Technology and Rural Women: Conceptual and Empirical Issues

First published in 1985, Technology and Rural Women synthesizes the fragmented empirical evidence and the wide range of theoretical approaches on the effects of modernisation on women in the developing world. Using a multi-disciplinary methodology, empirical and sectoral overviews, and country case studies, it draws together the literature to clarify the issues and the policies. The book begins with a conceptual overview and analyses the applicability of traditional theories of technological change and impact on gender based distributional questions. It proceeds to compare the African and Asian experience, examines the African situation regionally, and then as a set of four country case studies. The authors find that the imperfections of rural factor markets have contributed to women’s concentration in labour intensive sectors, marked by low productivity and low returns. Biases in the agrarian structure and the extension services are largely responsible for the Institutionalisation of discrimination against women. Finally, the volume identifies the social, economic, and technical constraints to the diffusion of technologies relevant to rural women’s tasks. In the final chapter the book’s analysis is further refined and extended, so that its conclusions to both theory and policy making are clearly brought out, and areas of future research identified. This book is an essential read for students and scholars of labour economics, women’s studies and economics in general.

Iftikhar Ahmed