Two parallel trends have gained momentum in the past two decades: one is the women and development debate and the other is the feminist movement and the great upsurge of women mobilizing and organizing around the world, continuing a centuries old struggle of women to liberate ourselves from oppression and subordination in society. Until very recently, there has been little dialogue between the two, or effort to relate one to the other.
Yet the experiences of women in these struggles have led to new insights about the nature of the attitudes and institutions which create and perpetuate domination and inequality of women and about how these are intertwined with structures of economic domination and inequality. A feminist perspective is very relevant to development and development issues; that is, to issues such as supplying people's basic needs - food,water, shelter, health and education. And development is or should be of important concern to feminists.
Development planners and policy makers, however, generally consider feminism as irrelevant to development. At best, they view feminism as a luxury for better-off women in industrialized countries. And we in the women's movement, especially in industrialized countries, have often concentrated on organizing around a limited numberof issues directly affecting women in our own countries: child care, reproductive rights,violence against women, discrimination. We have put our energies into these because it is precisely these areas which are neglected or considered secondary by other movements, parties or unions. On the other hand, we have often ignored issues of international politics and economics.
This is beginning to change. Women are addressing issues of food, water and economic exploitation from a feminist perspective. This book examines the insights this perspective brings to some of the main trends and issues of development. It explores how feminists are challenging the assumption that "integrating women into development" willsolve problems caused by development plans and policies which have neglected or been detrimental to women. Not an in-depth study or analysis, this book is meant simply to be a guide to recent thinking and literature about women and development and to the feminist critique of these.
We have tried to pick out of the enormous amount of material produced on women and development those resources we feel are really relevant to women and to identify gaps in research and materials. We also list some of the groups actively involved in mobilizing and organizing around the world and record some of their experiences as a resource for others and to facilitate contact between existing groups.
the scope of the guide
Since it is impossible to cover all areas of development and feminism in one book, we have chosen to focus on certain areas: multinationals; rural development and food production, including appropriate technology and income generation; health, migration and tourism, education and communication.
The introductory article "Rethinking Women and Development" places these areas in the overall context of the various theories and trends of women and development and the feminist perspective on these. "Women and Development Literature; A Survey" gives a general overview of some of the main contributions to present thinking on women and development.
We have chosen to look at multinational corporations first because of their determining impact on development in all parts of the world, and on women workers, consumers and transmitters of culture in both industrialized and developing countries.
The chapter on rural development examines the main trends in development policies over the past few decades and their effects on women, especially food producers. It raises questions about attempted solutions to problems in rural areas and about appropriate technology and income generating projects.
Health is a major area affecting women as bearers of children and as those primarily responsible for the health care of themselves and their children. In examining the healthcare systems in developing and developed countries, this chapter raises questions about the control of health care, population control and pharmaceutical industries.
Migration and tourism are issues which development planners usually examine only marginally, if at all. Yet development policies directly affect the growth of migration and tourism and these in turn affect women in particular ways. This chapter examines how women are mobilizing around these issues.
The chapter on education and communication raises questions about the role of education as a means of socializing women and as a means to gain greater self-determination. It examines how communication and information systems are often used to the detriment of women and speaks of the importance of women gaining access to them and shaping them to serve our own needs.
Other important issues we would have liked to deal with, but could not due to lack of space, are funding, aid, evaluation of projects and national liberation struggles. Areas that we have touched on only briefly are sexuality, marriage structures and relationships. Other issues such as violence against women and sexual harassment and their impact on women's potential for self-determination run throughout all the chapters. Although we would have liked to examine in more detail the potential and limitations of different political and economic systems, the questions feminists are raising are directed at all types of systems.
resources for research and organizing
Selected resources follow the overview articles in each chapter. We have tried to assess the usefulness of the materials from the governmental, intergovernmental and better known development agencies and to highlight some of the less well-known sources, especially materials produced by women, action-oriented groups and organizations and feminists who are bringing a feminist perspective to development and trying to break the gap between theory and practice.
We have not included every development journal, agency, and institute in the world, nor every feminist group or organization. We list academic studies only in exceptional cases and refer the reader to universities for this kind of material. We have chosen to describe groups, organizations and institutions at greatest length and to assess the books, periodicals and other materials they produce. Listings of materials quickly become dated, but groups working on the issues are likely to continue producing and updating resource materials.
We have made every effort to make this resource guide as accurate and up-to-date as possible. However, some groups change addresses often and it is possible that we have made some errors. We would very much appreciate your calling to our attention any changes or inaccuracies as well as any material we may have left out or missed that you feel is important.
acknowledgements and credits
The idea of this Resource Guide was first developed at the very beginning of ISIS by two of the founding members, Jane Cottingham and Marilee Karl. Anita Anand joined us in the work in 1980 and played an important part in giving the guide its final shape. Over the years, as we worked on collecting the material and discussing the contents and format, it has been enriched by the input of many, many people from all corners of the world. It would be impossible to list by name every person, group or organization who supplied materials, advice and support and who shared the ideas and experiences which have gone into this guide. Although the authors of the articles and chapters take the final responsibility for the content, this guide is the result of the contributions and work of many. We would like to thank those individuals, groups and organizations who provided the materials in the ISIS Bulletins which were used as a basis for this book, and those who supplied the resource materials listed in this guide. We would also like to thank Saralee Hamilton of the Women and Global Corporations Network for her contributions to the chapter on multinationals; the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, especially Judy Norsigian and Norma Swenson, the Dispensaire des Femmes, especially Rosangela Gramoni and Patricia Schultz, and the participants of theThird International Women and Health Meeting for their contributions to the Health chapter.
We thank all the members of the ISIS collective, other women working at ISIS, and the ISIS Associates for their advice and support.
Photographs by Maggie Murray are taken from the book Our Own Freedom, published by Sheba Feminist Publishers, with kind permission from the author.
We have tried to credit graphics wherever we could, but they were often unsigned or we could not find the original source. Our apologies to the artists; we would welcome your contacting us to put this right for the future.
a note on terminology
None of the terms used to describe the world is entirely satisfactory. Arguments can be presented for and against using developing and developed countries, third world, industrialized world, North-South and so on. Since these are all we have at the moment, however, we have used various of them throughout the book. We emphasize that all countries are developing in one way or another and that development links and concerns us all.
a final note
Our hope is that the shared insights, ideas, experiences and resources in this guide will contribute to developing a new theory and practice of development which includes a feminist perspective.
Isis
The members of the ISIS collective are: Rossana Cambi, Maria Teresa Chadwick, Gabriela Charnes, Ximena Charnes, Roxanne Claire, Jane Cottingham, Ana Maria Gomez, Marilee Karl, Elizabeth Mackie, Monica v.d. Meden-Niebergall, and Valsa Verghese. Other women working at ISIS are Christina Georgeff and Maria Antonieta Saa.
The ISIS Associates are: Olga Amparo Sanchez, Colombia; Anita Anand, India; Marie Assaad, Egypt; Brigalia Bam, South Africa; Nita Barrow, Barbados; Jacqueline Berenstein-Wavre, Switzerland; Jessie Bernard, USA; Kamla Bhasin, India; Peggy Billings, USA; Elise Boulding, USA; Violet Coomarasamy, Malaysia; Miranda Davies, England; Akke van Eijden-van Dam, Netherlands; Annette Kaiser, Switzerland; Sister Mary John Mananzan,Philippines; Magaly Pineda, Dominican Republic; Nawal El Saadawi, Egypt; Adriana Santa Cruz, Chile; Marie-Angelique Savane, Senegal; Geertje Thomas, Netherlands; AhFong Chung, Mauritius; Karin Himmelstrand, Sweden; Boston Women's Health Book Collective, USA.