Discourse On Women & Empowerment

Back of the Book The series Empowering Women Worldwide aims to bring insights into women's empowerment experience from an interdisciplinary perspective. Empowerment must build the ability of women to think critically about oppressive ideology and practices and encourage them to firmly resist the forces that desire to isolate and silence them. Empowerment has been often referred to as a process through which people gain control over their own lives and life environment.

Empowerment aims to reduce the powerlessness that has been created by negative valuations in the society. The books in this series will raise several fundamental questions on women's empowerment and national and international policy for furthering research and action studies to improve women's quality of life.

It is our contention that the voice of oppressed and marginalized groups must be heard if they are to become empowered. Such empowerment is necessary to avoid cases of distorted development, that is, to avoid situations in which there is: extreme poverty and gender inequality in the midst of economic affluence. It is our conviction that empowerment of women will tilt the balance of power in favour of gender justice and distributive justice. We hope the books in this series will provide valuable insights for researchers, social welfare workers and policy-makers to identify factors and processes that may contribute to higher levels of development and seeks to raise social consciousness on women, redefine agendas and rethink strategies that will empower women worldwide. In today's knowledge economy, analysis of the process of empowerment is a key to progress. This series is a humble contribution in this direction.

About the Book This book has adopted an interdisciplinary perspective to examine political economy of Gender and Empowerment. The discourse on gender implications of micro and macro realities by authors focus on women's predicaments in the private and public spheres of life. It brings to the fore women's agency in the midst of multifaceted hurdles posed by patriarchal powers. It shows how patriarchy thrives on control of women's sexuality, fertility and labour for male hegemony over economic resources, psychological and emotional command and cultural dominance. The articles deliberate on conceptual understanding on gender questions, challenges to conventional social work approach to gender issues, survival struggles of women and girls from womb to tomb, pre-birth elimination of girls by sex selective abortion and pre-conception selection of son, increasing intensity, newer forms of violence against children in the domestic arena and society-child sexual abuse and gender differences on emotional intelligence- coping strategies and anxiety.

The articles analyse work profile of women in the context of economic globalisation, women workers in post independent Eritrea, meaning of just and caring economy, women's right to land and housing, impact of productive loans in urban poor habitat in Mumbai and Women's Leadership in Micro-finance.

About the Author Dr. Vibhuti Patel is Professor and Head of the University Department of Economics, and Director, Department of Post Graduate Studies and Research of SNDT Women's University, Mumbai and holds a Doctorate in Economics.

She is a member of Expert Committee of School of Gender and Development Studies for Indira Gandhi Open University, Delhi. She is a member of subgroup on Gender and Agriculture for the 11th Five Year Plan, the Planning Commission of India, GOI, New Delhi.

She has made contributions in Women's Studies and Gender Economics. She has co-authored two books: Indian Women-Change and Challenge and Reaching for Half the Sky. She has authored a book Women's Challenges of the New Millennium (2002). She has co-edited Macro Economic Policies and the Millennium Development Goals (2006). She is co-editor of series of volumes on "Empowering Women Worldwide".

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