80 Book Reviews
and similarities to be observed between societies as disparate as Nigeria, Malaysia
and Nicaragua. I hope that the empirical data contained here can nourish some
future, more theoretical work which may produce some useful generalisations
about the
differential impact of both crises and development policies on Third World
women.
Reviewed by Amy Kaler, Chindunduma GHS, Shamva, Zimbabwe.
Women in the World Economy, United Nations International Research and
Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (lNSTRA W), prepared by
Susan Joekes, Oxford University Press, 1989 (161 pp, price not stated, ISBNO-10-
506315-5 pbk).
This ambitious book sets out to locate the position of women in the world economy
and to examine how changes in international relations over the past 40 years have
affected women in the developing world.
The book is divided into four parts, which examine women's position in
a changing world, as well as changes in trade patterns, financial market activities
and technology and their impact on women. It also looks at employment trends for
women in agriculture, industry and services.
Part four summarises the emerging trends in the international economy,
as they affect women. It incorporates an annex highlighting excerpts on women
in development from the International Development Strategy for the Third UN
Development Decade.
In a broad sense, international exchanges have been favourable to
women's economic position, the book contends. Particularly in industry, there has
been an increase in the gainful employment of women. Thus women have
advanced most, economically, in countries that have developed as successful exporters
of manufactured goods, mostly in East Asia.
But recent protectionist barriers in industrialised countries, deep international
recession and the debt crisis have brought economic devastation in some
areas of the developing world and now threaten the economic advances of women
over the past 40 years.
The book concludes that the present international economic climate is
Book Reviews 81
"fundamentally inimical to development" and points out that employment prospects,
particularly for the younger generation and for women, have fallen markedly
since 1980.
The book puts forward a number of proposals aimed at redressing these
negative trends by promoting women's economic participation, including measures
to improve women's position in these activities.!t recommends implementation
of the "Foward-Lookmg Strategies" adopted at the 1985 Nairobi conference
to mark the end of the UN Decade for Women.The breath and scope of the topic,
it is necessaril y a collection of generalisations, or pointers, rather than a conclusi ve
study of the economic advancement of women in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The book is strengthened by a historical perspective which traces how the
Great Depression of the 1930s deepened trade restrictions as developed countries
erected trade barriers to protect their fledgeling industries. The impact of the Post-
World War 11 Marshall Plan in stimulating the fastest growth of industrial output
in 80 years and creating job opportunities for women is explored.
But the work is spoilt by a number of irritating generalisations and a
reluctance to present firm conclusions or offer any kind of theory to advance the
study of women's work. Many of the more irksome assumptions are related to
women's domestic role.
In her introduction, Susan Joekes describes, convincingly, how the
introduction of capitalism led to intensification of the division of labour between
the sexes, identifying men with the productive sphere and women with the
reproductive sphere.
She notes the resurgence during the 19805 of traditional values and the
notion of the home as the "proper place" for women, even in the developed world.
But apart from noting that women's identification with domestic work leads to
their limited contribution to material progress, Joekes appears to accept as given
women's domestic role, which she qualifies as "of central value to society".
To illustrate this, one would have liked at least to see some attempt at
evaluating the economic development. But instead Joekes focuses entirely on the
more visible wage employment, which she argues, correctly, is the fIrst step
towards economic emancipation.
In discussing women's longevity, she cites "more moderate female
consumption patterns" as a factor in women's resistance to certain diseases
associated with smoking and dietary habits in more affluent societies. Without
supporting this view with statistics, she appears to subscribe to notions of women
as the "fairer" or "weaker" sex. There is no mention of how women have been
82 Book Reviews
socialised into certain behaviour patterns.
In another example of generalisation, she highlights the success of Asia
in bringing down birth rates without anywhere mentioning that in China, the most
populous Asian country, government policy under Mao Zedong forced the restriction
of births to one per couple - a highly unpopular policy with no parallels
elsewhere in Asia.
Despite such flaws, the book is a valuable attempt to chart the influence
of international economic factors on women in the developing world. In helping
to set agenda issues, it will be of particular interest for women's groups and policymakers.
Reviewed by Dede-Esi Amanor, Inter Press Service (Third World News Agency),
Harare, Zimbabwe.
Urban Low Income Housing in Zimbabwe, Christopher J. C. Mafico, Avebury,
Aldershot, England, (203 pp, ISBN 1 856282260, price £32.00).
The provision of low income housing is a problem that has confronted the
Government of Zimbabwe since independence and remains largely unresolved.
This book by Christopher Mafico is an interesting historical perspective to the
provision of urban low income housing in Zimbabwe. It is divided into eight
chapters. Mafico begins by giving a brief literature review of literature Zimbabwe's
low income housing and also by examining some perspectives. Although
he attempts to review literature on Zimbabwe's low income housing this is,
however, done very superficially as the author simply identifies previous research
without stating the conclusions of these studies.
In Chapter 2 the author examines the beginning of urban low income
housing as a consequence oCtheprocess of urbanisation. The author also examines
the measures taken by the colonial settlers to weaken African agriculture and
therefore force the Africans to migrate to urban areas in search of employment
These measures included the Hut Tax, Native locations Ordinance Act of 1906,
Land Apportionment Act of 1930, Industrial Conciliation Act 1930, Native
Registration Act of 1936 and the Vagrancy Act of 1936. The author argues that
African workers were considered temporary visitors to urban areas, who were
therefore expected to go back to their rural homes at old age or at the cessation of
employment
Consequently, the provision of housing for African workers was never
taken seriously and as the author observes "the lack of a clearly defined housing