How effective is western aid-agency intervention in Africa? What can African women do to manage the AIDS crisis? Can western feminist theory be applied to the rural African context?These vital issues, and many others, are considered in this topical book by eminent scholars and development consultants. The book aims to increase awareness of the importance of women agricultural producers to African material development and to expose the western biases that have traditionally pervaded the study of rural African women. The authors' critical analyses of conventional research methodology and key 'women and development' debates over the last three decades will stimulate new research perspectives. Students and scholars of development, development workers and policymakers will all find this book fascinating reading.

How effective is western aid-agency intervention in Africa? What can African women do to manage the AIDS crisis? Can western feminist theory be applied to the rural African context?These vital issues, and many others, are considered in this topical book by eminent scholars and development consultants. The book aims to increase awareness of the importance of women agricultural producers to African material development and to expose the western biases that have traditionally pervaded the study of rural African women. The authors' critical analyses of conventional research methodology and key 'women and development' debates over the last three decades will stimulate new research perspectives. Students and scholars of development, development workers and policymakers will all find this book fascinating reading.

Readings in Gender in Africa collects the most important critical and theoretical writings on how gender issues have transformed contemporary views of Africa. Scholarship from North America, Europe, and Africa is represented in this comprehensive volume. A synthetic introduction by Andrea Cornwall discusses efforts to include women in research about Africa. The volume not only shows how gender relations have been constructed on the African continent but reflects the changes in approach and inquiry that have been brought about as scholars consider gender identities and difference in their work. Specific themes covered here include the contestation and representation of gender, femininity and masculinity, livelihoods and lifeways, gender and religion, gender and culture, and gender and governance. Readers from across the landscape of African studies will find this an essential sourcebook. Published in association with the International African Institute, London

African women’s history is a vast topic that embraces a wide variety of societies in over 50 countries with different geographies, social customs, religions, and historical situations. Africa is a predominantly agricultural continent, and a major factor in African agriculture is the central role of women as farmers. It is estimated that between 65 and 80 percent of African women are engaged in cultivating food for their families, and in the past that percentage was likely even higher. Thus, one common thread across much of the continent is women’s daily work in their family plot. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on individual African women in history, politics, religion, and the arts; on important events, organizations, and publications; and on topics important to women in general (marriage, fertility, employment) and to African women in particular (market women, child marriage, queen mothers). This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the Women in Africa.

Delving into the phenomenology of corruption and its impacts on the governance of societies, this cutting edge Encyclopedia considers what makes corruption such a resilient, complex, and global priority for study. This title contains one or more Open Access entries.

A Companion to Gender History surveys the history of womenaround the world, studies their interaction with men in genderedsocieties, and looks at the role of gender in shaping humanbehavior over thousands of years. An extensive survey of the history of women around the world,their interaction with men, and the role of gender in shaping humanbehavior over thousands of years. Discusses family history, the history of the body andsexuality, and cultural history alongside women’s history andgender history. Considers the importance of class, region, ethnicity, race andreligion to the formation of gendered societies. Contains both thematic essays and chronological-geographicessays. Gives due weight to pre-history and the pre-modern era as wellas to the modern era. Written by scholars from across the English-speaking world andscholars for whom English is not their first language.

This collection brings together leading feminist thinkers whoexamine the struggles for interpretive power which underliesinternational development. Questions why the insights from years of feminist gender anddevelopment research are so often turned into ‘gendermyths’ and ‘feminist fables’: women are morelikely to care for the environment; are better at working together;are less corrupt; have a seemingly infinite capacity tosurvive Explores how bowdlerized and impoverished representations ofgender relations have simultaneously come to be embedded indevelopment policy and practice Traces the ways in which language and images of development arerelated to practice and provides a nuanced account of the politicsof knowledge production Argues that struggles for interpretive power are not onlyimportant for our own sake, but also for the implications they havefor women’s lives worldwide An informed analysis of how ‘gender’ has beentransformed in its transfer into development policy and how manyauthors are now revisiting and reflecting on their earlierwork