Women, Feminism and Development

Sara Stratton teaches history at York University.

In the introduction to this welcome collection of essays, Dagenais and
Piché lament the partisan nature of development studies, and applaud
attempts to replace grand theories of development with micro-analyses of
its meaning and effects. Beginning with Kate Young’s definition of
development as a social, economic, political, and cultural process
designed to better the lives of individuals and to improve society as a
whole, they introduce a wide range of essays on the meaning and effects
of development, particularly as it applies to women.

The essays are grouped under four headings: methodology, consequences,
empowerment, and testimony. Geographically, the collection examines
societies from the Canadian Arctic to China, with stops in the
Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Reproduction,
sexuality, and religion are the focal points of several essays, while
more “traditional” analyses of women’s work are also included.
Some of the more compelling essays include Rosina Wiltshire’s argument
that North American theories are not appropriate to the experience of
Caribbean women; Cecilia Ng’s appraisal of Malaysia’s “green
revolution” as a technological revolution that has concentrated
knowledge, land tenure, and power in men’s hands and so has served to
further “domesticate” women; and Rosemary Brown’s discussion of
Lubicon Cree women’s determined efforts to maintain social networks as
their society’s traditional base in trapping, hunting, and gathering
gave way to wage labor and the welfare state. Appropriately, the book
ends not with ruminations from the ivory tower, but with the reflections
of a Mohawk woman, an Inuit woman, and a woman actively involved in
development issues in the Caribbean.

Jargon, typographical errors, and awkward translations occasionally mar
this worthwhile anthology. That is unfortunate, because Women, Feminism,
and Development is trying hard to break new, more sensitive and sensible
ground in a discipline that has been as fairly criticized for its arcane
and turgid prose as it has for its “battle of labels.”