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
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They put women in the National Assembly because they know they [the women] will not challenge them.” Similarly, former Ugandan MP Matembe argues that women in Uganda “have been trapped and have become hostages to the quota system, ...
Marcia Greenberg Challenging the Accepted Approach The primary purpose of this chapter is to apply some analytical tools from the fields of law and development to assess common practices of women's rights advocacy.
In some ways, the alternative ways of thinking about the challenges and approaches do not introduce much that is new for ... and approaches tend to be a starting point, imbued with the very assumptions this chapter seeks to challenge.
Yet “Post-Beijing” actions at the national and local levels have been problematic, with the Five-Year Review of the Platform (2000) revealing that resources and implementation had posed greater challenges than anticipated, ...
... it suggests some questioning of what may be touted as universal approaches to achieving gender equality and encourages the design and use of approaches based on Africanspecific social, cultural and political challenges.