Feminisms in Development: Contradictions, Contestations and Challenges

Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 9
1 | Introduction: feminisms in development: contradictions, contestations and challenges......Page 10
The struggle for interpretive power......Page 13
Working within development institutions......Page 18
International feminism in troubling times......Page 21
Gender myth complex I......Page 30
Gender myth complex II......Page 35
Conclusion......Page 40
3 | Dangerous equations? How female-headed households became the poorest of the poor......Page 44
How women-headed households became the ‘poorest of the poor’......Page 45
Challenges to the construction of women-headed households as the ‘poorest of the poor’......Page 46
Implications of competing constructions of female household headship and the links with poverty......Page 49
Female-headed households as the ‘poorest of the poor’......Page 50
Conclusion......Page 53
4 | Back to women? Translations, resignifications and myths of gender in policy and practice in Brazil......Page 57
From ‘women’ to ‘gender’ in feminist theory......Page 58
Translations and (mis)uses of gender in Brazil......Page 62
Gender in development policy and planning in Brazil......Page 65
Back to women?......Page 68
5 | Battles over booklets: gender myths in the British aid programme......Page 74
The policy context......Page 75
The history of the booklets......Page 76
Themes, myths and fables......Page 80
Conclusion......Page 84
HIV/AIDS: the new lens......Page 88
Silencing of the middle-class woman......Page 91
The dual identity......Page 92
Conclusion: creating new images and using new approaches......Page 93
7 | ‘Streetwalkers show the way’: reframing the debate on trafficking from sex workers’ perspective......Page 95
First the stories …......Page 96
Challenging the associations between poverty and trafficking and other myths......Page 99
The question of agency......Page 101
Durbar’s position on trafficking and its interventions against it......Page 102
What is to be done?......Page 103
Restoring control to trafficked women......Page 104
Changing the frame......Page 106
8 | Gender, myth and fable: the perils of mainstreaming in sector bureaucracies......Page 110
The scene......Page 111
Bureaucracies – drivers or followers of change?......Page 112
Naïve notions – policy as a route to transformation......Page 115
Concluding reflections......Page 118
9 | Making sense of gender in shifting institutional contexts: some reflections on gender mainstreaming......Page 121
Placing gender mainstreaming in context......Page 124
Final thoughts …......Page 128
10 | Gender mainstreaming: what is it (about) and should we continue doing it?......Page 131
Gender mainstreaming and development policy......Page 133
Swedish approaches to gender equality policy......Page 136
Doing ‘gender’ in Swedish international development work......Page 137
Repositioning ‘gender’ in development policy and practice......Page 140
11 | Mainstreaming gender or ‘streaming’ gender away: feminists marooned in the development business......Page 144
Gender mainstreaming: the bold new strategy......Page 145
From incorporation to rights......Page 146
Gender mainstreaming means getting rid of the focus on women......Page 148
Whose responsibility?......Page 149
Gender mainstreaming = more women in organizations......Page 150
Gender equality in the absence of an institutional mandate for promoting equality......Page 151
Conclusion: fighting back......Page 152
12 | Critical connections: feminist studies in African contexts......Page 159
Women’s studies, gender studies, feminist studies......Page 161
Conclusions......Page 166
13 | SWApping gender: from cross-cutting obscurity to sectoral security?......Page 170
The logic of marginality......Page 173
Bureaucratic logic......Page 175
Re-positioning gender equality......Page 176
Building power-houses for women’s rights......Page 178
14 | The NGO-ization of Arab women’s movements......Page 186
Arab women’s organizations in historical context......Page 187
Development and feminism: echoes of the colonial encounter......Page 191
The NGO-ization of Arab women’s movements......Page 193
Conclusion......Page 197
15 | Political fiction meets gender myth: post-conflict reconstruction, ‘democratization’ and women’s rights......Page 200
Parallel universes? Gender mainstreaming and the ‘real world’of politics......Page 202
16 | Reassessing paid work and women’s empowerment: lessons from the global economy......Page 210
The ‘Engelian myth’ meets the informal economy......Page 211
Women remain ‘cheap’ workers......Page 214
Women’s paid work and intra-household gender relations......Page 215
Micro-credit and women’s empowerment?......Page 216
Women, work and money: contradictory implications......Page 218
17 | Announcing a new dawn prematurely? Human rights feminists and the rights-based approaches to development......Page 223
The case for the RBAs......Page 224
Critiquing the RBAs: what the sceptics are saying......Page 225
What challenges are posed for feminists by the RBAs?......Page 232
18 | The chimera of success: gender ennui and the changed international policy environment......Page 236
Notes on contributors......Page 250
Index......Page 256