Logo

Noted economist Bina Agarwal provides gender perspectives on a wide range of academic and policy issues of current importance in this three-volume set of essays written by her over the last three decades. Combining diverse methodologies and an interdisciplinary approach, this collection brings together in one place the author’s pioneering work in the areas of agriculture, environment, and property rights. These peer-reviewed essays challenge standard economic analysis and assumptions, unraveling the linkages between gender inequality, social exclusion, property and development.

Contents: Volume I: Preface. Introduction.1. Women and technological change in agriculture: the Asian and African experience. 2. Agricultural mechanisation and labour use: a disaggregated approach. 3. Rural women and the high yielding variety rice technology in India. 4. Women, poverty, and agricultural growth in India. 5. Work participation of rural women in the third world: some data and conceptual biases. 6. The diffusion of rural innovations: some analytical issues and the case of wood-burning stoves. 7. Social security and the family: coping with seasonality and calamity in rural India. 8. Rethinking agricultural production collectivities. 9. Food crises and gender inequality. Index.

Volume II: Preface. Introduction. 1. Gender and command over property: a critical gap in economic analysis and policy in south Asia. 2. Gender and legal rights in agricultural land in India. 3. Widows versus daughters or widows as daughters? Property, land and economic security in rural India. 4. ‘Bargaining’ and gender relations: within and beyond the household. 5. ‘The Family’ in public policy: fallacious assumptions and gender implications. 6. Toward freedom from domestic violence: the neglected obvious. 7. ‘Bargaining’, gender equality, and legal change: the case of India’s inheritance laws. 8. Gender, resistance, and land: interlinked struggles over resources and meanings in south Asia. 9. Gender and land rights revisited: exploring new prospects via the state, family and market. 10. The idea of gender equality: from legislative vision to everyday family practice. Index.

Volume III: Preface. Introduction. 1. The gender and environment debate: lessons from India. 2. Environmental management, equity and ecofeminism: debating India’s experience. 3. Conceptualising environmental collective action: why gender matters. 4. Gender, environment and poverty interlinks: regional variations and temporal shifts in rural India: 1971–1991. 5. Participatory exclusions, community forestry, and gender: an analysis for South Asia and a conceptual framework. 6. Gender inequality, cooperation, and environmental sustainability . 7. Does Women’s proportional strength affect their participation? governing local forests in South Asia. 8. Rule making in community forestry institutions: the difference women make. 9. Gender and forest conservation: the impact of women’s participation in community forest governance. Afterword challenging mainstream economics: some reflections. Index.