WOMEN DEVELOPMENT WORKERS
Implementing Rural Credit Programmes in Bangladesh
by
Anne Marie Goetz

One of the biggest obstacles to promoting women's rights in development is the resistance of middle- and lower-level development workers to gender equality. Yet, very little is known about this facet of the development process or about the practical ways in which development agents can either promote or subvert gender equality goals. Anne Marie Goetz tackles this important subject through a study of development workers in their interactions with poor women in Bangladesh.
Using original empirical research, Dr Goetz compares the experiences and attitudes of women and men development agents in several major micro-finance programmes delivering credit to poor rural women. One of the book's findings is that women development workers are often more critical than their male colleagues of prevailing gender relations and are willing to engage with poor women on issues such as domestic violence, reproductive health, children's well-being, and property rights. By displaying this sensitivity to women's social and economic constraints, women development agents can be an important resource for the empowerment of women.
The book elaborates an approach to institutional capacity building in development to show how accountability to women can be developed in both state and non-governmental development organisations. It should attract a wide audience among students and scholars of development studies, gender studies, politics, sociology, public administration, governance, and organisational studies. It will also be of interest to NGOs, development activists and donor agencies.
Anne Marie Goetz is a Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton. Prior to this, she worked with the UNDP in Africa. Dr Goetz is currently researching innovative grassroots efforts to improve the accountability, of local government in India. She has previously published two books: an edited volume, Getting Institutions Right for Women in Development, and a co-authored volume, Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements.

ISBN: 984 05 1610 8, 2001, 444pp, 220 x 140mm, Hb