Theoretical Perspectives on Gender and Development demytsifies the theory of gender and development and shows how it plays an important role in everyday life. It explores the evolution of gender and development theory, introduces competing theoretical frameworks, and examines new and emerging debates. The focus is on the implications of theory for policy and practice, and the need to theorize gender and development to create a more egalitarian society. This book is intended for classroom and workshop use in the fields ofdevelopment studies, development theory, gender and development, and women's studies. Its clear and straightforward prose will be appreciated by undergraduate and seasoned professional, alike. Classroom exercises, study questions, activities, and case studies are included. It is designed for use in both formal and nonformal educational settings.

The economic and political empowerment of women continues to be a central focus for development agencies worldwide; access to medical care, education and employment, as well as women's reproductive rights remain key factors effecting women's autonomy. Feminisms, Empowerment and Development explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances whilst providing an in-depth analysis of collective action and institutionalized mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations. Drawing on unique, original research and approaching empowerment as a complex process of negotiation, rather than a linear sequence of inputs and outcomes, this crucial collection highlights the difficulty of creating common agendas for the advancement of women's power and rights, and argues for a more nuanced, context-based approach to development theory and practice. An indispensible text for anyone interested in gender and development, this book shows that policies and approaches to development that view women as instrumental to other objectives will never promote women's empowerment as they fail to address the structures by which gender inequality is perpetuated over time.

This book reflects the most current scholarship on states, socioeconomic development, and feminist theory to emerge this decade. Addressed are issues such as the role of state policies and ideologies in defining gender differences, state influence over the boundaries between public and domestic spheres, state control over women's productive and reproductive lives, and the efforts of women to influence state policy. Women, the State, and Development shows that state elites promote male domination as one way of maintaining social order when nation-states are created and strengthened, and that issues defined as male by the sexual division of labor are given priority in state policies that promote security and economic development such as foreign policy, international trade, agricultural development, and resource extraction. It analyzes these policies in terms of their impact on gender relations and also identifies ways in which women have responded.

This collection of essays by leading feminist thinkers from North and South constitutes a major new attempt to reposition feminism within development studies. Feminism’s emphasis on social transformation makes it fundamental to development studies. Yet the relationship between the two disciplines has frequently been a troubled one. At present, the way in which many development institutions function often undermines feminist intent through bureaucratic structures and unequal power quotients. Moreover, the seeming intractability of inequalities and injustice in developing countries have presented feminists with some enormous challenges. Here, emphasizing the importance of a plurality of approaches, the authors argue for the importance of what ‘feminisms’ have to say to development. Confronting the enormous challenges for feminisms in development studies, this book provides real hope for dialogue and exchange between feminisms and development.

Women, Feminism and Development illustrates the significance and relevance of work on development carried out from a feminist perspective, with a particular focus on the contribution of Canadian researchers and activists. Covering a wide range of themes and concerns, the volume gathers authors from different organizational backgrounds and academic disciplines, and includes chapters on such different cultural and geographical areas as China, Malaysia and Thailand, Mexico and the West Indies, Uganda, Malawi and Ghana, and Canadian Inuit and Indian communities. A unity of purpose as well as a call for a fundamental reconceptualization of society emerge from these varied voices. Women, Feminism and Development is structured to convey a feminist perspective for the construction of theoretical, methodological, and political approaches to development; a critical evaluation of the effect of development policies on women's lives and gender relations; and an understanding of the multiple strategies that can lead to the empowerment of women and real development.

In this major book Martha Nussbaum, one of the most innovative and influential philosophical voices of our time, proposes a kind of feminism that is genuinely international, argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations.

This book offers an insightful look at the development of feminist theory through a literary lens. Stressing the significance of feminism's origins in the European Enlightenment, it traces the literary careers of feminism's major thinkers in order to elucidate the connection of feminist theoretical production to literary work.