Academic and Reference Books

Purity and Communal Boundaries explores the rich complexities of a central Bangladeshi village, populated by Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Through a carefully constructed theoretical framework Sand Rozario demonstrates the ways in which class and communal domination reinforce gender inequality. The position of women is analysed in terms of linkages between religious values, sexuality, economics and politics. Rozario also examines the divergence between the demands of the economy and the system of values in Bengali society.

This is a study of social organization, focusing on the symbolic construction of womanhood in Muslim peasant community in Bangladesh. In the patriarchal, patrilocal, patrilineal society of Bangladesh, socio-cultural values sanction segregation of sexes, impose strict gender division of labor and foster a systematic bias of male supremacy (Roushan Jahan, 1983). Marriage is also seen as an exchange for security by which women obtain protection in return for the opportunity providing the continuity of patrilines. Thus a woman is rendered transferable.

For two decades, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh has successfully administered a unique program that lends small sums to poor women for income generation. This is the first empirical study to examine the long-term influence of these loans on the borrowers, and it demonstrates that credit alone can fundamentally change the lives of poor women-even in the absence of other aid programs and in an environment distinctly hostile to women's autonomy. Helen Todd spent a year in two villages in Bangladesh following the lives of women who have been borrowing from the Grameen Bank for a decade.

The growth of the International women's movement over the past two decades has challenged the international community to respond to its vision of social transformation. This book examines the response of one set of key players-the international donor agencies. It compares the donors priorities with those of their development partners and argues that, although significant achievements have been made, the fundamental goals of the women's movement-transforming social and gender relations and creating a more equitable world- still elude us. Why has this progress been so elusive?