Women and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Women and Development - Essay ExampleThese womens groups are formed for more different reasons, be these purely social (through womens practical gendered interests, to arrange day vexation for children in communities directly affected by war, for example), economic (i.e., organizing labor teams when men are away from the home, fighting, for example, or arranging microfinance initiatives to develop their communities, for example) or more semipolitical (i.e., strategic gendered interests, as in Uganda, where womens groups pressurized parliament to effect the largest female political representation in the whole of Africa).These different womens groups, aside from being formed for many different reasons, are, as we shall see, run differently and aim for different solutions, dependent on the particular set of problems present in the particular country downstairs study. The following sections will look, through an analysis of ten different academic research papers (as listed in the Ref erences section), at specific cases of different political situations in different countries, and will analyze how women and womens groups have been formed in these situations, and how they have responded to these situations.As a As a general background to this paper, it should be renowned that, as discussed in the Introduction to Part III of the 1997 book, Womens Voices, Womens Power Dialogues of Resistance from East Africa, published by Broadview Press, much of African culture is rooted in the traditions of the past, with mens dominance over women explained, and justified, by reference to historical tradition and to cultural traditions for example, in Marangoli, men are classed as the decision-makers, with men having rights of authority and causation over women, as defined in their ideology. That womens groups arise within this historical (traditional) context, is a testament to the power of women, and their ingenuity in the face of severe distress and tragedy. Unfortunately, i n many African countries, such as Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda or South Africa, the politicization of differences has often led to civil war or violent conflict, based on ethnic, racial, religious and other differences (Tripp, 2000). In countries such as these, for example, in Uganda, womens movements have arisen, which have conceptualized the relationship between gender and race/ethnicity/religion, in order to sully such differences, to try to minimize the resulting violence (Tripp, 2000). Womens movements are thought to be a significant force, in African countries, in terms of depoliticizing difference and clear-cut for the common ground in situations where the politicization of difference has led to violence for example, since the Rwandan genocidal tragedy, womens movements in that country have been instrumental in initializing contact between Tutsis and Hutus (Tripp, 2000). Even though women were not active participants in the genocide, the politicization of ethnicity and the orchest ration of genocide and rape inflicted against the Tutsi, as well as the retributions for these events have left powerful resentments and strongly painful memories (Tripp,