Development and Women

Essay # 46019

A look at how women have been negatively affected by the process of development from examples of the Chinese silk industry and agriculture in Africa.

2,295 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2003 Canada

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that the economic and social status of women in the Third World nations have been negatively influenced by the process of development, which has promoted gender segregation of work force and proletarianization of women. It has chosen the changes that the silk industry in China and the agriculture in Africa have gone through as case studies since those clearly reveal the negative influence of development on women. The problem of women in Chinese silk industry is analyzed through the perspective of the world system theory while the case of women in African agriculture is analyzed through the lens of the dependency theory.

From the Paper:

"In the 1990s, many African economies rely heavily on a single type of crop for the majority of their export earnings. Among many cash crops that have sustained economies in Africa, coffee provides 50 per cent of the export earnings in many countries, including Kenya. Since exporting cash crops is one of very few ways to earn foreign exchange in many African countries, land allocation, scientific effort, and agricultural policies are geared toward production of cash crops. Until recently, food crops received limited attention from policy makers in Africa (Sachs 96). A Kikuyu village in Kenya is a typical example. Women in a Kikuyu village provide much of the labor in coffee and vegetable production, and many of men migrate from the village in search of work."