Power, Gender and Social Change in AfricaGender 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
Questions on gender issues: certain actions that can or cannot be taken by a woman.................................................................................................................173 Table 8-3.
Spatial and Operational Features of the Small Informal Sector in Harare...........316 Table 14-2: Informal and Formal Financial Activities for a Kenyan Woman ........................317 Table 14-3. NGAE Members Interviewed by Business ...
We forget that wonderful South African saying which is also the name of a modern play, “You strike the woman, you strike the rock.” 6 Despite daunting circumstances, many African women exemplify strength and power.
In Namibia a small number of women members of the Constituent Assembly played a key role in shaping Namibia's gender-progressive constitution, and one woman MP was largely responsible for the adoption of a gender quota for local ...
Subsequently, both parties committed themselves to the equal distribution of women's names (every third name a woman's) throughout their candidate lists (Myakayaka 2004; Disney 2006). Colleen Lowe Morna (2004, 62) argues that internal ...