Women Wielding the Hoe

Deborah Bryceson Senior Research Fellow,African Studies Centre, Leiden

'... should be an invaluable reference for policymakers in Africa as well as for scholars involved in the search to find a scenario which would give the African woman the pride of place she has so well earned.'Mary Chinery-Hesse, Deputy Director General, International Labour Office, Geneva'Women Wielding the Hoe is a timely book, analysing western perceptions of development, from a self-critically western perspective. It will be of interest to students and teachers looking at the role of African women in economic and political development. The experiences of twelve researchers involved in feminist analysis and development in Africa are gathered in this book, providing an excellent overview of the recent history of women in/and development thinking, and contributing to the ongoing African vs Western feminist debate.'African Studies Review & Newsletter'Even for those knowing little about the subject this is an excellent read and is highly recommended for all workers in the fie

• African Women Hoe Cultivators: Speculative Origins and Current Enigmas, D. F. Bryceson; Women's Farming and Present Ethnography: Perspectives on a Nigerian Restudy, J. Guyer; Down to Fundamentals: Women-Centred Hearth-holds in Rural West Africa, F. Ekejiuba; The Myth of the African Family in the World of Development, B. O'Laughlin; Uses and Abuses of the Concept of 'Female-Headed Households' in Research on Agrarian Transformation and Policy, P. Peters; Women's Workload and Reproductive Stress, H. Bantje; 'Children are Our Wealth': A Difficult Pregnancy on Mafia Island, Tanzania, P. Caplan; Mothers, Healers and Farmers in Congo, M. C. Dupre; What Women Can Do: AIDS Crisis Management in Uganda, C. Obbo; Must Women Work Together? Development Agency Assumptions v. Changing Relations of Production in Southern Malawi Households, J. Davison; Wishful Thinking: Theory and Practice of Western Donor Efforts to Raise Women's Status in Rural Africa, D. Bryceson; Documenting Women's Views through Participatory Research: Diaries of Daily Activities in Rural Zambia, E. Skjonsberg; Truth in Fantasy: Storytelling with and about Women in Msoga Village, Tanzania, U. Vuorela; Burying the Hoe?, D. Bryceson.