus on immediate welfare while strategic interests examine unequal social position. Both dimensions help researchers assess what a development intervention actually accomplishes.

2019 Q4 — Modernisation versus dependency theories of women's subordination (20 marks)

Introduction. Modernisation and dependency theories offer different explanations of economic and social change. Modernisation emphasises the transformation of domestic institutions, education and productive organisation; dependency analysis examines how unequal relationships in the world economy constrain development. A gender critique explores what each theory explains about women's subordination and what it overlooks.

1. Modernisation and internal change

Modernisation approaches, including W. W. Rostow's influential stages model, link development with industrialisation, education, urbanisation and changing institutions. Applied to gender, a lack of girls' schooling or restricted occupational access may be understood as limiting participation in expanding markets. For instance, a new transport route and nearby secondary school can alter access to training. Yet simply describing traditional norms as the cause of inequality can obscure poverty, weak infrastructure and other institutional barriers.

2. Limits of a domestic-culture explanation

The theory can imply that communities progress along a single path from traditional to modern society. However, modern factories may employ women while maintaining precarious conditions, and urban families may continue to allocate care work unequally. A woman could gain paid employment yet perform several hours of unpaid childcare each day. That result shows why industrial growth does not automatically remove gendered responsibilities. It also cautions against treating all local cultures as static or uniformly opposed to change.

3. Dependency and external economic relationships

Dependency theorists such as André Gunder Frank argue that unequal exchange, extraction and international economic relationships can help sustain underdevelopment. A gendered application looks at women's position in low-paid export production and service chains. For example, a garment worker may produce goods for consumers abroad while receiving a small portion of the final sale price. The analysis shifts attention from an alleged failure of domestic attitudes alone to the structure of markets and ownership.

4. Limits of the dependency explanation

A global economic account can understate the role of local law, household bargaining, regional social conditions and women's own choices. Two women working in the same international supply chain may have different opportunities because of education, documentation or family care. The influence of global buyers does not directly explain every difference between them. Gender and Development approaches therefore add questions about control over resources and the institutional division of labour.

5. Pakistan-based synthesis

A vocational initiative for rural women can be viewed through modernisation as a means of increasing skills and employment access. Dependency analysis asks whether intermediary buyers, finance and pricing restrict the returns to that work. A relational gender perspective then investigates who controls earnings and who provides unpaid domestic care. The combined example illustrates why different theoretical levels can operate simultaneously rather than cancel each other out.

Critical evaluation. Neither internal culture nor external markets alone account for all gender inequality. Any explanation should connect its theoretical mechanism with evidence about specific institutions and time periods.

Conclusion. Modernisation highlights changes in local capabilities and institutions; dependency directs attention to unequal global structures. Gender analysis is strengthened by examining both alongside household relations.

2019 Q5 — Gendered inequalities under globalisation (20 marks)

Introduction. Globalisation increases connections through production, trade, migration and communication, but its effects are unevenly distributed. A critical gender analysis asks how these processes interact with existing hierarchies of work, income, migration status and unpaid care, rather than assuming that greater international connection produces a single outcome.

1. Gendered employment in international supply chains

International firms and contractors may recruit women into export manufacturing or services, offering income and wider experience. Yet competitive sourcing can encourage insecure contracts, low wages or unsafe conditions. Consider a worker paid per garment in a subcontracted workshop while a distant buyer sets tight delivery schedules. The opportunity to earn is genuine, but the worker may carry substantial production risk. The central analytical issue is the distribution of bargaining power along the supply chain.

2. Cross-border migration and care

Migration can provide wages and remittances to workers and families, yet it also redistributes care responsibilities across households. A woman employed abroad as a caregiver may rely on relatives at home to raise her children or care for elderly parents. Their unpaid work supports the migrant's paid employment. This chain demonstrates that conventional remittance figures reveal only part of the social cost or benefit. Migration outcomes also depend on documentation, employer rules and access to legal protection.

3. Digital opportunity and exclusion

The internet can connect women with distant universities, customers and jobs. A rural entrepreneur able to market products online may overcome limits of the immediate local market. However, the same service is unavailable to those without affordable handsets, digital skills or a safe place to work. Unequal access can reproduce class and geographic gaps inside new technological systems. Thus a new platform is not automatically an equal opportunity for every potential user.

4. Public services and macroeconomic reform

Changes in public spending, prices and subsidies can shift the costs of education, healthcare and care work onto households. Where social expectations assign those tasks primarily to women, an economic adjustment can add to their unpaid workload. For example, longer journeys to a functioning clinic may require additional time from a family caregiver. This is a causal pathway to investigate, not a claim that all economic reforms reduce services or affect every household alike.

5. Culture, representation and diversity

Global entertainment and media circulate ideals of professional success, family life and physical appearance, sometimes creating new aspirations and sometimes reinforcing stereotypes. The effect of the same message can differ sharply among an urban student, a migrant worker and a rural agricultural labourer. A gender analysis must therefore compare groups and institutional contexts rather than treating women worldwide as one undifferentiated audience.

Critical evaluation. Globalisation includes both opportunities and inequalities, and national laws, labour rights and household power mediate its effects. The quality of jobs and control over earnings matter more than a simple count of women employed.

Conclusion. Gendered inequalities under globalisation arise from the intersection of international markets, local institutions, social expectations and unequal capacities to benefit from change.

2019 Q8(c) — Structural functionalism and gender (10 marks)

Introduction. Structural functionalism views society as interconnected institutions whose roles contribute to social organisation. Its treatment of family gender roles is associated with Talcott Parsons and Robert Bales, although their account reflected a particular historical family model rather than a universal arrangement.

1. Instrumental and expressive roles

Parsons and Bales described instrumental responsibilities, often associated with wage provision, and expressive responsibilities, associated with emotional care. The theory proposed that role specialisation could help coordinate the family. For example, in a household where one adult worked outside and another provided childcare, tasks could be organised around this division. Its descriptive contribution is to ask how institutions assign responsibilities; it does not prove that this arrangement is the only workable one.

2. Criticism from gender scholarship

Feminist critics observe that describing a division of labour as functional may conceal who performs unpaid work and who controls income. A rural Pakistani woman may contribute to agriculture as well as cooking and childcare, contradicting a rigid breadwinner–homemaker account. Similarly, a father who performs most caregiving shows that the expressive role need not be assigned by sex. These cases illustrate the limitations of generalising a historically specific model.

3. Application

A good answer compares the expected stability of specialised roles with evidence of unequal opportunity, changing family forms and actual patterns of work. The distinction between describing a role and declaring it natural is essential.

Conclusion. Structural functionalism offers a framework for studying institutional roles, while gender analysis questions whether inherited divisions are universal, equitable or accurately descriptive.

2020 Q3 — Colonial rule and women's status in the subcontinent (20 marks)

Introduction. Colonial administration changed the institutions affecting women in the Indian subcontinent through law, education, land and economic restructuring. Its effects were diverse: some formal opportunities expanded, while categories and power hierarchies were also reshaped through imperial governance. The role of Indian reformers and women's own activism must be included rather than attributing every change to colonial officials.

Colonial governments recorded and interpreted local personal and customary laws for administration. In doing so, complex practices could be simplified or transformed into apparently fixed legal rules. A woman's inheritance claim, for example, might be influenced by the interaction of family custom, court interpretation and property records. The significance is that legal classification can shape access to resources, but the precise consequences depended on community, period and the rules then applied.

2. Education and reform debates

Missionary and reformist schools, local reform organisations and new educational institutions expanded some opportunities for girls, particularly in settings with available resources. Yet access often varied by class, region and religious community. A wealthy household might send daughters to a new school while a poorer family lacked the money or local facility to do so. These differences show why 'colonial progress' cannot be inferred from the existence of a few urban institutions alone.

Debates concerning sati, widow remarriage and marriage age involved Indian social reformers, women activists and colonial authorities. Raja Ram Mohan Roy, for instance, is associated with the campaign against sati, while other reform traditions addressed education and family law. Reform should not be presented as a gift delivered by a uniformly benevolent imperial state. Local intellectuals, women and social organisations helped define both the issues and the forms of change.

4. Economy, work and household organisation

Changes in land tenure, taxation, trade and urban employment altered economic opportunities and constraints for many households. Women continued to perform agricultural and domestic work, sometimes outside formal wage categories. If a land record identified a male household head while women supplied labour, public documents could understate their economic contribution. This mechanism links colonial administrative practice with later questions about property and the visibility of women's work.

5. Nationalism, public participation and continuity

Print culture, education and new political associations created spaces where some women entered public debate and nationalist activity. At the same time, ideals concerning respectable femininity and domestic responsibilities continued to shape what participation was considered acceptable. These mixed effects require attention to both opportunity and restriction. Following independence, some administrative arrangements and unequal economic conditions persisted, although later developments cannot be attributed exclusively to colonial rule.

Critical evaluation. The colonial period cannot be reduced to a story of universal reform or universal deterioration. The evidence must identify the particular law, institution, region and community under discussion.

Conclusion. Women's status changed through the interaction of imperial rule, economic restructuring, indigenous reform and women's own organising, with unequal effects across the subcontinent.