Gender Myths and Feminist Fables

This collection brings together leading feminist thinkers whoexamine the struggles for interpretive power which underliesinternational development.* Questions why the insights from years of feminist gender anddevelopment research are so often turned into 'gendermyths' and 'feminist fables': women are morelikely to care for the environment; are better at working together;are less corrupt; have a seemingly infinite capacity tosurvive* Explores how bowdlerized and impoverished representations ofgender relations have simultaneously come to be embedded indevelopment policy and practice* Traces the ways in which language and images of development arerelated to practice and provides a nuanced account of the politicsof knowledge production* Argues that struggles for interpretive power are not onlyimportant for our own sake, but also for the implications they havefor women's lives worldwide* An informed analysis of how 'gender' has beentransformed in its transfer into development policy and how manyauthors are now revisiting and reflecting on their earlierwork