User:L Kreeger/sandbox

Draft:

-I am adding a new section titled : "The Effect on Women" onto the page "Economic Development in India"

Economic Development in India has had a varying effect on women depending on their age, education, and location. Traditionally in India women’s role is in the household. As girls they are raised to work for and better their family. Their work, therefore, mostly consists of household duties and is not a part of the formal economy. Because of this India consistently compares poorly to other countries as far as female employment rates. Currently India ranks 11th from the bottom in female labor participation out of the 131 countries with data available. In addition, women who do work experience discrimination; on average they make 62% of what their male counterparts make for the same position.

Since the 1990s there has been significant economic growth and expansion in India, this has had an effect on how women operate in the workforce there.Women’s labor force participation has actually fallen from 37% in 2004-2005 to 27% in 2009-2019. So with the recent economic growth and development in India, the country has not seen an equal overall growth in jobs for women. This can be broken down further, however, because certain demographics of women in India have seen job rates decline while some have actually seen them rise. Informal work, which is not included in job rate percentages, has risen for poor, rural, uneducated women while their formal job rate has declined; Microcredit and social help groups have helped poor women connect and work together in the informal job sector .Women with higher education who mostly live in urban areas have seen a rise in job rates.

An example of a booming industry for educated women in India is call centers. Many Western countries outsource their call center jobs to India, and these call centers have found that women often have more success at these positions than their male counterparts. These positions give young women in India a chance at independence from their family and the traditional role which women play. There are organizations in India that were created to support women’s education and women in the workforce. In 1985 the Ministry of Human Resource Development was founded to improve female literacy rates, and to support women looking to join the work force. Similarly, in 1972 SEWA, the Self Employed Women’s Association, was formed by self-employed and low wage women workers to support each other and organize to advocate for their rights.

Bibliography:

1)Mehra, Rekha. "Women, empowerment, and economic development." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. 554, 1997, p. 136+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A20764208/AONE?u=san96005&sid=AONE&xid=9311d2a4. Accessed 1 Oct. 2018.

This article talks about how women in India are more economically involved than women in surrounding countries. I will use this to reference the uniqueness of the involvement of women in the economy in India.

2) Bhattacharya, Prabir C. “Economic Development, Gender Inequality, and Demographic Outcomes: Evidence from India.” Population and Development Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2006, pp. 263–292.

This article focuses on ‘fertility, child mortality, and female disadvantage in child survival in India’. It talks about the affect that recent economic development in India has had on these 3 topics. I am going to use this article to talk about about the ways in which economic development has affected these aspects of womens’ lives in India.

3)Batra, R. “Gender Inequality Issues in India.” Advances in Developing Human Resources., vol. 18, no. 1, 2016, pp. 88–101.

This article talks about gender inequality in the workplace in India, and methods to combat that. I will be using this to talk about what activists are doing today to fight gender inequality. Also I will be referencing this article when writing about how economic development in India has affected gender inequality in the workplace. 1

Choosing My Topic, due 10/3:

I am going to add to the 'Economic development in India' Wikipedia page. I found the article we did for homework on Indian call centers so interested, so I wanted to see if there was a Wikipedia page on Economic development in India. When I found the page I noticed there was not a section devoted to the effects of economic development on women. I saw no mention of the role women play in development in India, so I want to add a section about the Effects of Economic Development in India, and the role which women play. India is a country where women have been affected in many ways, both positive and negative, and in a conversation about economic development the topic of the role women play should definitely should be included.

Add to An Article due 9/26:

I added to the 'Marxism and Neo-Marxism' section of the 'Gender and Development page'. In this section:

"Marxism, particularly through alternative models of state socialist development practiced in China and Cuba , challenged the dominant liberal approach over time. Neo-Marxist proponents focused on the role of the post-colonial state in development in general and also on localized class struggles."

-I added the portion about China and added the link which goes to an article in an academic journal which talks about China's 'socialist market economy'

"Wikipedia Evaluation of the Gender and Development page due 9/19"

The introduction to the Wikipedia page ‘Gender and Development’ is concise and summarizes the main points of the article. It does a good job of highlighting what the article will be talking about; which specifically is WID, WAD , GAD and neoliberal approaches. The Page is sorted into three sections. WID, WAD and GAD are grouped together and called the ‘early approaches’, the next section is called ‘neoliberal approaches’ and the third section is called ‘Alternative approaches’. The introduction paragraph on this page does not talk about the alternative approaches at all. In order to get a fully complete introduction it would need to reference some of the material from the alternative approaches; other than this critique the introduction is solid and sets the reader up well to read the rest of the Wikipedia page.

I liked many of the sources used throughout the paper. However, a lot of them were flawed. Some of them were broken links which led to websites that did not exist. A few of them were out dated, especially given the fact that some of the material this page is about is pretty recent. Also, one of the links I clicked on led me to an article that was all in French so I was unable to read it. Additionally quite a few of the links led me to  research databases where you need an account in order to access the entire article. These accounts all require paid memberships, so most people would not be able to have access to the entire article. Out of the links which worked and did not require memberships, a few of them did not seem to be coming from academic sources. Some of the links led to intriguing academic sources which were conducive to the overall credibility of the Wikipedia page. However, many of the links need to be taken off. Also, there should be additional links for the ‘alternative approaches’, most of the sources which I read through were strictly talking about topics related to WID, WAD, GAD or neoliberalism.

The writers of the Wikipedia page did a good job of staying neutral. Throughout the ‘criticism’ portions of the various sections, the critiques are thorough and factual without coming across biased. They do a good job of incorporating quotes into these sections. For example this excerpt from the criticisms of neoliberal approaches is really well put:

“Chant is concerned that ‘An efficiency-driven focus on young women and girls as smart economics leaves this critical part of the global population out.'^[55] Smart economics assumes that all women are at their productive stage and fallaciously neglects lives of the elderly women, or women with handicaps. Thus she calls for recognition of ‘equal rights of all women and girls -regardless of age, or the extent of nature of their economic contribution.'^[55] Also, its approach does not talk about cooperation and collaboration between males and females thus leaving men and boys completely out of picture.”

I would like to see more real world practical examples on this Wikipedia page. I feel that most of the page is theoretical. Some more examples and more information on the history of these ideas would be great. I think it would be really smart to add a history section right after the introduction that could explain what was going on with gender and development before the theories of WID and WAD became well known.

When I went to the talk page I noticed that the page does not yet have a rating on the quality scale or the importance scale. I feel that if it were to get graded it would have a good quality rating. Reading the exchanges throughout the talk page was interesting. I think that the communication through the talk page has really been beneficial to the Wikipedia page. For example, through the talk page I could see how some of the writers agreed together to distinguish between WID and WAD through two different sections, and I think that was a really good move for the page rather than talking about the two in the same section. One of the contributors talked about how they should incorporate pictures, and I did not see anyone respond to that comment however I think it would be a great idea to include pictures on the Wikipedia page. Having a visual component draws readers in and gives them an image in their head to associate with the information. On the talk page there is collaboration and communication among the different writers, their working together is extremely beneficial to Wikipedia page.

The section of the Wikipedia page that is about Gender and Microfinance is extremely thorough and interesting, it is one of the best parts of the entire page. The writer explains what micro-finance means and gives interesting real world examples. An excerpt from this which I enjoyed was:

“While there are such cases in which women were able to lift themselves out of poverty, there are also cases in which women fell into a poverty trap as they were unable to repay their loans.^[42] It is even said that microcredit is actually an ‘anti-developmental’ approach.^[43] In South Africa, unemployment is high due to the introduction of microfinance, more so than it was under apartheid.^[44] Microcredit intensified poverty in Johannesburg, South Africa as poor communities, mostly women, who needed to repay debt were forced to work in the informal sector.^[45] Although there is debate on how effective microcredit is in alleviating poverty in general, there is an argument that microcredit enables women to participate and fulfill their capabilities in society.”

Some of the other sections in the page need to be more like this one and include more real world examples. GAD has a huge section on ‘theoretical approaches’, it would be more complete if it also included some more practical examples similar to the micro-finance section. Overall this Wikipedia page has some really good information. Some of the sections just need some more examples, some of the links need to be fixed and I believe a history section should be added.