Women S Roles And Population Trends In The Third World

First published in 1982, this collection was the result of an ambitious and wide-ranging, inter-disciplinary research programme conducted by the International Labour Office (ILO) on the relationship between women’s roles and demographic change, with a view to influencing contemporary government and non-government policy and future research in the field. The ILO held an informal gathering of leading researchers in the fields of economics, anthropology, sociology and demography and this volume represents a unique and practically-orientated collection, offering valuable insights into contemporary perspectives on women’s studies and population dynamics.

For all societies, the common denominator of gender is female subordination. For women of the Third World the effects of this position are worsened by economic crisis, the legacy of colonialism, as well as patriarchal attitudes and economic crises. Feminist critique has introduced the gender factor to development theory, arguing that the equal distribution of the benefits of economic development can only be achieved through a radical restructuring of the process of development. This important new book reviews both policy and practice in Latin America, Africa and Asia and raises thought-provoking questions concerning the role of development planning and the empowerment of women.

Until the early to mid-1970s, social scientists in the fields of population and development were largely going their own ways. Demographers relied almost exclusively on demographic transition theory as their para digm for understanding the role of development in population change and fertility decline. Conversely, most development economists and other specialists were certainly aware of the constraints placed upon development objectives by population growth. However, the main de velopment theories paid little attention to population and the implica tions of population growth for development. Indeed it was not until after the World Population Conference in Bucharest in 1974 that the interaction of population and development became a serious and pur posive theme for social scientific study. Accordingly, since about the mid-1970s, an extensive literature in the field of population and develop ment has been generated. And in 1975, under the auspices of The Popu lation Council, the journal Population and Development Review was found ed, a journal which in the past decade has developed into the premier publication in the world for work in this area. But our understanding of development as it refers to change in Third World countries remained fragmented. Moreover, our understanding of the linkages and interac tions between population and development was very limited. It is in this regard that Ozzie Simmons's Perspectives on Development and Population Growth in the Third World will certainly have an impact.

This publication presents statistics and analysis on the status of women and men in the world, highlighting the current situation and changes over time. It is the sixth in a series published since the World Conference on Women in 1995. It emphasizes that progress towards the goal of gender equality has been made in most areas of concern, although uneven and at low pace. Through a life cycle approach, it reveals the challenges and opportunities faced by women at different stages of life and based on where they reside. Trajectories of women and men are highlighted in the statistical findings of the analysis undertaken on population and families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty.