Ann Whitehead - Böcker

This collection brings together leading feminist thinkers who examine the struggles for interpretive power which underlies international development. Questions why the insights from years of feminist gender and development research are so often turned into ‘gender myths’ and ‘feminist fables’: women are more likely to care for the environment; are better at working together; are less corrupt; have a seemingly infinite capacity to surviveExplores how bowdlerized and impoverished representations of gender relations have simultaneously come to be embedded in development policy and practiceTraces the ways in which language and images of development are related to practice and provides a nuanced account of the politics of knowledge productionArgues that struggles for interpretive power are not only important for our own sake, but also for the implications they have for women’s lives worldwideAn informed analysis of how ‘gender’ has been transformed in its transfer into development policy and how many authors are now revisiting and reflecting on their earlier work

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.