Reversed Realities:Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought
Why development organizations are failing women in poverty
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.
Reviews
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.
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.