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
... approach, while seeking opportunities to promote new roles, the allocation of resources and power, and gender equality within development programs—such as those focused on governance, economic growth, health issues or natural resource ...
... approaches may offer effective alternatives for changing attitudes and behaviors. The final section also posits that lessons learned by critiquing the effectiveness of legalistic women's advocacy in Africa may be helpful in other parts ...
... approach just did not seem right, but it was difficult to identify where the problem lay. The first arose in the course of research for a consultancy in Mali in 2001,9 when the author learned of efforts by women's organizations to enact ...
... approaches or sacrificing longer-term, more sustainable impacts for short term results. Women's organizations might be empowered, but Americans would still be teaching them “our tricks”, i.e. those that are employed and work (we think) ...
... approach of advocacy be a mechanism that does not operate effectively everywhere? The issue is how best to achieve dignity and equal opportunities for women within families, communities, nations ... and “best” means achieving broad ...