Full Description
This collection of essays by leading feminist thinkers from North and South constitutes a major new attempt to reposition feminism within development studies.
Feminism's emphasis on social transformation makes it fundamental to development studies. Yet the relationship between the two disciplines has frequently been a troubled one. At present, the way in which many development institutions function often undermines feminist intent through bureaucratic structures and unequal power quotients. Moreover, the seeming intractability of inequalities and injustice in developing countries have presented feminists with some enormous challenges. Here, emphasizing the importance of a plurality of approaches, the authors argue for the importance of what 'feminisms' have to say to development.
Confronting the enormous challenges for feminisms in development studies, this book provides real hope for dialogue and exchange between feminisms and development.
Contents
Introduction: Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges - Andrea Cornwall, Elizabeth Harrison and Ann Whitehead
Part I: The Struggle Over Interpretation
1. Gender Myths that Instrumentalise Women: A View from the Indian Frontline - Srilatha Batliwala and Deepa Dhanraj
2. Dangerous Equations? How Female-headed Households Became the Poorest of the Poor: Causes, Consequences and Cautions - Sylvia Chant
3. Back to Women? Translations, Re-Significations, and Myths of Gender in Policy and Practice in Brazil - Cecilia Sardenberg
4. Battles Over Booklets: Gender Myths in the British Aid Programme - Rosalind Eyben
5. Not Very Poor, Powerless or Pregnant. The African Woman Forgotten by Development - Everjoice Win
6. 'Streetwalkers Show the Way': Reframing the Debate on Trafficking from Sex Workers' Perspective - Nandinee Bandyopadhyay, Swapna Gayen, Rama Debnath, Kajol Bose, Sikha Das, Geeta Das, M. Das, Manju Biswas, Pushpa Sarkar, Putul Singh, Rashoba Bibi, Rekha Mitra and Sudipta Biswas
Part II: Institutonalising Gender in Development
7. Gender, Myth and Fable: The Perils of Mainstreaming in Sector Bureaucracies - Hilary Standing
8. Making Sense of Gender in Shifting Institutional Contexts: Some Reflections on Gender Mainstreaming - Ramya Subrahmanian
9. Gender Mainstreaming: What is it (About) and Should We Continue Doing it? - Prudence Woodford-Berger
10. Mainstreaming Gender or 'Streaming' Gender Away: Feminists Marooned in the Development Business - Maitrayee Mukhopadhay
11. Critical Connections: Feminist Studies in African Contexts - Amina Mama
12. SWAPping Gender: From Cross-Cutting Obscurity to Sectoral Security? - Anne Marie Goetz and Joanne Sandler
Part III: Looking to the Future: Challenges for Feminist Engagement
13. The NGO-ization of Arab Women's Movements - Islah Jad
14. Political Fiction Meets Gender Myth: Post-conflict Reconstruction, 'Democratisation' and Women's Rights - Deniz Kandiyoti
15. Re-assessing Paid Work and Women's Empowerment: Lessons from the Global Economy - Ruth Pearson
16. Announcing a New Dawn Prematurely? Human Rights Feminists and the Rights Based Approaches to Development.- Dzodzi Tsikata
17. The Chimera of Success: Gender Ennui and the Changed International Policy Environment - Maxine Molyneux
Notes on Contributors
Index
