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
... practices through the new lenses proposed earlier in the work. These examples illustrate the hypothesis and model ways in which commonly accepted practices may rely on questionable assumptions regarding context and appropriate models ...
... practices, history and objectives. In fact, over the years that ideal of “cultural sensitivity” that had seemed to ... practice, i.e. if one asked women to identify their cultural aspirations, respecting women's rights was not an ideal ...
... practices and behaviors may not be determined by laws (even in the United States). In Africa, there are historic strata: norms and practices that date back centuries; customary law reflecting interpretations and colonial laws; and, more ...
... practices and enforce the law. In nearly all cases, however, laws are pivotal—passing, changing, building awareness of, applying or enforcing them. Some typical scenarios: • A women's bar association works with MPs in Parliament to ...
... practices to the end that women's and society's status improves, thus contributing to the vision of a prosperous Uganda. UWONET's policy advocacy program targets policy and decision makers at the national level, i.e. Parliament ...