Education Research Gender, Education and Development - A Partially Annotated and Selective Bibliography

MOMSEN, Janet and KINNAIRD, Vivian (1993) Different Places, Different Voices:
Gender and Development in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Routledge, London
and New York.

A number of disciplines contribute to the study of educational issues in international
and comparative perspective, and so it is with geography and gender studies. This
volume is a contribution to the latter by exponents of the former.

In the developing world today the subordinated position of women is exacerbated not
only by patriarchal attitudes but also by economic crisis and the legacy of colonialism.
The traditional model for women has been housework and childcare. However, new
socio-economic demands and individual motivation have created new opportunities.

Different places, Different Voices analyses the changing lives of the women in the
South through the voices of female geographers from the developing world. An
emphasis on location and positionality highlights the differences created by place, and
challenges much of the feminist and post-colonial scholarship of the West.

The focus on place, with country-specific studies within individual regions, results in a
natural grouping by continent of the chapters within the book and emphasises the
diversity of identities. The twenty case studies present regional perspectives by Third
World geographers on aspects of urban and rural development, household reproduction
and production and community organisation. There is a balanced coverage of Asia,
Africa, Latin America and Oceania with contextual and theoretical introductions to
each continent by local leading feminist geographers.

Many topics covered within the case studies fall within established geographical fields
of enquiry - human/environment relations, demographic analysis and migration; others
exemplify the broad range of issues as part of a 'new geography' that is bold in
embracing new areas of enquiry and methodology. It is relevant beyond the particular
interests and approaches of geographers and is certainly useful in respect of
development studies, women's studies, sociology and anthropology. Although there are
brief regional commentaries at the beginning of each section (Africa, South Asia, South-
East Asia and Oceania, Latin America), almost every chapter is country-specific,
though in fact only fifteen countries are actually represented. Countries favoured with
multiple chapters are: India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Bolivia and Colombia.

NUSSBAUM, Martha and GLOVER, Jonathan (1995), Women, Culture and
Development: A Study of Human Capabilities, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

This substantial volume (480 pages) is a major contribution to the convergence of

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