Reversed Realities: Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought - Softcover

Kabeer, Naila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0860915840 ISBN 13: 9780860915843

Publisher: Verso, 1994

Synopsis

Reversed Realities uncovers the deeply entrenched, hence barely visible, biases which underpin mainstream development theory and account for the marginal status given to women’s needs in current development policy.

Naila Kabeer traces the emergence of “women” as a specific category in development thought and examines alternative frameworks for analyzing gender hierarchies. She identifies the household as a primary site for the construction of power relations and compares the extent to which gender inequalities are revealed in different approaches to the concept of the family unit. The book assesses the inadequacies of the poverty line as a measuring tool and provides a critical overview of an issue that has been fiercely contested by feminists: population control. While feminists themselves have no unanimous view of the meaning of “reproductive choice,” Kabeer argues that it is imperative for them to take a lead in the construction of population policy.

About this title

About the Author:

Naila Kabeer is a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She has worked extensively on issues related to gender and development in Bangladesh, India and Vietnam.

Review:

“This vigorous assessment of development theory and policy concludes with a comparison of different approaches to gender training and a plea for the transformation of the institutions which determine development policy. A splendid synthesis of the new feminist development economics that challenges gender bias in both theory and practice.”—Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts

“This book is an invaluable resource. It deconstructs the official discourses of social planners and development economists, creating space for a critical and practical engagement with existing power structures, with a view to enabling women to be agents of their own development.”—Diane Elson, University of Manchester

About this edition

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0860915840
• ISBN 13: 9780860915843
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 346