Power, Gender and Social Change in AfricaRaj Bardouille, Margaret Grieco Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009 M03 26 - 359 pages Gender plays a hugely significant and too often under-considered role in predicting how accessible resources such as education, wage-based employment, physical and mental health care, adequate nutrition and housing will be to an individual or community. According to a 2001 World Bank report titled Engendering Development—Through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice, enormous disparities exist between men and women in terms of basic rights and the power to determine the future, both in Africa and around the globe. A better understanding of the links between gender, public policy and development outcomes would allow for more effective policy formulation and implementation at many levels. This book, through its discussion of the challenges, achievements and lessons learned in efforts to attain gender equality, sheds light on these important issues. The book contains chapters from an interdisciplinary group of scholars, including sociologists, economists, political scientists, scholars of law, anthropologists, historians and others. The work includes analysis of strategic gender initiatives, case studies, research, and policies as well as conceptual and theoretical pieces. With its format of ideas, resources and recorded experiences as well as theoretical models and best practices, the book is an important contribution to academic and political discourse on the intricate links between gender, power, and social change in Africa and around the world. |
From inside the book
... legislative sector that is needed to implement even the best constitution. Putting women in governmental positions in all three branches is a necessary piece of the development puzzle. Additionally, more women must become involved ...
... legislative representation (Dahlerup and Freidenvall 2005). Rather than following the example of Scandinavia, where decades of socio-economic development and changes in cultural attitude finally allowed large numbers of women to enter ...
... legislative presence. Gretchen Bauer and Hannah E. Britton (2006a), in the introduction to a book based on dozens of interviews with women members of parliament (MPs) in five countries, find that these success stories share common ...
... legislative representation with the factors cited in the studies above determining whether or not quotas will be adopted—and what types of quotas will be adopted. For purposes of comparison, it is interesting to note that the ...
... legislative elections. In South Africa this was done with the recognition that PR systems are more favorable to women (though there were other reasons as well for adopting the system).6 While there is no evidence that women's electoral ...