Policy makers and advocates of joint forest management (JFM) agree that women should be
full participants and that their involvement is especially important because of the nature of
women's work. This article examines how JFM policy has addressed gender in India. It
argues that policy has been informed by instrumentalist positions in the debate over
women's relationship to the environment. Consequently, gender planning in JFM has
focused on two issues: formal representation for women in local institutions, and identifying …

The author examines the gender-environment debate within the joint forest management
(JFM) approaches in India. JFM has used two approaches: one to increase women's
representation in local institutions and the other is to work to identify women's special
knowledge and resources. Women Environment and Development (WED) argues that
women's productive roles justify their inclusion on the debate. WED states that due to sexual
division of labor, women are more dependent on nature therefore are most affected by …