Women in African Economies: From Burning Sun to Boardroom - Softcover

Snyder, Margaret C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9970021877 ISBN 13: 9789970021871

Publisher: Fountain Publishers, 2000

Synopsis

Women in African Economies cuts across the many sectors of the national economy, reaching from a woman who sells her surplus beans and maize in the village market to one who creates an international air frieght business. A broad review of the informal sector and women's participation in Africa's and Uganda's economic life is followed by a history of the surge of women's entrepreneurship during times of civil unrest, and women's political activism after 1986. Many of the business women are contending with globalization's competitive effects and with the structural adjustment programs urged on their government by donors.

"Snyder succeeds in making at least one type of 'women's work' visible - those economic activities and contributions that are sofrequently ignored. In allowing the Ugandan women entrepreneurs to tell their own stories - of challenges, hard work, disappointment and sweet success - she lets the truth speak for itself. Her book is a compelling disclosure of both truth and myth concerning women in African economies" says Dr Hilda Tadria, Regional Advisor on Economic Empowerment of Women at the UNECA.

The central thesis of the study is that as women create wealth and invest it in human well being, they broaden (democratize) their country's economic base. In so doing, they offer a new, non-western model of development. By boosting women's entrepreneurship with positive policies and actions, policy makers and international investors can counter poverty while giving the world an economic justice and growth model.

About this title

About the Author:

Margaret Snyder lived and worked in Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda for a total of 15 years. She is the founding director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). She was also a co-founder of the African Centre for Women. She has served as head of the Voluntary Agencies Bureau at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and as assistant director of the Program of Eastern African Studies at Syracuse University. Snyder co-authored with Mary Tadesse African Women and Development: A History, and wrote the history of UNIFEM, Transforming Development: Women, Poverty and Politics, both published in 1995.

Review:

It will appeal to women who wish to venture into entrepreneurship, andis also a useful eye-opener for policymakers and planners. -- Sylvia Tamale, Makerere University

This book wll be of great interest to teachers and students in courses on business studies, economics and women's studies... -- Diane Elson, Economist, UK

About this edition

• Publisher: Fountain Publishers
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 9970021877
• ISBN 13: 9789970021871
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360