Feminism and development: Building the discipline or politicising it?

Abstract

Although initial contributions of Women’s Studies to the field of Development Studies were to question existing concepts and assumptions and to offer new models and inclusive approaches, it appears that contemporary scholarship has shifted entirely (and even unapologetically) into political advocacy with little further in the way of social science or fresh critique and modelling. In Development Studies, Applied Anthropology and possibly in other subfields where gender concerns are presented in ‘single-variable’ or ‘interest-group’ perspectives, it may now be time to return to earlier goals through a depoliticisation of ‘Feminist’ and ‘Women’s’ Studies, appropriately integrating ‘Gender Studies’ and concerns into subfields in ways that promote holistic advance of those fields. The essay uses two recent books with alternative examinations of feminism in developing societies - one on the area of ‘development’ and one on relations of two ‘developed’ countries, the U.S. and Russia - as springboards for a discussion of what has gone wrong and what can be changed in the sub-field of gender and Development Studies.