Special Issue Introduction: Gender and Development.

AuthorStewart, Ann

This special issue of the Journal of Law, Social Justice & Global Development (LGD) focuses on gender and development, drawing to a close a recent annual theme of Warwick University's Global Research Priority on International Development (GRP ID). The LGD aims to provide a home for cutting edge research on key issues that shape development in a profoundly unequal and conflict-ridden world; to promote knowledge exchange; and to enable scholars from the global South to present their work to a global audience. This collection of papers was selected from an open call for papers encouraging contributions from gender and feminist perspectives across the broadly defined field of development studies.

Despite a sustained attempt over more than three decades to 'mainstream' gender into analysis and policy, there is widespread recognition that this has not resulted in substantial reduction in gender-based violence, or reduced inequalities in the workplace or in households or within political institutions. This is not to deny the significant gains that have been made in some areas. The importance of gender equality to development initiatives was recognized in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and features more strongly as a standalone goal with targets within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is now a strong international women's human rights framework, although there are still substantial challenges in relation to observance and as yet no equivalent framework to tackle issues relating to human rights violations relating to sexuality and gender identity. There have been improvements in relations to girls' access to primary education, to maternal health and to reductions in absolute poverty. However, gender-based insecurities resulting from local and regional conflicts, and 'natural' disasters that are increasingly associated with climate change, are widespread and are producing new problems not least the mass movements of displaced peoples. The issues of security and migration present their own unique challenges, with the face of migrants often being male, leading to questions of gender inequality within the migration framework but also raising questions of the role of gender in the rise of populism and fundamentalism. Critical development analysis is much needed to understand these challenges and to enrich policy development and advocacy in a complex and fragile world.

The papers in this collection reflect the breadth of gender perspectives in relation to development. The contributions by Faulkner and Russo address the way in which people and products are traded within the presently constituted global market. Each identifies the particularly gendered way in which these movements take place. Faulkner is concerned with one aspect of the unprecedented movement of people across national and international borders associated with what is now labelled as 'modern slavery'. As she points out 'the current refugee crisis in Europe, coupled with fears around trafficking, sexual slavery, extremism and national security have encouraged the proliferation of laws regulating cross-border movements'. The response has been to develop an 'expansive legal architecture... to prevent illegal and irregular migration', which has reduced 'opportunities for legal authorised migration' and expanded a diversified...

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