Female Well-Being: Toward a Global Theory of Social Change

Front Cover
Janet Mancini Billson, Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban
Zed Books, 2005 - Health & Fitness - 432 pages

This global survey starts from the assumption that the significant transformations in women's lives deserve to be fully documented and interpreted. Janet Mancini Billson and Carlyn Fluehr-Lobban tackle the complexities of social change by using data from countries in every world region to illustrate the most critical challenges that women faced during the last century - challenges that are also likely to shape the 21st century.

Global knowledge and feminism dovetailed in the 20th century, fed by international air travel, telecommunications, the internet, and a growing awareness that solving female oppression would improve the lot of all humankind. The authors therefore adopt a strong international, comparative, cross-cultural, and feminist framework that uncovers the fundamental processes that promote, sustain, or degrade the female condition.

At the heart of Female Well-Being are case studies written by country teams of scholars, educators, and policy analysts, in Canada, The United States, Colombia, Iceland, the United Kingdom, Croatia, Japan, Bangladesh, Thailand, South Africa, and Sudan. Female well-being is measured by analysing trends in infant mortality, maternal mortality, literacy, life expectancy, education, work, income, family structure, and political power. These trends are contextualised in the light of the century's major events, legislative initiatives, social policies, and leadership, to illustrate the processes that enhance, sustain, or detract from the female condition. This book will be a critical resource for academics, development experts and policy analysts.

 

Contents

The twentieth century as a transformative time for women
3
The complexities of defining female wellbeing
23
A critique of social change theories
45
a journey in stages
67
a century of struggle
94
you forge your path as you walk
133
The social context 135 A demographic portrait of Colombian
148
continuity and change
159
Literacy and education 223 Political educational and cultural
230
crossing the great divides of race
236
A demographic portrait of South African women 236 Family
243
Economic participation 244 Literacy and education
250
Political educational and cultural leadership251 Towards
258
changing the paradigm of female
285
the impacts of immigration
309
the struggle
324

The geopolitical complexities of Croatia 160 A demographic
165
Political educational and cultural leadership 172 Towards
179
From settlement to independence 181 The historical legacy
200
change and resistance to change
207
Violence against women 216 Economic participation
219
factors that enhance or detract from
357
Towards a gendered theory of social change
374
Towards global female wellbeing
392
Editors and contributors
415
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About the author (2005)

Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban is professor of anthropology and women's studies at Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island.