Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach (The John Robert Seeley Lectures at Cambridge University)

Proposing a new kind of feminism that is genuinely international, Martha Nussbaum argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. In this book, Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations. Nussbaum concludes by calling for a new international focus to feminism, and shows through concrete detail how philosophical arguments about justice really do connect with the practical concerns of public policy. HB ISBN (2000): 0-521-66086-6

A major voice for ethical law calls for a global feminism to address the deplorable conditions of women in the Third World. Nussbaum (Law and Ethics/Univ. of Chicago) draws once more on the research behind For Love of Country (1996) and Sex and Social Justice (1998): the first for her condemnation of the legalized rapeby spouses or strangersof Third World women (and child brides), the second for her argument that Americans are morally responsible for alleviating the suffering of the victims of inequality abroad. Enlivening her argument with legal case histories and personal anecdotesfor example, a story about a religious Muslim woman who was pained to lose her purdah (her modestly isolated and veiled lifestyle)Nussbaum considers the challenges of introducing Western moral and legal standards in entrenched patriarchal societies where women's higher mortality rate is as endemic as poverty. In India, the primary country discussed here, feminist reform runs up against powerful religious establishments. The abortion of baby girls has declined and widows are no longer expected to jump on their husbands funeral pyres, but until recently Hindu women who had suffered from domestic abuse and fled could be forced back home if they could not pay a fine. In polygamous Islamic regions and countries, women have fewer legal rights to their own bodies, and the issues of religious autonomy are stickier. But even when Third World women largely defend the discriminatory practices of their culture, Nussbaum shows again and again how resourceful deeply religious women and men can be in adapting the religion's moral understanding to a changing reality. The authors prose is dense but readable, though readers daunted by references to exogamous marriage, and patrilocal residence may want to keep a dictionary handy. Easier to understand is her urgent warning that there must be a global effort to help the millions of women suffering malnutrition, drudgery, bad marriages, illiteracy, and more. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.