Male bias in the development process. Diane Elson (ed.) Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1991, 215 pp.
| Date | 01 February 1993 |
| Author | Sarah C. White |
| Published date | 01 February 1993 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130111 |
84
Book
Reviews
those concerned with such reform efforts is the dearth of relevant data pertaining to these
countries. Information on such basic matters, for example, as civil service pay, grading and
employment procedures have not been available since publication in 1966 of the United
Nations’
Handbook
of
Civil Service
Laws
and Practices.
Derek Robinson’s excellent, detailed
study of these subjects is therefore greatly to be welcomed.
The study provides a compendium
of
information
on
pay and employment practices over
the period 1975-1985 in the public services of 22 African countries
-
Algeria, Angola, Benin,
Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mor-
occo, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, United Republic
of
Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia,
Zaire and Zimbabwe. The data were obtained mainly from the results of a questionnaire-survey
sent out to all these countries. The problems of uneven coverage, gaps, inaccuracies and
so
on from such a procedure are candidly acknowledged. Even
so,
similarities and differences
in employment practices in these various countries are clearly brought out as regards numbers
employed, grading systems, recruitment and promotion, salary systems and structures,
increments, processes of salary determination, allowances, pay comparabilities, pensions and
atypical employees. But this is not only a compendium. A number of important findings
emerging from the data are also analysed and discussed, e.g. the dramatic fall in wages in
most countries, the compression of wage differentials, demoralization of civil servants, and
the general ‘lowering of efficiency in the civil service’ (p. 218). The author concludes that
coordinated proposals covering all aspects of civil service employment are needed to deal
with what is truly a crisis within African states.
DAVID
POTTER
The
Open
University
MALE BIAS IN THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Diane
Elson
(ed.)
Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 1991,215 pp.
The publication of
Male Bias in the
Development
Process
is a further sign
of
the new strength
growing in the field
of
gender and development. After a number of path-breaking studies
which brought women into the development agenda, the new paradigm was subjected to
the attacks which have themselves become paradigmatic: for excessive duality; assumptions
of homogeneity within the dualisms; neglect of the connections between them. This highlighted
the need to focus on gender, the social constitution of male and female and the relations
between them, rather than simply ‘women’, in and by themselves.
This is the challenge which
Male Bias
ably takes up. The book has four great strengths.
First, the notion of male bias is easy to understand, empirically testable, and in principle
can be rectified. It
is
upfront and risky (it may be disproved) and
so
a strong focus
for
analysis and action. Second, the problematic of male bias is clearly pursued through case
study chapters. This gives the book an important coherence. Together, the chapters effectively
make the case for male bias as
a
focus; they draw out a number of different ways in which
male bias operates; and their collection in a single volume adds weight to each of the chapters
taken individually. Third, the case studies demonstrate that gender relations cannot be under-
stood in isolation, as they site their analyses within the broader economic, historical, social
and policy contexts. Fourth, there is explicit recognition of diversity and flexibility in the
outcomes of development policies and the ways that these interact with gender relations.
The case studies draw on experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America, both rural and
urban, involving agriculture, trade and industrial employment. They trace male bias in the
formulation, outcomes and evaluation of policies. They consider how it figures in population
programmes; the small-scale organization of production; and career patterns, They also point
out how male bias affects not just what is done, but what is seen to be done, as it features
in economic models such as the divide between formal and informal sectors; structural adjust-
ment programmes; and assessments of the significance of export-oriented industries. A final
chapter considers strategies for combatting male bias. On the whole, the studies concentrate
on the business of getting a living rather than on the management of sexuality and raising
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