Development, Globalization and Women: Revisiting the Issues

The dominant development model, primarily conceived as a West-centric enterprise to modernize post-colonial societies, did not realize the promised utopia of improved quality of life for all. Instead, increased poverty, economic and gender inequalities, and degradation of environment have emerged as the accompanying fallouts of development policies and practices during the past half century. With this as a backdrop, and based on research conducted in India, this book re-examines development through a gender lens - particularly, globalization-driven, neo-liberal development. Raising some basic theoretical and ideological questions, the essays address issues such as economic and political empowerment, state-market-civil society interface, MDGs, the challenges emanating from the socio-cultural structures/norms, gender-blind/neutral state policies, violence/armed conflicts, and the sustainability of environment. The book will be valuable for researchers, teachers, students, civil society activists, and policy planners engaged in framing development policies and practices.