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
... male counterparts as armed combatants, in other cases gaining critical skills and experience at schools and universities abroad. Upon their return many of these women, well versed in feminist theory and praxis from experience overseas ...
... male-dominated electoral colleges whose members are drawn from local councils and women's councils; by contrast the constituency MPs are elected by universal adult suffrage (Tamale 2004, 38). The constitution also provides for reserved ...
... male or female—lack constituencies. Rather, the only constituency to which the MP is accountable is the political party. All of this leads to concerns about party paternalism and concerns about women MPs' abilities to push for gender ...
... male or female—are directly elected and none has a constituency beyond the party. In both cases, women MPs and women activists worry about the power of political parties—ever the gatekeepers—in determining which women are elected to ...
... male heads of households, who construed “representing” women, children, apprentices, servants and slaves. Only the ... male European construction of the political was carried by colonialism to African societies through law and missionary ...