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Introduction to Gender Studies in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Reader

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In the last thirty years, the research and discussion on women and gender studies
in Africa has grown in diverse directions. We have moved from little or no studies
on women to now departments of women and gender studies, centers for women
and gender studies and in some countries, at the federal level, a ministry of women
affairs. One way to look at gender studies is the way gender has been constructed,
represented and enforced. For example, has the roles of both boys and girls beginning
in the home, school, family and the workplace from traditional through colonial to
post – colonial period changed? How have men and women been represented in
literature, history texts, the media from pre-colonial to post-colonial era etc? How
are expectations and roles ascribed to either sex been enforced? Another focus
in the discussion and study of gender has been on the empowerment of women,
the struggle for women to have a voice and to be heard and how to mitigate the
strictures and traditions that perpetually work to keep women down. The issues of
power, reproductive rights and body politics, violence against women in all its forms
including rape, sex slavery, female gender mutilation, health policy and disparities,
education for women and women and poverty reduction etc have also been fertile
areas of study. African feminists address the place of women in society and
according to Arndt (2002), African women and men “suffer not only from sexism
and patriarchal social structures, but are also victims of racism, neo-colonialism,
cultural imperialism, religious fundamentalism, socio-economic mechanisms of
oppression and dictatorial and/or corrupt systems” (p. 73). This introduction sets
out to discuss the conditions that have given rise to the growth of women studies
programs in Africa, some of the programs in the universities and how this book fits
into the current research and studies in women and g ender studies.

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Publisher

London : ., 2016

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

978-94-6300-558-6

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NONE

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Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

James Etim

Other Information

Cataloger

Kholif Basri

Source

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6300-558-6

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