Gender budgeting, also known as gender responsive and gender sensitive budgeting, was first formally introduced by the Australian Government in the year 1984. But unfortunately even after twenty decades, gender budgeting as a concept and as a tool has progressed minimally, especially in countries like India where its implementation is much needed.

The world citizenry is thankful that the ‘global’ leaders could at least agree to set deadlines to curb problems such as poverty and illiteracy, through the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in September, 2000. They are pressing problems indeed but so is climate change, but what differentiates the two is that programmes like Garibi Hatao have an immediate positive impact on vote banks coupled with a lesser short run negative impact on the ‘growth’ rates of economies, whereas climate change agenda has neither mass appeal nor does the competing economies any good by slowing down the growth process to a more humane level. A common wo/man after all may not have the patience to try and understand the trade off between growth and development and if it does not capture the imagination of the mass, the agenda does not qualify even for mere paper plans; irrespective of the extent of good it can do the non understanding people. They are politicians after all, not messiahs. But yes, the world citizenry is thankful to its leaders for stepping beyond their White Houses and limousines, or did they?

Standing in one corner of the drawing room, between one of the couches and the wall, I spied the absurd contradiction. The tall, slender silhouette of a woman, with her face almost covered by her scarf (later I discovered the term for it was hijab) like an apparition from the Dark Ages, and in her delicate fingers she held the nozzle of the complex three-foot droning contraption.

The fact that menstruation is an unmentionable is what underlines this issue. Almost every culture in the world teaches women not to talk about their periods, or the problems arising thereof. Even in countries like India, where several communities often hold ceremonies to celebrate the girl’s “coming of age”, this celebration is more an announcement of sexual maturity, rather than an opportunity to help the girl adapt to her body’s new needs. The embarrassment of talking about actual menstrual problems – lack of pads, menstrual pain – is all-prevalent.

A lot of women in Europe, India and West Asia have found their cultural identity in the folds of this robe-like garment. They choose to wear it because it gives them a sense of comfort and religious belonging. They are not forced and simply choose to dress this way.

Knowledge is based on experience and experience is never gender neutral. Hence it is imperative that any body of knowledge must be inclusive of the experiences of the entire human population. Looking at the experience of only one half of the human race leads to the generation of fractional knowledge. Economics is a victim, so [...]

It’s outrageous how often women, who play a pivotal role in family and community life, are forgotten as contributive members of their households and society. Their duties are restricted to child-rearing and keeping house rather than administrative duties like money management. Through movements such as microfinance, some of this power is respectfully returned to women. They are then able to focus this advantage toward improving their families, businesses and communities with education, budgeting and financial planning, allowing them to be powerful economic agents of change.

The housemaid or “maidservant” as she is popularly called, is an invisible member of most middle and upper class Indian homes. She earns anywhere between Rs.300 and Rs. 3000 ($6 – $60) a month, depending on the number of homes she works in, and is one of the few million Indian women who work in the unorganized sector.

Barack Obama’s speech at Cairo reflects the need to reorient social beliefs about women and about power and government; the two are inexorably linked. As Nicholas Kristoff rightly notes, in a post on his facebook page, women’s rights could be a firewall against extremism. That a culture of rape is pervasive in societies rich and poor, oriental and occidental is enough to demonstrate this connection…Even the most liberal democracies in North America and Europe are far from free of this systemic misogyny, as incidents reported and blogged about readily attest…In India, women’s rights form the core of several problems such as caste. Studies have pointed to the systemic denial, on the one hand, of social resources to women of lower castes, and to the increasing rape and molestation of these women on the other…India’s widespread poverty and malnutrition (higher than in Sub-Saharan Africa) are also inexorably tied to women’s rights.

Dear Dell, 
This is a letter of congratulations and profound thanks on your new “Della” computer, marketed at women. As this writer is a user of a Mac, a brand of computers that is marketed in exactly the same way to either sex, she is especially grateful for the specially designed  website that introduces to the [...]