Fall 2011 Bulletin Vol. 27, Number 1 (PDF) - Center for Gender in ...

the criques of it, in the context ofwomen’s empowerment. It confrontsthe disncon between women’sincreasing wealth as a consequence ofthe success of microcredit programsand their apparent non-commensurateempowerment, looking at twoorganizaons (the Grameen Bank andthe Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommiee) as they operate in twolocalies in rural Bangladesh, in orderto discover how enrichment andempowerment are oen confused.The book goes on to establish that thewell-publicized success stories of themicrocredit program are blown out ofproporon, and that the dynamics ofcollecve responsibility for repaymentof loans by a group of womenborrowers—usually seen to be a toolfor the success of microcredit—is infact no less repressive than tradionaldebt collectors. This book makes acontribuon to development debates,challenging adherents to more closelyspecify those condions under whichmicrocredit does indeed have validity,as well as providing insights relevant toSouth Asian Studies and DevelopmentStudies.16The Gender Imperave: HumanSecurity vs State Security, edited byAsha Hans and Bey A. Reardon, 2010,472 pp. The book asserts that humansecurity derives from the experience andexpectaon of human wellbeing whichdepends on four essenal condions: alife sustaining environment, the meengof essenal physical needs, respectfor the identy and dignity of personsand groups, protecon from avoidableharm and expectaons of remedyfrom them. The book demonstratestheir integral relaonship to humansecurity. Patriarchy being the germinalparadigm from which most majorhuman instuons such as the state, theeconomy, organized religions and socialrelaons have evolved, the book arguesthat fundamental inequalies must bechallenged for the sake of equality andsecurity. The fundamental point raisedis that expectaon of human wellbeingis a connuing cause of armed conflictwhich constutes a threat to peaceand survival of all humanity and humansecurity cannot exist within a militarizedsecurity system. The editors of the bookbring together 14 essays which cricallyexamine militarized security in order tofind human security pathways, showBOOKSways in which to refute the dominantparadigm, indicate a clear genderanalysis that challenges the currentsystem, and suggests alternaves tomilitarized security.Practical Actionwww.praccalacon.orgGender and the Economic Crisis,edited by Ruth Pearson and CarolineSweetman, 2011, 170 pp. Contributorsto this book map the emerging impactof the economic crisis on women, menand their families in different contexts,and suggest policy and pracce changes.Authors include key figures in theresearch field as well as policymakersand development praconers,who analyze, with first-handexperience, the inial impactsof the economic crisis inSouth and East Asia, Africa,Lan America, and the MiddleEast. The current globaleconomic crisis is expectedto lead to millions morepeople being pushed intoextreme poverty. The effectsare profoundly different forwomen and men, and theexisng gender inequaliesand power imbalances meanthat addional problems arefalling disproporonatelyon those who are alreadystructurally disempowered andmarginalized. The economiccrisis is the latest elementin a complex web of shocksand longer-term traumasaffecng women, men andtheir families in developing countries.These include food and fuel shocks,changing climac condions, and theHIV pandemic. For many people livingin poverty, these crises are experiencedas one mulfaceted crisis, which hasaccentuated already exisng underlyingchronic concerns in both the producveand the reproducve (care) economiesof the world. While these issuesremain largely invisible to mainstreameconomists and policymakers, they arecrical to the development of effecveand sustainable responses to the crisis.