Bureaucracy and Rural Women

Résumé du livre

Many Malawian civil servants will readily admit that women in many cases are responsible for most work related to food production and that they are vital to the rural economy. Yet by the time government programs emerge, and are executed, they generally reflect a far more limited evaluation of the role of women, as homemakers. This paper provides documentary evidence of the restrictive nature of these policies, and then sets out to suggest explanations for this, giving primary attention to bureaucratic attitudes and perceptions. It notes, for example, the paucity of women in policy-making positions, "patriarchal" attitudes (and some of the ways they are justified) among male civil servants, and the effects on rural women of negative official attitudes towards "non-progressive" peasant farmers in general.