Women are already integrated into development process and there is no need to give their issues special attention” Discuss.

“Women are already integrated into development process and there is no need to give their issues special attention” Discuss.
According to Gordon and Bryson et al; development is looked at in its widest sense of growth and change brought about by a combination of political, social and economic forces operating on a country-wide or regional level. These changes are a result of local structures and conditions, colonial and neo-colonial experience, urbanization and industrialization as well as the polices of development planners. According to Caplan, he was concerned with the latter, policies of development planners and their likely effects on gender relations, family relations and marriages.

From the assertion above that “women are already integrated in development process and therefore, no need to give their issues special attention” is a mere statement that does not hold any water. According to Susanne Wymann (2002), she argues that even when women are integrated in development, their vital role in sustainable development is not sufficiently documented poorly understood and rarely do women projects taken into account.
Susanne Wymann admits that women’s concerns have been the subject of debate during the last three decades and some efforts have been made to develop more gender sensitive policies and programme as well as opportunities for women. However, it is important to note that there is still a great lack of disaggregated data on women’s roles and responsibilities on their access to and on their knowledge of and participation in the elaboration of strategies to improve the situation the face as a result of male out-migration, globalization and marginalization.

The issues concerning women and their part (or not) in the development process have been increasing examined over the year. It is important to note that the triple roles (reproduction, production and community roles) of women have often been adversely affected by development process. There is a wide gap between women’s high, yet unrecognized economic participation and their low political and social power and development strategies have usually taken the needs of the most vocal and politically active as their starting point.

To begin analyzing the integration of women in development and whether to focus or not on their issues, areas of the labour force provided (agriculture, employment, industry and trade), political, legal economic and social constraints, legal status entitlements, education involvement among other sectors must be close scrutinized

Division of labour or provision of labour can take different forms and these could be formal or non formal. As noted in the progress of the world’s women (2000), drastically (UNIFEM 2000). However, this can lead to greater inequality and exploitation, as in free trade zone factories rather than enhanced rights for women. In agriculture, there are marked and persistent gender inequalities, women and children (girls) provide almost all the labour for food crop production, much of which is retained for household consumption. Women also provide an estimated 60% of the labour for cash crops such as coffee, cotton and cereals in Uganda.
In spite of their high contribution, women hardly control income from agricultural production, including that of the surplus sales in food crops where their labour input is highest. Nor do the majority of them have a say in how income, which is controlled by men, is used. Women have access to agricultural land through their husbands or male relatives but when widowed or divorced they lose this access and may have to return to their father’s land where they may not be welcome by their brothers and sisters in law. There is an ongoing debate in parliament at the moment addressing women’s inheritance rights under the Domestic Relations Bill.
Women’s experience with credit is limited given that they do not own land, as collateral required by banks. The few lending programmes that have tried to target women have shown that such factors as unfamiliarity with banks or distance from home to bank makes agricultural credit less attractive to women. Other constraints for women in agriculture include inadequate extension contact, lack of appropriate technologies, low participation in marketing, limited access to information and training.
In addition to the gender division of labour, in industry and trade, women have been confined to small-scale operations in the informal sector; however exciting these operations are and despite the trading empires built up by the most successful female entrepreneurs; women's average incomes are relatively low. Women are also handicapped in access to formal sector jobs by their lower educational attainments, and those who succeed are placed in lower grade, lower paid jobs. Elite women who wish to improve their legal and economic status must expect to lose honour and respect (Obbe, 1999).
Related to the above, there is often sexism in job promotions and unpleasant consequences if women stand up to men. There is often more respect for male professionals (even from women themselves) than there is for female. Women often suffer employment discrimination because they need to take time off for maternity leave or when a child is sick. Career women often have to work harder at their jobs to keep even with their male counterparts. Despite all these obstacles, women continue to move into different professions, including those traditionally seen as male jobs, such as engineering and architecture. Women can be found at senior levels in many organizations in many countries. They are also taking up various different professions, such as law, medicine, politics, etc. These women may be in the minority now, but things are changing all over Africa.

Political sector; it should be noted that across the world and Uganda in particular, women representation in parliaments is limited. According to Uganda parliament on line, Uganda has so far achieved 33% representation of women in parliament that is 102 women representative of the 333 total representations and this has been made possible through the district quota system where there is a reserved seat at a district level. Number of women MPs indicated above includes women who contested the constituency seats directly. Uganda is doing much better at local governments (LC V, and LC III) where women representation stands at 38.9% and 44.6% respectively. According to data from the ministry of gender and social development, Uganda takes the 5th position in Africa after Rwanda, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia take lead respectively. It is however, unfortunate that the Executive arm of government has the least women representation. At cabinet level, women take 27% and the men take 73% while state ministerial positions, women share only 16.2% and 83.7% for men. From the above, statistics, one can be able to conclude that decision making, and resource allocation at higher levels, will be much determined by the majority (men). And there is no doubt that men will always dominate all the powerful positions and drive the vehicle of development while women are watching.

Most African women, in common with women all over the world, face a variety of legal, economic and social constraints. Indeed some laws still treat them as minors. In Zaire, for instance, a woman must have her husband's consent to open a bank account. Women are known to grow 80 per cent of food produced in Africa, and yet few are allowed to own the land they work. It is often more difficult for women to gain access to information and technology, resources and credit. Agricultural extension and formal financial institutions are biased towards a male clientele' despite women's importance as producers (this has spurred the growth of women's groups and cooperatives which give loans and other help). Women end up working twice as long as men, 15 to 18 hours a day, but often earn only one tenth as much. With such workloads, women often age prematurely. Harrison correctly observes that: 'Women's burdens - heavy throughout the third world - are enough to break a camel's back in much of Africa' (Harrison 2000).
Social attitudes to women are responsible for the gender differences in both the education system and the labour force, as we will see below. Differential access to educational and training opportunities has led to low proportions of women in the formal sector and their subsequent concentration in low paid production jobs with limited career prospects. So, although women play an important role in African society, they suffer legal, economic and social constraints.

Female education affects family health and nutrition, agricultural productivity, and fertility, yet there is a wide gender gap in education. Lack of resources and pressures on time and energies put enormous constraints on the ability of women to maintain their own health and nutrition as well as that of their children. As a result, women are less well equipped than men to take advantage of the better income-earning opportunities that have emerged in Africa. Although food and nutrition are women's prime concerns in Africa, and they are the principal participants in agriculture, independent farming by women has been relatively neglected. Women's family labour contribution has increased, but goes unpaid.

Women's participation in national educational systems is again biased due to the socio-cultural and economic environments. There is also a lack of genuine political will to ensure that girls are given equal access to education in Africa. More than two-thirds of Africa's illiterates are women. Women are regarded as inferior to men and are not expected to aspire as high as men, especially in what are considered as 'male' fields (engineering, computing, architecture, medicine, etc.). It is largely assumed that educating women would make them too independent; in other words, they would not do what they are expected to do - look after the house, bring up children, and cater to their husband's needs. In poor countries, extending access to education and training is often difficult when the cultural and monetary costs are high or the benefits are limited. When families face economic problems they prefer to invest their limited resources in the education of boys rather than provide what is considered as 'prestigious' education for girls who would eventually marry and abandon their professions anyway. Nevertheless, girls are increasingly getting some limited education, and the focus of concern is gradually shifting to providing access to the same range of educational opportunities open to boys. In poor families, boys are often given first claim on whatever limited educational opportunities are available, although the global policy climate today is more supportive of measures designed to expand the educational horizons of girls than it was twenty years ago.

Differences in legal status and entitlements; I must acknowledge that the constitution of Uganda contains the gender related provisions. The Constitution of Uganda contains the gender related provisions like Chapter 4 talks about Protection and Promotion of Fundamental and other Human Rights and Freedoms article 21. (1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of Political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and shall enjoy equal respect of the law, (2) Without prejudice to clause (1) of this article, a person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, or social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.
Secondly, Affirmative action in Favour of Marginalized groups Article 32. (1) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, the state shall take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalized on the basis of gender, age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom, for the purpose of redressing the imbalances which exist against them. (2) Parliament shall make relevant laws, including laws for the establishment of an equal opportunities commission, for the purpose of giving full effect to clause (1) of this article. And in Article 33. (1) Women shall be accorded full and equal dignity of the person with men. (2) The state shall provide the facilities and opportunities necessary to enhance the welfare of women to enable them to realise their full potential and advancement. (3) The state shall protect women and their rights, taking into account their unique status and natural maternal functions in society. (4) Women shall have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political, economic and social activities (5) Without prejudice to article 32 of this Constitution, women shall have the right to affirmative action for the purpose of redressing the imbalances created by history, tradition or custom. (6) Laws, cultures, customs or traditions which are against the dignity, welfare or interest of women or which undermine their status are prohibited by the Constitution.
It is important to note that fighting for legal rights, legal equality and the elimination of gender discrimination are important for women. Do these things really effect on improving women’s rights? The disadvantaged positions of women are usually set up on the basis of social injustice. Wining a lawsuit in the courts will not completely change the situation of women today. Lots of attentions, researches and scholars who study women’s rights show that more women, from different cultural backgrounds, should actively take part in discussions of women's rights. Thus, the backgrounds of women's subservient status could be analyzed deeply. The content of women's rights could be expanded. And the problems which the majority of women are generally concerned about could be solved effectively.
I must appreciate that all these instruments have been put across at both National and international levels to advocate for the human rights for women and men. The unfortunate part of this is that the instruments are not followed. Many times, women have been denied rights to fair hearing in courts of Law, no equal rights to resource ownership like land and opportunities for employment for instance 2/3 of the work is done by women but they only take a share of 10% of the world’s income and only 1% of the world’s property like land is for women and the rest is for men. Therefore, their integration in the development process does not mean that their concerns have been worked on.
Gender based domestic violence; "Marriage Law" is to stress the principle of equality between men and women, and is targeted to complete the articles of prohibition of domestic violence and bigamy which is conducive to women's rights. Uganda for example has worked hard to bring in place the domestic relations bill which is expect to curb all the vices in marriages.

















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