Women in Pastoral Societies: Applying WID, Eco-feminist, and Postmodernist Perspectives

Abstract

In recent decades, various perspectives have emerged that draw attention to the construction of gender and gender inequalities. This discussion examines feminist perspectives in relation to development and development's effects on women in pastoral societies. The article compares the Women in Development (WID), eco-feminist and postmodernist approaches to development and seeks to understand what kind of criticism these theoretical orientations can offer on pastoral development projects. I focus especially on the effects of development on women's bargaining power within the household, using data from my own fieldwork in Niger and records from other pastoral societies. My discussion shows that while WID criticizes the pastoral development as being gender-biased and reducing women's bargaining power within the household, the ecofeminist and postmodernist perspectives would question the development practice itself and attempt to deconstruct the dimensions of power within the field of development.