Shattering butterflies and Amazons: Symbolic constructions of women in Colombian development discourse

This article analyzes the construction of gender in development discourse. As development projects are designed and implemented by Third World men and women, local symbolic constructions of gender, class, and race permeate de velopment discourse. The result is a multilayered discourse of development that negotiates Western discourse of modernity with local discourses of rac e, class, and gender. This analysis examines the intersection of developmen t discourse and local patriarchal discourse in a World Bank, project implem ented in the agricultural frontier in Colombia. Through textual analysis of project documents and a consultant's field diary, the analysis sheds light oil the rhetorical formulas, metaphors, and iconic signifiers that articul ate women as a historical, static, and passive subjects. Despite its bottom -up, participatory approach to development, this World Bank project keeps m arginalizing Women, assuming that only men play crucial roles in processes of community and nation building and considering only male community member s in processes of empowerment. In conclusion, the article explains how this type of development discourse maintains and reinforces patriarchal cultura l codes that exclude women from active participation in development project s.