Women, Development, And The Un: A Sixty-year Quest For Equality And Justice

257 Pages·2005·1.64 MB·English

by  Devaki Jain

“Devaki Jain WOMEN’S STUDIES POLITICAL SCIENCE Jain
opens the doors of
In Women, Development, and the UN,
the United Nations
internationally noted development economist
and shows how it and activist Devaki Jain traces the ways in which
women have enriched the work of the United
has changed the W
Nations from the time of its founding in 1945. W ,
OMEN
female half of the Synthesizing insights from the extensive literature
o
world —and vice on women and development and from her own
broad experience, Jain reviews the evolution of m
versa. Women, the UN’s programs aimed at benefi ting the D ,
e EVELOPMENT
Development, and women of developing nations and the impact of
n
women’s ideas about rights, equality, and social
the UN is a book
justice on UN thinking and practice regarding ,
D UN
that every global development. Jain presents this history from the
AND THE
citizen, government perspective of the southern hemisphere, which e
recognizes that development issues often look v
leader, journalist,
different from the standpoint of countries in e
academic, and self- Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The history that l
Jain chronicles reveals both the achievements of o
respecting woman
committed networks of women in partnership p A SIXTY-YEAR QUEST
should read.” with the UN and the urgent work remaining to m
E J
—GLORIA STEINEM bring equality and justice to the world and its FOR QUALITY AND USTICE
e
women.
n
DEVAKI JAIN, a development economist and t
“Devaki Jain’s activist, was a founding member of the Indian ,
Association of Women’s Studies, an adviser to a
book nurtures n
the National Commission on Women of the
d
your optimism in Government of India, and a member of Julius

Nyerere’s South Commission. Her research and t
this terrible war-
advocacy, infl uenced largely by Gandhian h
torn decade by philosophy, have focused on issues of women’s e

describing how rights, democratic decentralization, and people- U
centered development.
women succeeded N
in empowering UNITED NATIONS INTELLECTUAL
HISTORY PROJECT SERIES
both themselves
Louis Emmerij Richard Jolly Thomas G. Weiss
(cid:127) (cid:127)
and the United Devaki Jain
EDITORS
Nations to work
toward a global Cover illustration: Rangoli pattern from Bundi, India Foreword by Amartya sen
INDIANA
INDIANA
leadership inspired
by human dignity.” University Press
—FATEMA MERNISSI
Bloomington & Indianapolis
http://iupress.indiana.edu
1-800-842-6796
United Nations Intellectual History Project Series
Women, Development,
and the UN
United Nations Intellectual History Project
Ahead of the Curve? UN Ideas and Global Challenges
Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss
Unity and Diversity in Development Ideas: Perspectives
from the UN Regional Commissions
Edited by Yves Berthelot
Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics
Michael Ward
The UN and Global Political Economy: Trade, Finance, and Development
John Toye and Richard Toye
UN Contributions to Development Thinking and Practice
Richard Jolly, Louis Emmerij, Dharam Ghai, and Frédéric Lapeyre
UN Voices: The Struggle for Development and Social Justice
Thomas G. Weiss, Tatiana Carayannis, Louis Emmerij, and Richard Jolly
Women, Development,
and the UN
A Sixty-Year Quest for
Equality and Justice
Devaki Jain
Foreword by Amartya Sen
Indiana University Press
Bloomington and Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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© 2005 by United Nations Intellectual History Project
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
\without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jain, Devaki, date-
Women, development, and the UN : a sixty-year quest for equality and justice /
Devaki Jain.
p. cm. — (United Nations intellectual history project)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-253-34697-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-253-21819-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. United Nations. 2. Women in development—International cooperation—History.
3. Women’s rights—International cooperation—History. I. Title. II. Series.
HQ1240.J35 2005
305.42'09172'4—dc22 2005003698
1 2 3 4 5 10 09 08 07 06 05
Dedicated to the United Nations

My notion of democracy is that under it, the weakest should
have the same opportunity as the strongest.
—Mahatma Gandhi

Contents
List of Boxes and Tables xi
Series Editors’ Foreword xiii
Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss
Foreword xvii
Amartya Sen
Acknowledgments xxi
List of Abbreviations xxiii
Introduction: Women, Development, and Equality:
History as Inconclusive Dialogue 1
1 Setting the Stage for Equality, 1945–1965 11
2 Inscribing Development into Rights, 1966–1975 43
3 Questioning Development Paradigms, 1976–1985 73
4 Development as if Women Mattered, 1986–1995 102
5 Lessons from the UN’s Sixth Decade, 1996–2005 135
Notes 169
Bibliography 193
Index 211
About the Author 227
About the United Nations Intellectual History Project 229
ix