Criticism of WID

1. The unwanted consequence of depicting women as a unit whose claims are conditional on its productive value
2. Furthermore, the WID, although it advocated for greater gender equality, did not tackle the unequal gender relations and roles at the basis of women’s exclusion and gender subordination
3. Moreover, the underlying assumption behind the call for the integration of the Third World women with their national economy was that women were not already participating in development,
4. The WID was also criticized for its views on the fact that women’s status will improve by moving into “productive employment”, implying that the move to the “modern sector” need to be made from the “traditional” sector to achieve self-advancement, further implying that “traditional” work roles often occupied by women in the developing world were inhibiting to self-development.