accumulation,reproduction,and womens role in economic

The main contributions of Ester Boserup, who wrote "Woman's Role in Economic Development," are summarized, and a critical analysis of her approach is presented, particularly in view of recent scholarship on the subject. Boserup's work, published in 1970, represented a comprehensive and pioneer effort to provide an overview of women's role in the development process. Analysis of her contributions reveals the following: 1) an emphasis on gender as a basic factor in the division of labor, prevalent across countries and regions; 2) explanations for and analysis of a variety of factors behind the diverse patterns in rural work associated with the particular characteristics of each area--Africa, Asia, Latin America; 3) delineation of the negative effects that colonialism and the penetration of capitalism into subsistence economies often had on women; 4) emphasis on the fact that subsistence activities usually excluded in the statistics of production and income are essentially women's work; and 5) projection of the different sexual divisions of labor encountered in farming systems onto patterns of women's participation in nonagricultural activities. Despite Boserup's obvious contributions, critical analysis reveals the following major weaknesses: 1) the book is essentially empirical and descriptive and is lacking a clearly defined theoretical framework that empirical data can help elaborate; 2) Boserup takes as given a unique model of development--the model that characterizes capitalists economies; and 3) Boserup fails to present a clearcut feminist analysis of women's subordination despite her basic concern with the position of women in the development process. Each of these weaknesses is reviewed in detail. Boserup emphasized women's education as the major mechanism by which modernization would begin to work to women's advantage. Her conclusion ignores 2 crucial features that an analysis based on the concepts of accumulation and women's role in reproduction would highlight: it ignores the high incidence of unemployment among educated people in the 3rd world; and even if there were marked systemic changes, education by itself would not alter womens position in that education cannot address issues of child care and domestic work. - See more at: http://www.popline.org/node/387252#sthash.oGxmM3vP.dpuf

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