Patrons of Women

Literacy Projects and Gender Development in Rural Nepal

Esther Hertzog (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

278 Seiten

2023
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-80073-942-0 (ISBN)

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Assuming that women’s empowerment would accelerate the pace of social change in rural Nepal, the World Bank urged the Nepali government to undertake a “Gender Activities Project” within an ongoing long-term water-engineering scheme. The author, an anthropologist specializing in bureaucratic organizations and gender studies, was hired to monitor the project. Analyzing her own experience as a practicing “development expert,” she demonstrates that the professed goal of “women’s empowerment” is a pretext for promoting economic organizational goals and the interests of local elites. She shows how a project intended to benefit women, through teaching them literary and agricultural skills, fails to provide them with any of the promised resources. Going beyond the conventional analysis that positions aid givers vis-à-vis powerless victimized recipients, she draws attention to the complexity of the process and the active role played by the Nepalese rural women who pursue their own interests and aspirations within this unequal world. The book makes an important contribution to the growing critique of “development” projects and of women’s development projects in particular.

Esther Hertzog is a Social Anthropologist at Beit Berl Academic College in Israel. Her research focuses on bureaucracy and gender relations. She has published Immigrants and Bureaucrats (Berghahn, 1999); Op-Ed, Feminist Social Justice in Israel (Hebrew, 2004); Life, Death and Sacrifice, Women and Family in the Holocaust (ed.) (Gefen, 2008); Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology (co-ed.) (Wayne State University Press, 2010); At Teachers’ Expense: Gender and Power in Israeli Education (co-ed.) (Hebrew, 2010); and many articles and chapters, as well as hundreds of articles in Israeli dailies. She has been involved in feminist activities for more than twenty years and founded a women’s NGO, two women’s parties, and the Women’s Parliament.

List of illustrations

Foreword

Preface

Map of Nepal

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Development Projects – Persistence Despite Evident Failure

"Development" and "Development Projects" – Neocolonialism behind Social Change Discourse

Economic and Gendered Critique of Development and the World Bank

Do Micro-finance Schemes Help the Poor and Women in Developing Countries?

The Comeback of "Development" Theories – Maiava's Study as an Example

Development and Women's Empowerment Projects

The Construction of Third World Women's Underdevelopment and Subordinated Femininity

Postmodern Feminist Theory Trapped in Development Discourse

Ambivalence in Discussing the Futility of Gender Development Projects

Gender, Development and Literacy in Nepal

The "Third World" Image of Nepali Women

Nepali Women's Participation in the Maoist Insurgency

Power, Poverty and Women's Illiteracy in Nepal

Methodology

Chapter 1. The Vulnerable Patron: Playing the Role of a Foreign Gender Consultant

Patronage and Power-dependence Relations

Deceitful Hierarchy – Privileged Experts and Low-ranked Paraprofessionals

The Compelling Power and Appealing Advantages of the Consultant's Position

Manufacturing the Image of a Gender Expert

A Tourist in Disguise

The Professional Care-taker

In the Name of Women’s Good

Confronting Men's Chauvinism

Patronizing Anita

Complying with Expectations to Patronize the Village Men

Patronizing Male Officials

Veiled Vulnerability

Reluctant Patron, Vulnerable Foreigner

Chapter 2. Instrumental Patronage: Leon and Hanna

Leon, as a Bossy Patron

Complying with Hanna's Dominance

The Betrayed Patron

Imposing Discretion for the Sake of Dominance

Serving Tea and Power Gaps

The Jeep – Symbolizing and Contesting Superiority

A Eidiculed Patron

Abusing the Defenseless Indoors

Bribery, Drunkenness and Ethnocentrism – Cooperation and Mutual Dependence

Chapter 3. The Phantom of Literacy Classes for Women Villagers

Literacy and Economic Resources - On Paper

Recommending Literacy – Fenster's Report

Illiteracy as a Case for Foreign Expertise – My Report

Successful Negotiations for Stalling Time

The Project's Reports, The Social Order and Developers' Compliance

Chapter 4. The Role of Economic Activities in Negotiating Consent

Development Tourists and Collaborating Village-women

Visiting Ekala, "Literate Developers" Meet "Illiterate Villagers"

Visiting Khumundihawa, Intruders Meet Locals

Visiting West Baharaulia - Procedural Rituals and Cracking Stereotypes

Structured Social Distance and Men's Marginality in the Village Encounters

The Village Women's Assertiveness

Visiting Bhawarabari, Women Leaders and Economic Issues

Brindban and Sikatahan, Encountering a Field-bank and Village Women's Enterprises

Manipulative Developers

Ignoring the Women's Wishes and Deluding Them

Foreign Agencies Take Over Responsibilities of State Authorities

The Appeal of Women's Organized Groups to Financial Agencies

The Appeal of the Village Women Groups from the NGOs' Perspective

The Village Women - Neither Naïve nor Passively Manipulated

Illiteracy as a Means for Establishing the Image of Women's Collective Intellectual Failure

Chapter 5. The Seminar – The Successful Failure of the Women's Empowerment Project

Manufacturing a Fictitious Success – The Seminar and Thapa's Class

The Collaboration of the World Bank with the Nepali and Israeli Partners in Faking Progress

The Seminar as a Platform for Exercising Men's Power – The Use of Cultural Discourse

Bossing Women in the Hierarchic Setting of the Irrigation Project

Men's Supervision Over the Women in the Seminar

No Books for the Seminar – Men's Stalling and Women's Anxiety

The Seminar – Degrading and Disempowering Women

Chapter 6. Gender and the Phantom Budget

A Women's Budget in a Male Dominated Context

A Flexible Budget and Feminine Compliance

Gender Consultants Accommodating to the Power of Men

Stimulating Hopes, Providing Vague Promises

Disillusioned Hopes: Gradual Unfolding of the Bluff

Men's Game: Power, Aggression, Devaluating Women's Matters

Becoming Part of the System: A Coopted Feminist

Manipulating Facts and Figures

Feminine Coping with Confusing Messages and Stalling Tactics

Unveiling the Truth: Women's "Peanuts" Money for Men's Bonuses

No Budget for Women's Activities

References

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	21.03.2023
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik ► Schulpädagogik / Grundschule
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
ISBN-10	1-80073-942-7 / 1800739427
ISBN-13	978-1-80073-942-0 / 9781800739420
Zustand	Neuware