Re-examining "difference" and "development" : a note on broadening the field of gender and development in Japan

It is the author’s position that the framework for WID/GAD, as academic field and practice concerned primarily with developing countries should be broadened so as to incorporate Japan’s own gender and development issues in its scope. Unlike other developed countries, activists and scholars in Japan rarely connected, as was also the case with the fields of women’s/gender studies and WID/GAD. However, this was not due to any lack of interest among Japanese women regarding the lives of women in developing countries. Rather the points of fissure were the notions of ‘difference’ and ‘development’ held by Japanese women. These analytical concepts were narrowly defined, which resulted in limited interaction between discourse on women’s issues in Japan and WID/GAD related to ‘other’ women. By re-examining these notions and looking more deeply into perceived differences in the local context of ‘development’, not only can we strategize on ‘differences’ in such a way that we draw strength from the very fact of being different, but also prevent ‘differences’ from being used as grounds for discrimination. As a whole, we could gain substantially by broadening the field of Gender and Development and, as such, it is imperative that this field be broadened with urgency as development itself changes in this ever-interconnected world

Young women's economic daily lives in rural Ethiopia

In rural Ethiopia, livelihood diversification is essential for households to be able to sustain themselves. Declining agricultural profits and a land shortage have accelerated this diversification. While the past literature has ignored young women's economic contributions in its discussions about livelihood diversification, this research indicates that the current rapid educational expansion for girls has changed their economic role in their households. This has resulted in changes in the conventional life courses of women in rural Ethiopia as they have more choices in terms of education, marriage, and the types and location of their economic activities, due to the increasing importance of young women's economic contributions to their households and their improved educational opportunities. The aim of this paper is to elucidate how the economic environment and government educational policy have affected young women's lives in terms of education, marriage, economic activities, and intra-household power relationships, especially with their parents.

トルコの都市貧困女性と結婚・扶養・愛情 -- ナームス(性的名誉)再考の手がかりとして

本稿は，イスタンブルの低所得地区における調査の結果を踏まえ，都市下層出身の女性のナームスと愛情の経験を，生計の不安定化と貧困化の文脈に位置づけつつ描き出した。ナームスとは，親族女性のセクシュアリティの保護／管理を通じて維持される個人や集団の名誉であり，愛情で結ばれた夫婦関係に基づく近代家族の理想とは潜在的に対立する。失業の増加と雇用の不安定化によって伝統的な親族の相互扶助が困難となり，生計が不安定化するなか，調査地の女性は夫によるナームスの保護を愛情として解釈するが，親族によるそれは経済的な支援などがないかぎり抑圧的と感じるようになった。他方，生計の不安定化を背景に，夫からきちんと扶養されることで愛されているという実感をもつという感覚も生まれた。このことは扶養をナームスの保護と結びつける考え方が後退したことを示唆する。以上からナームスが近代家族の理想に取り込まれるかたちで変容を遂げたことが明らかとなった。

Better than nothing? : dowry in the absence of the legal protection of women's inheritance rights

The practice of dowry is often thought to be the root cause of the unequal treatment of women in India. For women without inheritance rights, however, dowry may function as their only source of protection. Using a nationwide dataset and exploiting a natural experimental situation, this study explores the effects of dowry on women's empowerment in India, a society where women do not have inheritance rights. In such a society, dowry seems to enhance women's status in the marital household. The effects reverse when women have equal inheritance rights as their brothers. Empirical analysis suggests that the outright ban on dowry that ignores the context may not necessarily benefit women.