For decades, researchers and policymakers have examined the impact of development programs on women—and evidence of sustained gender discrimination has inspired local, national, and international policy reforms. But has the empowerment movement increased women's control of resources? Has it had the desired effect on gender relations traditionally defined by patriarchal ideology and    More >

Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri argues that the explosion of violence against Iraqi women since the removal of Saddam Hussein should not have taken people by surprise. The deterioration of gender relations was in fact, as she vividly demonstrates, a direct result of a decade of international economic sanctions. Al-Jawaheri explores the gender-related impact of those sanctions in the areas of    More >

Study after study of women in the Muslim world has focused primarily on Middle Eastern societies, usually emphasizing the sexual ideology of a reified Islam. This book rounds out that view, exploring the status, roles, and contributions of Muslim women not only in the Middle East, but also in Africa and Asia, including post-Soviet Central Asia. The authors, many of them from the countries they    More >

It is old news that the conditions and policies of women's prisons are different from those of incarcerated men. Less evident, however, is how gender differences shape those policies, and how gender identity and roles shape women's adaptation and resistance to prison culture and control. Women in Prison explores how the gender-based attitudes that women bring to prison frame how they    More >

Fifteen important women writers, interviewed by critics and scholars well-acquainted with their work and thought, are the subjects of this fascinating volume. The interviews are revealing discussions of the individual writers' opinions, their backgrounds, and the people and events that influenced their personal and artistic development. Among the authors included are Maya Angelou, A.S.    More >

From Brazil to Bangladesh, Liberia to Switzerland, Malta to the Marshall Islands, more and more women are rising to the top level of political leadership. What can we learn from this?  What kinds of conditions and political institutions pave the way for a woman's ascendance to power? Are there common pathways to power? How much do family ties matter? Is political activism and important    More >

Gender disparities frequently accompany rapid socioeconomic change, as cultural traditions that protected women—even as they constrained them—collapse in the face of development reforms. This collaborative volume, involving both Asian and U.S. scholars, explores the impact of changes in women’s rights to housing and land in three socialist countries that are moving toward market    More >

Women’s Voice is a detailed study of Clarice Lispector’s Laços de família, Rosario Castellanos’s Oficio de tinieblas, Marta Lynch’s La señora Ordóñez, and Silvina Bullrich’s Mañana digo basta. In deciding to focus on these, Lindstrom chose, from a wealth of literature, the authors that she felt not only express women’s    More >

Women scientists working in small, for-profit companies are eight times more likely than their university counterparts to head a research lab. Why? Laurel Smith-Doerr reveals that, contrary to widely held assumptions, strong career opportunities for women and minorities do not depend on the formal policies and long job ladders that large, hierarchical bureaucracies provide. In fact, highly    More >

This book expands the agenda of feminist IR by considering the heterogeneity of women’s voices in the realm of world politics, as well as the challenges that this diversity poses. The authors develop a theoretical discourse that incorporates the combined notions of difference and emancipation in a discussion of the agency of women and their transformative capacity. They use a normative    More >