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
... Concern about the Results from Common Approaches The advocacy tactics in vogue over the past two decades for the enhancement and protection of women's rights have been less effective and sustainable at the national and local levels than ...
... concerns for sustainability. Third, and most importantly, because the two groups spoke somewhat different languages using somewhat different concepts, there seemed to be limited penetration of thinking (more talking at or past one ...
... concern is that the liberal legal model fails to take account of cultural differences. Examples taken from African women's organizations show how components of their programs reflect an approach that others have encouraged. Just as ...
... concern that advocacy is often undertaken with the assumption that it will achieve similar results in a wide range of contexts, these frameworks offer a way to consider the appropriateness and effectiveness of western-style advocacy ...
... concerns, however, in that they created pressure to get results in legislatures—which in the worst cases would mean that US NGO-implementing partners might feel compelled to lobby in foreign legislatures for new laws (though such ...