Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges

Front Cover
Andrea Cornwall, Elizabeth Harrison, Ann Whitehead
Bloomsbury Academic, 2007 - Social Science - 253 pages

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.

From inside the book

Contents

Acknowledgements
10
a view from
21
Dangerous equations? How femaleheaded households
35
Copyright

15 other sections not shown

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2007)

Andrea Cornwall is professor in anthropology and development at the University of Sussex, where she is an affiliate of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence and director of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment programme. Joining the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) as a fellow in 1998, she supported the emergence of work on sexuality and helped establish the Sexuality and Development Programme. She has published widely on gender and sexuality in development and is executive producer of Save us from Saviours, a short film on Indian sex workers' challenge of the rescue industry. Elizabeth Harrison lectures at the School of African and Asian Studies, University of Sussex.

Bibliographic information