5B.PYQ — Modernisation, SAPs, coloniality, WID & global systems (2021–2026) — Gender Studies

Expanded foundation — political economy, SAPs and coloniality

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Define the theory before judging it. Then trace a concrete mechanism from global or national policy to workplaces, households and unpaid care. Avoid claiming that every reform or development programme has the same effect.

Formal definitions

Modernisation theory: a family of theories linking development with industrialisation, education, urbanisation, technology and institutional transformation.
Dependency theory: an approach arguing that poorer economies are constrained by historically unequal relations with wealthier economies and global markets.
World-systems theory: Immanuel Wallerstein's framework dividing the global economy into core, semi-peripheral and peripheral positions within unequal production and exchange.
Structural Adjustment Policies: fiscal and market reforms often connected with debt and external financing, potentially including expenditure restraint, privatisation, liberalisation or subsidy reform.
Social reproduction: paid and unpaid activities that sustain people and the workforce, including care, cooking, health maintenance and raising children.
Coloniality: a decolonial concept describing persistent hierarchies of power, knowledge and classification after formal colonial rule ends.
NGO-isation: a critical term for the professionalisation of activism through project funding, staffing, reporting and donor priorities.

In plain English

Political-economy approaches ask where money, property, labour and decision-making power are located. A policy may look gender-neutral on paper yet affect people differently because women and men occupy different jobs, own different assets and perform different amounts of unpaid care.

Worked SAP example

If a public clinic becomes harder to reach or household medical costs rise, treatment may be delayed. Care work does not disappear; it may shift to women inside the household. At the same time, a well-designed fiscal reform could protect essential services and improve efficiency. A good answer therefore studies the actual package, budget incidence and compensating measures instead of assuming either automatic harm or automatic benefit.

Worked coloniality example

A donor-funded livelihood programme may increase income, which is a real benefit. A coloniality critique asks who designed the indicators, whether participants defined their own needs, whose knowledge counted, and whether funding priorities displaced local organising. The critique diagnoses power; it does not prove that every international programme is colonial.

Model expanded paragraph

A bullet saying “capitalism depends on unpaid care” should explain the link: Paid workers arrive at workplaces only because food, cleaning, child-rearing and emotional support have been provided. Much of this labour is unpaid and disproportionately performed by women. Firms and national accounts can therefore benefit from a hidden transfer of time from households. The remedy is not simply wages for every task; policies such as childcare, leave, public services and fair working time can redistribute costs and choices.

Critical rule: State counterarguments, identify variation across countries and households, and distinguish a theoretical lens from an established fact about a specific case.

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Use causal structure in every 20-mark development question: theoretical claim → mechanism → Pakistan or developing-country example → counterargument and limitations → balanced conclusion. Do not assert that all liberalisation, development aid or NGO projects have identical effects.

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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.

2021 Q6 — Modernisation: do internal cultural factors explain subordination? (20 marks)

Introduction. Modernisation theory explains development partly through changes in domestic institutions, education, industrial production and technology. The statement in the question attributes women's subordination in developing societies to internal cultural factors. A critical response should explain why some modernisation accounts make that claim, then assess what it leaves out.

1. Assumptions of the modernisation approach

W. W. Rostow and other modernisation thinkers associated development with transitions from traditional economic organisation toward industrial production and expanded institutions. Applied to gender, the theory may treat inherited family expectations as obstacles to women's education or wage employment. For example, if girls are discouraged from studying science because it is described as 'men's work', cultural expectations can reduce their choices. This provides one explanatory mechanism, although it does not demonstrate that all traditional practices have the same effect.

2. Education, urbanisation and changing opportunity

Modernisation perspectives expect schooling, urbanisation and new sectors of employment to alter established gender roles. A secondary school closer to a rural community may increase the feasibility of girls continuing education, especially where transport is also available. The mechanism is an expansion of opportunity that changes the cost of existing practices. Yet if employers restrict hiring or family care remains unequal, schooling alone may not yield employment. Modernisation therefore describes an institutional transition without guaranteeing all its social consequences.

3. The risk of blaming culture alone

A narrow interpretation can attribute every gender disparity to supposedly backward cultural values while overlooking poverty and unequal distribution of infrastructure. A family that does not send its daughter to secondary school may face high transport expenses or unavailable teachers rather than explicit hostility to girls' education. Treating the decision as solely cultural would produce a misleading diagnosis. The analytical distinction matters because attitudes, household budgets and state service provision operate through different mechanisms and require different evidence.

4. Work and the persistence of care roles

Industrialisation can increase paid employment while traditional expectations concerning domestic duties continue. A woman employed in a hospital, for instance, may return home to provide childcare and eldercare without a comparable reduction in those responsibilities. The double burden demonstrates why entry into a modern labour market does not automatically transform household authority or the division of labour. Feminist theories of social reproduction add an explanation that simple models of economic progress can overlook.

5. Competing structural perspectives

Dependency approaches examine the effects of unequal global exchange, while Gender and Development focuses on institutional relations and the distribution of resources. A woman's position in export manufacturing may depend on international prices, domestic labour enforcement and household bargaining simultaneously. The comparison shows why internal attitudes are only one level of analysis. It also prevents the opposite error of treating global capitalism as the complete explanation of every local practice.

Critical evaluation. Modernisation offers a way to investigate how education and institutional change can alter roles, but a culture-only account can generalise and misdiagnose poverty, infrastructure and market conditions.

Conclusion. Women's subordination is better studied through the interaction of social expectations, material resources, institutions and global structures than through a single claim about internal cultural factors.

2021 Q7 — Critical analysis of WID, WAD and GAD (20 marks)

Introduction. WID, WAD and GAD represent different approaches to women's position in development. They ask, respectively, whether women are included in projects, how unequal economic structures shape their existing contributions, and how gender relations determine the distribution of resources and decisions. The differences become clear when applied to one development programme.

1. WID and access to projects

Women in Development developed prominently in the 1970s after scholars criticised the omission of women from economic planning. Its practical response was to include women in training, credit, extension services and employment initiatives. For example, an agricultural project that had trained only male farmers might recruit women who also work on family land. That addresses an important access barrier, but the number of women attending courses does not establish that participants own land or control the proceeds from a harvest.

2. WAD and unequal political economy

Women and Development argued that women were already connected to production and that their work could be exploited within national and international economic arrangements. A home-based garment worker may stitch for an export contractor but receive little bargaining power over prices. WAD examines the chain of ownership and unequal returns rather than describing the worker as merely absent from development. The approach makes class and dependency visible, yet can require supplementation to explain why women within the same economic class face different household expectations.

3. GAD and relational power

Gender and Development shifted attention toward the relationships through which households, markets and public institutions allocate work, resources and authority. A woman can receive a loan and still lack permission to purchase inputs or travel to buyers. GAD asks who makes those decisions and how unpaid childcare affects her ability to use the loan. The causal mechanism includes family norms and institutional control, not just access to programme funds. This broader scope is powerful but difficult to translate into a simple project-reporting indicator.

4. Practical and strategic dimensions

A safe water supply, local clinic or childcare service may meet an immediate practical gender need, even when the division of responsibility remains unchanged. Strategic interests concern deeper questions such as property control or participation in local decisions. A village water project could reduce collection time and invite women into its management committee, addressing both dimensions. Its results still require evaluation: attendance on a committee is not proof that every participant can influence decisions.

5. Comparing approaches through a Pakistan case

Imagine a rural livestock development programme. WID checks whether women receive training and animals; WAD examines producers' dependence on feed suppliers and milk buyers; GAD asks whether women can sell milk, retain earnings and share care responsibilities. Each adds a different causal explanation, and none is answered merely by counting cattle or participants. Comparing them enables a more complete account of why similar projects may have different outcomes across households.

Critical evaluation. These models are not strict substitutes. WID can address concrete exclusion, WAD can analyse unequal markets and GAD can explore household and institutional relations; their claims still require reliable evidence.

Conclusion. The approaches progressively broaden the questions asked about development, from participation to political economy and gendered power.

2022 Q7 — Capitalistic perspectives of gender (20 marks)

Introduction. Capitalistic perspectives of gender examine how private ownership, wage employment, markets and the division between paid and unpaid labour influence social inequalities. Feminist political-economy writers extend this analysis by asking how women participate in production and who controls the resources generated through work.

1. Property and control over production

Classical Marxist analysis distinguishes owners of productive resources from people who sell labour in return for wages. Feminist writers apply this distinction to gender and household relationships. A woman who contributes to cultivation but does not own the land may have little authority over crop sales despite doing substantial work. This illustrates how economic contribution and control over property can diverge. The relevant evidence includes ownership records and who makes decisions, not only how many hours a worker spends in a field.

2. Women's position in wage labour

Capitalist labour markets create paid work but may also distribute employees unevenly across occupations and forms of job security. A garment worker on a short-term contract might be unable to negotiate hours while a senior manager enjoys stable income and benefits. Gender can interact with class and informal recruitment in shaping that difference. The mechanism should be demonstrated through particular labour rules rather than assumed to operate identically in every industry. Paid employment can expand opportunities even where bargaining power remains limited.

Paid production depends on everyday activities such as preparing food, childcare and caring for sick relatives. These tasks can maintain the workforce even though they do not appear as formal wages. A woman employed in a shop may still perform most domestic labour afterward, leaving little time for further training or professional advancement. Social reproduction theory makes this connection between households and markets visible. Its significance is that a narrow employment statistic can understate both total work and constraints on earning capacity.

4. Subcontracting and home-based work

Production networks often move tasks into households through subcontracting. A woman sewing export garments at home may be paid for completed pieces while also supervising children and household responsibilities. The contractor gains flexible production, but the worker may carry costs of equipment, electricity or irregular work. The arrangement blurs the conventional divide between workplace and home. Analysing it requires attention to bargaining power, work conditions and who determines prices rather than treating home work as automatically desirable or undesirable.

5. Limits and competing explanations

Economic structures are important but do not account for every pattern of gendered behaviour. Patriarchal control over mobility, social sanctions and discriminatory institutions may persist among people with different kinds of ownership or income. Socialist feminist analysis therefore emphasises interaction between capitalist and patriarchal relations. A researcher examining girls' career choices also needs school, family and cultural evidence, not only wage data. This demonstrates the boundaries of a purely economic explanation.

Critical evaluation. Capitalism is not a singular experience; the same market can create employment for some women and insecure work for others. Claims of exploitation must identify contracts, ownership and the distribution of risk.

Conclusion. Capitalistic perspectives reveal how markets, property, paid production and unpaid care shape women's opportunities, while their fuller explanation requires attention to gendered institutions beyond the economy.

2022 Q8 — Gender critique of Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) (20 marks)

Introduction. Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) generally refer to reform programmes associated with fiscal adjustment, changing public expenditure, privatisation and liberalisation, though their actual content differs across countries. A gender critique asks how the resulting costs and benefits pass through households, labour markets and public services.

1. Public spending and the household burden

Where a government reduces spending on health or care services, families may need to provide more support themselves. Because domestic care often falls disproportionately on women, a reduction in accessible services can increase their unpaid workload. If a clinic closes or becomes difficult to reach, for example, a family caregiver may have to travel farther or provide additional care at home. The mechanism is a transfer of time and expense from institutions to households, but it must be assessed against actual programme measures and local evidence.

2. Employment and public-sector restructuring

Changes in public employment or service provision can affect workers differently according to occupation, contract type and gender. If a sector employing many women reduces positions, their employment options may be affected; if private firms create jobs in return, outcomes may differ. A gender analysis examines wages, job security and training rather than assuming every privatisation has a uniform consequence. The significance is distributive: an aggregate fiscal saving does not reveal which workers or households bear transition costs.

3. Prices, subsidies and household choices

Adjustments to food, fuel or transport subsidies can alter household budgets. In a low-income family, higher travel costs may affect whether children attend school or whether adults seek medical care. Gendered expectations about whose education or expenses take priority can shape the final allocation. The pathway from macroeconomic policy to daily opportunity therefore passes through prices, income and family decision-making. An exam answer should not claim a specific effect occurred in Pakistan without linking it to a dated policy and source.

4. Education, health and unequal resources

Where user fees rise or public service quality declines, people with private alternatives may face fewer problems than households with limited resources. A rural woman who needs maternal treatment, for example, may be especially affected by transport and referral barriers. The impact is gendered partly through reproductive health needs and partly through unequal access to spending decisions. The example demonstrates why analysis must examine service availability and quality, not just headline government expenditure.

5. Counterarguments and gender-sensitive evaluation

Supporters of some adjustment programmes argue that fiscal stabilisation can prevent deeper crises and create conditions for improved services; critics question distributional costs and weak social protection. These claims should be treated as competing explanations requiring evidence. A gender-impact assessment could use sex-disaggregated employment figures, school attendance, healthcare access and time-use data to reveal who gains or loses under specific reforms. Such information is more useful than a blanket declaration about SAPs.

Critical evaluation. Not all SAPs have identical terms, and domestic institutional weaknesses may precede reform. Compare intended effects with observed results and distinguish correlation from causation.

Conclusion. A gender critique makes visible how fiscal and market changes may redistribute both paid opportunities and unpaid responsibilities within unequal social conditions.

2023 Q6 — Colonial and capitalist perspectives of gender (20 marks)

Introduction. Colonial and capitalist perspectives of gender analyse two connected but distinct contexts: the institutional reorganisation of societies under imperial rule, and the economic relationships generated through ownership, wage work and markets. Both ask how power shapes women's status, yet neither alone explains every experience.

1. Colonial legal and educational arrangements

Colonial administrators classified local personal and customary laws, sometimes turning varied practices into standardised legal categories. At the same time, schools, print culture and reform debates created opportunities for some women while leaving others outside new institutions. For instance, education might become accessible to girls in an urban reformist household but remain unavailable in an impoverished rural area. This demonstrates why a colonial-era policy should be evaluated through particular institutions, locations and groups rather than characterised as uniformly progressive or restrictive.

2. Representation and the postcolonial critique

Postcolonial feminist scholars such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty question accounts portraying all women in formerly colonised societies as a single powerless group. An outside development report may describe 'Pakistani women' as uniformly lacking economic activity, ignoring informal farm, household and business work. Such representation matters because institutions can design programmes around a mistaken picture of participants. Local research and consultation reveal varied needs, although the investigator must also avoid assuming any one community representative speaks for all.

3. Capitalist production and ownership

Capitalist labour arrangements distribute wages, profits and production risks through relations among employers, intermediaries and workers. A home-based textile worker may create goods for a larger supply chain while having little influence over prices or deadlines. A political-economy approach therefore asks who owns equipment, controls buyers and absorbs financial uncertainty. Gender may shape which workers occupy precarious positions, but the pattern requires labour and contract evidence rather than a universal assumption.

4. Unpaid care and labour-market access

Women's involvement in markets cannot be understood without considering childcare, food preparation and eldercare, which help sustain paid workers. For example, a woman producing garments at home may simultaneously look after children, making her apparent flexibility an arrangement involving substantial hidden labour. Marxist and socialist feminist writers use such examples to show how paid production depends on social reproduction. A narrow wage measure misses the unpaid tasks shaping a person's capacity to earn and advance.

5. Historical continuities and differences

Colonial-era property records, education disparities and later market institutions may have continuing relevance to social inequalities, but such effects are not automatic or unchanged across decades. Modern labour laws, migration, technology and women's activism introduce further causes of change. A careful account traces specific historical links instead of making colonial rule responsible for every present-day outcome. It also separates international extraction from inequalities created or maintained within local households.

Critical evaluation. Colonial and capitalist explanations illuminate power but can understate the role of religious interpretation, local norms or individual agency if treated as complete theories. The appropriate unit of evidence must match each historical or economic claim.

Conclusion. Both perspectives encourage analysis of who defines legitimate knowledge, controls resources and benefits from women's work, while requiring careful attention to context and variation.

2024 Q3 — Development as 'coloniality': colonial/capitalist perspectives (20 marks)

Introduction. The proposition that 'development is the new name of coloniality' belongs to critical and decolonial debates about the persistence of unequal power after formal independence. It should be evaluated as an interpretive thesis, not asserted as a universally established fact. Gender analysis asks who defines development objectives and whose experiences count as authoritative knowledge.

1. Coloniality and the production of knowledge

Decolonial thinkers such as Aníbal Quijano examine how international hierarchies of knowledge, authority and economic dependence can persist beyond direct colonial administration. In gender research, an external expert may classify local women as passive recipients of aid while overlooking their agricultural or informal economic labour. Such descriptions influence project design: if women are treated as absent from production, a programme may aim to 'introduce' them to work they already perform. The significance is the connection between representation and institutional action.

2. Historical colonial practices

Colonial states regulated legal categories, property and schooling and sometimes presented particular reforms as evidence of civilisation. However, Indian reformers and women's organisations also shaped changes and contested policies. Consider inheritance and land administration: recording ownership under particular classifications could affect access to productive resources. A historically responsible answer asks exactly which system and date are relevant rather than assuming every present arrangement is an unchanged colonial inheritance.

3. Donor priorities and professionalised projects

Modern development programmes may depend on external funding, predetermined indicators and relatively short evaluation periods. Critics argue that such structures can shift attention toward easily counted outputs rather than changing unequal resource control. A rural training project, for example, may report the number of women taught a skill but never examine whether trainees can sell products or control income. This is one mechanism through which donor priorities may narrow local decision-making, although some funded programmes also provide vital services.

4. Economic power and global production

Development initiatives operate within wider production and financial systems. Women engaged in export labour may confront price structures established far from their workplaces, while childcare and domestic labour remain largely unpaid. A programme offering better market information could change bargaining conditions; a poorly designed project might leave the main economic relationships untouched. Analysing these outcomes distinguishes an empirical question about programme effects from an ideological assumption that every cross-border relationship is exploitative.

5. Agency and alternative interpretations

Supporters of international development cooperation point to education, healthcare, research and legal services made possible through cross-border funding and institutions. The relevant question is whether affected communities participate in setting priorities and whether the programme changes their practical options. A project designed with local women and transparent decision rules differs from one where only external consultants define the problem. This comparison makes it possible to evaluate the coloniality critique without ignoring real services.

Critical evaluation. The term coloniality is a theoretical account of enduring power structures; its applicability to a specific project requires evidence about control, representation and results. Avoid treating the slogan as a verified causal law.

Conclusion. The thesis draws attention to who controls resources and definitions of progress. A gender-sensitive evaluation tests that concern against programme design and the lived experiences of participants.

2024 Q5 — Critical gender analysis of development theories (20 marks)

Introduction. A critical gender analysis of development theories asks what each approach assumes about progress, labour and the distribution of benefits. Standard indicators such as national output or enrolment can conceal unpaid work, unequal control and differences among communities. Comparing theories helps reveal these blind spots.

1. Modernisation and its gender implications

Modernisation perspectives link development with education, infrastructure and industrialisation. They can help explain how a new secondary school or transport route changes women's economic opportunities. However, an account blaming 'traditional culture' alone may neglect unequal infrastructure, employer practices and household poverty. A woman may gain credentials and still face limited job options or heavy domestic care. Thus the theory's attention to institutional change is useful, while automatic assumptions about progress require criticism.

2. Dependency and world-systems approaches

Dependency writers examine unequal international exchange; world-systems analysis locates production and profit within a hierarchy of interconnected regions. A woman sewing goods for an export contractor may have paid work but little control over prices, while a distant firm captures much of the market return. These frameworks trace structural inequalities that purely domestic models may overlook. Their limitation is that they do not, by themselves, explain every difference in family authority or access among workers in similar market positions.

3. Functionalism and inherited roles

Structural functionalism describes how institutions allocate responsibilities, and traditional versions have associated wage provision with men and emotional care with women. This may help describe an influential family ideal but risks naturalising unequal unpaid labour. A Pakistani woman can simultaneously work on a family farm and provide most childcare, contradicting a rigid two-role model. Gender analysis therefore distinguishes the description of a social arrangement from proof that it is universal or necessary.

4. WID, WAD and GAD as development alternatives

WID seeks women's access to programmes; WAD asks how unequal political-economic structures shape work; GAD examines gender relations and decision-making. In a livestock project, WID counts women trained, WAD studies buyers and credit relations, and GAD investigates who controls income and cares for children. These approaches generate different forms of evidence about the same intervention. Their limitations must also be examined: inclusion without power, structural analysis without household detail, or gender mainstreaming reduced to paperwork.

5. Pakistan application and data

A project addressing girls' education might need attendance figures, household interviews, legal entitlements, transport mapping and time-use evidence. An average enrolment rate would reveal a gap but not its cause. Multiple theories can guide the collection of different evidence, and an integrated explanation may show how family expectations, household income and state provision interact. This demonstrates why critical analysis should move beyond naming theories toward explaining causal mechanisms.

Critical evaluation. No theory is complete when treated as the sole explanation. The evidence must establish which mechanisms are operating for the population and period being studied.

Conclusion. A gender critique broadens the understanding of development from aggregate growth to the distribution of resources, unpaid responsibilities and influence over institutions.

2025 Q3 — Gendered globalisation through world-systems theory (20 marks)

Introduction. Gendered globalisation examines how international markets, migration and technology interact with gendered hierarchies. World-systems theory, associated with Immanuel Wallerstein, distinguishes core, semi-peripheral and peripheral positions in global production. Feminist analysis adds questions about who performs inexpensive work and who sustains workers through unpaid care.

1. Unequal positions in global production

World-systems analysis studies how production, profits and political influence are distributed across the international economy. Countries and sectors connected to lower-value or insecure parts of supply chains may capture less of the final product's price. A female garment worker paid by a subcontractor, for instance, may have little influence over deadlines and prices set by distant buyers. The mechanism connects employment conditions to a wider market rather than treating them solely as individual employer decisions.

2. Gendered division of paid labour

Gendered hiring and care expectations can concentrate women in particular services or manufacturing roles. Such positions may offer first access to wages while also involving short contracts, irregular hours or restricted promotion. A home-based worker can enter global production without acquiring bargaining power over the buyer's terms. Studying who owns assets, manages contracts and receives the profits reveals why simple participation figures cannot establish whether economic relations have become equal.

The global workforce relies on meals, childcare, eldercare and the daily maintenance of households. Much of that labour is unpaid or poorly paid and is often assigned to women. A migrant domestic worker may provide paid care to a household abroad while relatives at home assume additional care responsibilities. This chain shows how labour relations cross borders in more ways than trade statistics capture. It also makes visible the gendered distribution of time, emotional effort and household costs.

4. New forms of control and dependence

Digital platforms, recruitment agencies and subcontractors can reorganise authority over workers' schedules, payments and access to customers. A Pakistani freelancer may gain the ability to work remotely but still depend on platform fees, payment infrastructure and ratings set by distant intermediaries. These mechanisms are not automatically identical to direct workplace supervision, but they can affect bargaining power. Gendered digital access and expectations about household care alter who is able to use the new opportunity.

5. Agency and unequal effects

Global integration can also generate real income, remittances, education networks and advocacy opportunities. Women in the same country may have different experiences depending on training, legal status, family support and rural–urban location. It would therefore be inaccurate to describe all international work as patriarchal exploitation or all technology as liberation. Researchers need data about earnings, contractual rights, care time and control over income to distinguish outcomes.

Critical evaluation. World-systems theory clarifies structural positions but does not fully explain local institutions or individual variation. Feminist political economy supplies complementary questions about family power and social reproduction.

Conclusion. Gendered globalisation is best analysed as the interaction between international economic hierarchy and the local distribution of work, care and authority.

2025 Q7 — WID versus GAD in developing countries (20 marks)

Introduction. Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) offer different diagnoses of inequality in development projects. WID concentrates on women's inclusion in existing programmes, whereas GAD asks how gender relations and institutional power shape the use of resources. Both can illuminate needs in developing countries, but they do not measure success in the same way.

1. WID's origins and principles

WID grew in the 1970s partly because many development programmes underestimated women's economic roles. Its central response was to improve access to employment, credit, training and public services. A rural agricultural initiative might invite women to extension workshops that had previously trained only men. This is an identifiable improvement in participation. However, attendance does not tell researchers who owns the farm or controls the income generated by new skills.

2. GAD's relational account

GAD developed more prominently in the 1980s and emphasises the social organisation of gender roles. A woman may receive a loan yet lack authority to choose crops, travel to markets or decide how earnings are used. GAD therefore investigates land ownership, household decisions, unpaid care and the institutions that distribute resources. Its practical strength is a broader explanation of why similar loans produce different results for different people, though the data collection can be more demanding.

3. Practical and strategic gender needs

Practical needs include immediate essentials such as water, transport and health services; strategic interests concern unequal power, representation and resource control. A new water supply may shorten the time women spend carrying water. Allowing women to participate meaningfully in its management addresses a different question concerning authority. Both changes can matter, but they should not be conflated. A short-term project report may capture the water point more easily than it captures the depth of community decision-making.

4. Comparing limitations

WID's limitation is the risk of treating inclusion as the end result while leaving structural relationships unchanged. GAD may become an administrative checklist when projects report gender indicators but do not alter resources or accountability. In a vocational programme, for example, counting women trained is insufficient if graduates cannot access safe transport, childcare or customers. A detailed evaluation must follow actual choices and income rather than assume theory automatically translates into outcomes.

5. Developing-country application

In Pakistan, female agricultural workers may be active in production but have limited access to documented ownership or agricultural extension. WID directs attention to the training gap, while GAD examines control over land and income. Both approaches can be used with local evidence on employment, household work and access to services. Regional and class differences remain crucial because there is no single experience shared by all rural women.

Critical evaluation. A theoretical comparison should distinguish the core problem each model identifies, the intervention it examines and the evidence needed to assess results.

Conclusion. WID broadens participation in development, while GAD investigates the relationships governing the value and control of that participation.

2026 Q6 — NGO-isation, gender mainstreaming and the WAD critique (20 marks)

Introduction. 'NGO-isation' describes the argument that social movements may change when their activities become professionalised through non-governmental organisations, donor funding and project management. The 2026 question asks whether this process has depoliticised women's activism in Pakistan. That is a contested analytical claim, and a sound answer compares the effects of funding and institutional work rather than treating all NGOs alike.

1. Organisational change and project incentives

An NGO working through grants may hire trained staff, set targets and report results at fixed intervals. Such professionalisation can provide continuity and specialist services. Yet a short reporting cycle may encourage projects with countable outputs, such as the number of women trained, over slower changes in property rights or workplace bargaining. A skills workshop can therefore meet an immediate need while leaving economic dependence largely unchanged. This is a possible mechanism of narrowing priorities, not proof that the entire sector has abandoned structural questions.

2. WAD's political-economy critique

Women and Development (WAD) argues that women were already contributing to production and that unequal economic systems may shape the conditions of their work. From this perspective, a donor programme designed merely to 'include women in employment' may overlook their existing unpaid or informal labour. A female home-based worker might acquire a certificate but still be dependent on an intermediary setting low piecework rates. WAD would examine the market relationship, not only the number of certificates issued.

3. Gender mainstreaming and technocratic routines

Gender mainstreaming aims to make gender effects visible across public or organisational decisions. It can alter what institutions measure and how programmes are designed, but it can also become procedural when staff simply fill forms or use standard vocabulary. Imagine a transport project reporting that women were consulted without investigating whether those consulted influenced route selection. The distinction between consultation as an indicator and influence as an outcome illustrates the concern about technocratic approaches.

4. Potential benefits of funded organisations

Professional organisations may offer legal assistance, shelters, healthcare referrals and research capacity that informal movements cannot easily sustain. A woman requiring urgent protection benefits from a functioning referral service regardless of how the provider is financed. Research produced through grants can also document structural gaps and support public debate. These contributions complicate the sweeping assertion that every donor-funded project weakens movement politics. Programmes must be assessed individually.

5. Accountability and representation

A central question is who sets the agenda. A programme designed primarily to satisfy an external donor's indicators may have different priorities from one where affected community members define needs and exercise decision-making power. The same is true of claims that urban professionals speak for all women in rural Pakistan. An evaluation should ask who participates, which outcomes remain after funding ends and whether the programme connects immediate services with sustained institutional analysis.

Critical evaluation. NGO-isation is a critical concept, not a universal verdict. The presence of donors cannot by itself establish depoliticisation; evidence about priorities, participation and results is required.

Conclusion. WAD highlights the risk of replacing questions about power and economic structure with simple inclusion targets. At the same time, funded services and research can have practical value, so the effects of professionalisation must be evaluated through concrete institutions.