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Gender and development Gender and Development approach focus on the socially constructed{{cite journal|last=Bertrand|first=Tietcheu|title=Being Women and Men in Africa Today: Approaching Gender Roles in Changing African Societies|year=2006}} basis of differences between men and women and the need to challenge existing gender roles and relations.{{cite book|last=Reeves|first=Hazel|title=Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions|year=2000|location=Brighton|isbn=1-85864-381-3|page=8}} This approach was majorly influenced by writing of academic scholars such as Oakley (1972) and Rubin (1975) which emphasize the social relationship between men and women.{{cite book|last=Moser|first=Caroline|title=Gender Planing and Development. Theory, Practice and Training|year=1993|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-203-41194-3 Master e-book ISBN|page=3|} These relationships they argue have systematically subordinated women.Moser, Caroline p.3 This departs from WID which perceived women problem in terms of their biological differences rather than gender.{{cite journal|last=Razavi|first=Shahrashoub|coauthors=Carol Miller|title=From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse|date=1|year=1995|month=February|page=3}} Influenced by this work, by the late 1970s, some practitioners working in the development field stated questioning the adequacy of focusing on women in isolation.{{cite journal|last=Razavi|first=Shahrashoub|coauthors=Carol Miller|title=From WID to GAD: Conceptual Shifts in the Women and Development Discourse|date=1|year=1995|month=February|page=12}} GAD challenged the WID focus on women as important ‘target group’Razani and Miller p.8 and ‘untapped resources’ for development. Moser, Caroline p.2 GID marked a shift in thinking about the need to understand how women and men are socially constructed and how ‘those constructions are powerfully reinforced by the social activities that both define and are defined by them.’Razani and Miller p.12 GAD focus primarily on gender division of labor and gender as a relation of power embedded in institutions.Reeves, Hazel; Baden Sally (February 2000). Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions. Consequently, two major frameworks ‘Gender roles’ and ‘social relations analysis’ are used in this approach.Razavi and Miller p.13 Gender role focus on social construction of identities within the household, it also reveals the expectations from ‘maleness and femaleness’Razani and Miller p.12 in their relative access to resources. Social relations analysis exposes the social dimensions of hierarchical power relations imbedded in social institutions; also its determining influence on ‘the relative position of men and women in society.’Razavi and Miller p.12 This relative position tends to discriminate against women.Reeves and Baden p.18

In an attempt to create gender equality, (denoting women having same opportunities as men, including ability to participate in the public sphere;Development Assistance Committee (DAC), 1998, p.7 GAD policies aims to redefine traditional gender role expectations. Women are expected to fulfill household management tasks, home based production as well as bearing and raising children and caring for family members. The role of a wife is largely interpreted as 'the responsibilities of motherhood'Razani and Miller p. 30 Men however, are expected to be breadwinners whom are associated with paid work, and market production.{{cite book|last=Reeves|first=Hazel|title=Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions|year=2000|location=Brighton|isbn=1-85864-381-3|page=8}} In the labor market, women’s overall financial related payment tend to be lower usually earning less.For instance, 'a study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found massive pay inequities in some United Kingdom’s top finance companies,women received around 80% less performance-related pay than their male colleagues.'{{cite journal|last=Prügl|first=Elizabeth|title=If Lehman Brothers Had Been Lehman Sisters...: Gender and Myth in the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis|journal=International Political Sociology|date=14|year=2012|month=March|volume=6|issue=1|page=25|doi=10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011.00149.x}} In reaction to inequalities between gender, Beijing Platform for Action established Gender mainstreaming in 1995 as a strategy across all policy areas at all levels of governance for achieving gender equality.DAC Source Book on Concepts and Approaches Linked to Gender Equality. 1998. p. 9.

Gender and Development approach has been subjected to many criticisms. GID perspective is theoretical distinct from WID, but in practice, a program seem to have the element of the two. Whilst many development agencies are now committed to a gender approach, in practice, the primary institutional perspective remains as WID.Reeves and Baden p.33 There is a slippage in reality where gender mainstreaming is often based in a single normative perspective as synonymous to women.{{cite book|last=True|first=J|title=Feminist Strategies in Global Governance: Gender Mainstreaming|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|page=37}} Development agencies still advance gender transformation to mean economic betterment for women.Reeves and Baden p.33