Drawing on research from developing countries, and particularly on recent findings from the Young Lives project, the chapter suggests that international development needs to pay greater attention to gender in childhood and youth. The chapter makes four key points: 1) that the international development discourse is neglectful of children's gendered experiences; 2) that gender in childhood is influenced by intra-household forces, socio-cultural context, institutional structures and economic pressures; 3) that gendered disparities do not always conform to conventional assumptions; 4) and that the gendering of childhood is affected by various 'modernising' influences which tend towards universal understandings of child well-being, such as rights-based approaches that in turn often underplay gender differences among the young.

Reference

Jo Boyden, Gina Crivello and Virginia Morrow (2015) 'Gender, Development, Children and Young People', in Anne Coles, Leslie Gray and Janet Mommsen (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Development. London: Routledge.