DIPLOMARBEIT - ÖH Uni Wien - Universität Wien

welfare approach is that the anti-poverty approach does not give free hand outs to meet basicneeds but supports the development of participatory self-help programmes. Nevertheless, hereagain it is just assumed that women have time to get involved in community activities.However, the approach is also criticized because while giving women a job contributes to abetter income and family`s welfare, it also increases their triple burden. It is an assumptionthat women have the actual time to have a job. When employing women, strategic genderneeds can only be met when their domestic tasks are facilitated by, for example, child caringfacilities at the workplace (Moser/Levy 1986: 7).The efficiency approach, developed in the 1980s, is influenced by neoliberalism. Its goal isefficient development through the use of unused or insufficiently used workforce of women(Tiefenbacher 2009: 15). The efficiency approach assumes that economic growth andincreased economic participation of women automatically leads to efficient growth,development and equality between women and men (Chowdhry 1995: 33). The efficiencyapproach was established at the same time the structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) wereimplemented which mostly had negative impacts on women. Their burden of work and theproduction costs increased, while social services were cut down. The concern of the efficiencyapproach is not the involvement of women in the development process, but to use theirproductive capability more efficiently. As a result, the efficiency approach ignores thedomestic and child caring work of women and does not consider strategic gender needs. Itonly cares about what women can do for development, not the other way around (Momsen2004: 14; Pichler 2003: 55; Tasli 2007: 21).The various approaches of the WID maxim considered, it can be said that their major focuslies on the reduction of inequality and women`s needs. Nevertheless, there are some mainpoints of criticism. For one thing, the existing gender structures are not challenged whichmeans that no power balance between women and men can be established (Neuhold 1994:11). Critics even argue that the exact opposite happens. They think when women are seen as aspecial target group, not included in the mainstream, the men will be relieved from takingover responsibility in terms of gender equality. As a consequence, instead of forming acooperation of women and men to establish gender equality, existing gender roles areenforced (Esterhazy 1996: 8). Secondly, the women aspect is only attached to developmentprogrammes without recreating the overall structures of development cooperation (Pichler2003: 58). And thirdly, the triple burden of women is assumed as `natural` and it is assumed19