Women, development, and the UN: a sixty-year quest for equality and justice

Abstract

In Development, and the UN, internationally noted development economist and activist Devaki Jain traces the ways in which women have enriched the work of the United Nations from the time of its founding in 1945. Synthesizing insights from the extensive literature on women and development and from her own broad experience, Jain reviews the evolution of the UN's programs aimed at benefiting the women of developing nations and the impact of women's ideas about rights, equality, and social justice on UN thinking and practice regarding development. Jain presents this history from the perspective of the southern hemisphere, which recognizes that development issues often look different when viewed from the standpoint of countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The book highlights the contributions of the four global women's conferences in Mexico City, Copenhagen, Nairobi, and Beijing in raising awareness, building confidence, spreading ideas, and creating alliances. The history that Jain chronicles reveals both the achievements of committed networks of women in partnership with the UN and the urgent work remaining to bring equality and justice to the world and its women. Devaki Jain is a development economist and activist. She graduated in economic from Oxford University and taught at Delhi University for six years. Her academic research and advocacy, influenced largely by Gandhian philosophy, have focused on issues of equity, democratic decentralization, people-centered development and women's rights. She has been an active member of the local, national, and international women's movement and has held positions in national and international expert commissions and councils with a specialist focus on justice. Jain is coeditor (with Pam Rajput) of Narratives from the Women's Studies Family: Recreating Knowledge and (with Diana L. Eck) of Speaking of Faith: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Women, Religion, and Social Change.