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The Gender and Development research group is concerned with social change, specifically the social and gendered dimensions of poverty reduction, inequality and social injustice.
We conduct original theoretical work on gender and development epistemologies, covering relational and subjective approaches to well-being, intra-household and intra-generational relationships, and examining linkages between gendered social relations, rights and wellbeing. There are several overlapping sub-themes which comprise land, climate change and migration, education and learning, health, nutrition and food security, governance and corruption. Apart from research, we have been active in engaging with policy, communities and training and capacity-building.
Recent research has seen very exciting interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological innovation, working across environmental, health and social sciences, focusing on finding solutions to knotty problems, for example, technology adoption, human mobility, nutritional deficiencies, addressing issues of care and social reproduction, alongside unequal power relations and opportunity structures.
We are also conducting work on land and labour allocation and rights that methodologically combines historical, ethnographic, participatory and quantitative studies. Policy orientated analyses of intersectional gendered vulnerabilities, including the crises of masculinity across sectors, from education to employment, represent another dimension of our work.
Inter-school networking, such as between DEV and the School of Education and Lifelong Learning (EDU), or the Norwich Business School (NBS) has further strengthened our expertise in research, policy and capacity-building on Gender and Education as well as Gender and Business. The different aspects of DEV's work on gender and development are also reflected in our recent publications.
On June 19-20, 2025, we hosted an international conference titled Gender and Development: Debates for a Changing World. The conference brought together senior and early career academics, development practitioners, activists and students to think about contemporary challenges for us as a Gender and Development Community. We played host to similar conferences in 1994 and 2015 - and reconvened in 2025 to explore what has changed, what remains unchanged and what new dilemmas and challenges we experience today. What does development mean for gender relations today and in the future? What can we learn from engaging with seminar debates in gender and development over the past four decades, in relation to current realities, methodologies and themes within the evolving field of Gender and Development. The growing concern of today is with issues of gender and social justice in research, policy and practice. One of the outcomes of this conference is a Gender and Development handbook to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2027.
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