In third world countries gender roles are different from those in western countries. This reality is of utmost interest for development policy makers. planners and project designers from donor countries.
More often than not, development projects, sponsored and implemented by western organizations, reflect ethnocentric biases about the sexual division of labour, rights and responsibilities, based on standards from the donor country. Too many projects have failed or not had the intended beneficial effect on those in need, because they were administered with very little insight into gender relations.
This volume deals with the importance of gender relations in crucial areas of development such as agriculture, employment, housing, transport, health and household management, and it underlines the necessity of having statistical materials that realistically reflect gender differentials.
Janet Momsen recently retired from the University of California, Davis as Professor of Geography although she is still working with several postgraduate students there. She is now affiliated with the University of Oxford as a Senior Research Associate in the School of the Environment and in International Gender Studies. She has taught at several universities in England, in Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica and in the USA and carried out field research in the Caribbean, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ghana, Mexico, China, Bangladesh and Hungary.