Gender, Change and Society: Women and the State

Rai, S. M. and Lievesley, G. (eds.). Gender, Change and Society: Women and the State. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1996. 182 pp.

This book deals with gender, an issue that has become one of the most contentious in today's global political economy. An exploration of the historical and structural boundaries within which women act, relate to each other, and deal with the state in the Third World are examined. The book takes a critical look at the experiences of Third World women and examines gender issues from perspectives that are often ignored by Western feminist-state theory. The book redresses this imbalance in the literature on gender through the presentation of a wide-ranging selection of case studies, which describe and evaluate women's political, social, and economic problems in the Third World, as well as interaction of women with the state, and the problems or conflicts that such dealings produce. Major themes emerging in the volume include nationalism and the nation-state; economic modernization and its critique; and issues raised by women's struggles to increase their participation in politics, economics, and other aspects of their societies.

The struggles of women for equality and greater levels of participation in both politics and the economy are examined from the point of view of their efforts to change the status quo and improve gender relations. The book clearly depicts how the colonial system, religion, tradition and culture continue to influence gender and social relations in many developing countries today. In these societies, culture, tradition and the post-independence political structures enhance gender and power relations. In many Third World countries, there exist laws and institutions that favor males and enhance the ability of the latter to oppress and exploit women and girls. It appears that one effective way to improve gender relations and the treatment of women is to engage in institutional reforms to provide each society with more effective institutional arrangementslespecially those that respect the rights of women, enhance their participation in governance and national development, and make it much more difficult for society to oppress and exploit them.

In the last several years, many Third World women have organized to fight oppression and antagonism against them. Many of these organizations have been interested in meeting the challenges posed by repressive political systems, traditions and cultures that discriminate against them, and governments that pay only lip service to the problems of women. Unfortunately, according to the authors of the present book, Third World women are not united in their struggle against oppression. There is significant division along class lines. Such inter-class struggles among women have enhanced the ability of men to exploit and marginalize them. Case studies from Peru and Chile are used to illustrate this phenomenon. In many developing countries, where men have traditionally been the dominant force, religion, tradition, and the political system have been used to marginalize women. In countries such as Algeria and Lebanon, such institutions as religion have been used to exploit women. As a culture and religion, Islam has been identified in the construction of national identities and gender relations in many societies around the world. In many of these societies, violence against women is often justified on religious grounds. Recently, modernization has come to be identified with women's struggles for emancipation. As a consequence, attacks by religious groups of efforts to improve educational and employment opportunities for women are often disguised as efforts to keep society from being overwhelmed by foreign ideas.

The women's movement has been in the forefront of the struggle for democratization in many Third World countries. As a consequence, women's groups have constituted a significant part of civil society and of the opposition to the status quo in many of these countries. Although women have led the struggle for social and political change in many countries, once a new dispensation has been achieved, women and their issues have often been relegated to second class status.

Chapter 1 of the book examines the role the state should play in improving the quality of life for women in the Third World. Here, the state represents a network of power relations that exist in each country and control the allocation of resources. In Chapter 2, the authors use the experience of Africa to determine if women should give up on the state or continue to hope that it will eventually become a partner in their liberation. Four case studies, drawn from Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, are presented. These cases deal with a woman's right to choose the location for her husband's burial; a woman's right to sell land after her husband's death; a father demanding compensation for his daughter's seduction; and the right of children to become citizens of their mother's homeland. Women desire to be treated as full and equal partners in marriage rather as sexual objects. Unfortunately, in many parts of Africa, women are seen by society as appendages to men and, thus, are not expected to exercise independent thought. On many occasions, decisions on issues of women are supposed to be decided by men. The latter are usually the custodians of customary and state law. On the death of a husband, brothers-in-law or members of the husband's extended family (not the wife) administer the dead man's estate.