Although the global divide between women and men has started to narrow, critical gaps remain (World Bank, 2020) and are especially prevalent in developing societies. It is noted these remaining multi-dimensional gaps of continued gender disparity lie at the heart of global inequality and poverty, and directly limit developmental interventions with the UN noting that “Insufficient progress on structural issues at the root of gender inequality … are undermining the ability to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5” (UN SDGS; Goal 5, 2020).
One of the primary ways that gender remains a challenge is that dominant gender discourses are continually circulated through structures and institutions making it very difficult to alter unhelpful gender normatives throughout multiple levels of societies. This indicates that, in order to properly alter the course of gender disparity to improve developmental interventions, there is a need to conceptualize the circulation of dominant discourse and translate this into an applied framework which can identify and evaluate the dominant discourses found in developmental interventions to improve their intervention design.
Using a combination of theoretical frameworks from the field of development which support key concepts of dominant discourse circulation, this study presents a novel framework and tests it by applying it to agricultural extension interventions. Testing the framework in the setting of agricultural extension interventions presents the opportunity of applying the framework in an area of development that has clear communication pathways and remains highly dictated by gender normatives. Testing the framework in this area also provides the opportunity to use the findings from the framework to further developmental theory and practice in rural communication and wider agricultural development – fundamental pathway to sustainable development.
By testing the framework in the rich context of Zimbabwean agricultural extension, initial findings of this study showcase how dominant gender discourse is circulated throughout the structural levels of the society and dictate how agricultural extension institutions address issues around gender both within their structural organization and within their target communities. This study also showcases nuances between different intervention approaches which vary depending on their intervention goal. Findings also showcase how unhelpful dominant gender discourses remains largely unchallenged by current developmental institutional arrangements which directly effects information access and experience for male and female farmers.
Given the IAMCR focus on the need of greater inclusion and equality in communication processes, this study directly speaks to how complex gender dynamics are still being overlooked and misunderstood by developmental interventions which, ultimately, limits the ability to meaningfully challenge wider structural systems and overcome gender inclusion and equality gaps.