Gender myths and feminist fables: the struggle for interpretive power in gender and development

Cornwall, Andrea; Harrison, Elizabeth; Whitehead, Ann

Abstract

Gender and development has grown enormously as a field over the last thirty years. In this introduction, we interrogate the ambivalence that underpins feminist engagement with development and examine what current dilemmas may suggest about the relationship between feminist knowledge and development practice. In recent years, there has been growing frustration with the simplistic slogans that have come to characterize much gender and development talk, and with the gap between professed intention and actual practice in policies and programmes. Questions are now being asked about what has become of ‘gender’ in development. This collection brings together critical reflections on some ideas about gender that have become especially resonant in development narratives, particularly those that entail popularization and the deployment of iconic images of women. This introduction explores more closely the issues raised by such myth‐making, arguing that these myths stem from exigencies within the politics and practices of development bureaucracies, within the difficult politics of feminist engagement with development policy and practice and within feminist politics itself.

Citation

Cornwall, A., Harrison, E., & Whitehead, A. (2007). Gender myths and feminist fables: the struggle for interpretive power in gender and development. Development and Change, 38(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00400.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2007
• Deposit Date: Feb 6, 2012
• Journal: Development and Change
• Print ISSN: 0012-155X
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-7660
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-20
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00400.x
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00400.x
• Additional Information: Additional Information : This submission includes (a) joint and equal co-editing, (b) joint and equal co-authorship of the introduction ('Gender Myths and Feminist Fables: The Struggle for Interpretive Power in Gender and Development in Development' pp.1-12, (c) Myths to Live By? Female Solidarity and Female Autonomy Reconsidered Andrea Cornwall pages 149-168. This submission is one of three volumes to emerge from a major international conference, including: Cornwall,, A., E.A. Harrison and A. Whitehead (eds 2007, Feminisms in Development: communications, contestations, and challenges. (London Zed Press) and Cornwall, A., E.A.Harrison and A. Whitehead (eds) Repositioning feminisims in development, IDS Bulletin 35 No 4,October 2004. Cornwall was co-editor and co-author of the introductions to the other two volumes.