Book Rewews 89
This summary in the Haworth Press announcement says it all. David Freeman,
whilst focusing on multigenerational family therapy, uses family history to shed
light on the present, and particularly the resources the family has for coping in the
future. Whilst set in the North American context, the approach appears to have the
theoretical principles which can straddle different cultures and contexts.
The author utilises the extended family and highlights its importance in
supporting and influencing beliefs and value systems held by individuals, which
are often carried over into family life, aspects which are of particular importance
to those of us working in the African context.
He shows how individual family members bring their own histories from their
families of origin to synthesise with the next generation in a process of dynamic
interaction.
Freeman also demonstrates how events can be experienced and interpreted
quite differently by individuals, dyads and groups, often leading to complex effects
andbeliefs in families. In this way he highlights the challenge for the therapist who
must understand these different realities and yet facilitate a process of positive
change which affects all concerned.
I fOWldthis book enthralling, practical, illuminating and challenging, and I can
thoroughly recommend it to all those involved in working with families.
Reviewed by C Farrell, Director, CONNECf, Zimbabwe Institute of Systemic
Therapy, Harare.
Women and Development in the Third World, by Janet Henshall Momsen,
Routledge 1991, edited by John Bale and David Drakakis Smith, 115 pp,ISBN:
0-415-01695-9. No price given.
"Women are agents of change and not just victims and maJdng investment in
women a development priority will make a critical contribution to development" •
writes Janet Henshall Momsen, a senior lecturer in Geography at the University of
Newcastle.
This book is one of a series on development and underdevelopment In an effort
to highlight the role and contributions of women in economic growth the writer
illustrates by way of case-studies. The book establishes beyond doubt that women
in the Third World do both productive and reproductive work. They work longer
hours than men, yet they earn 10% of the world' s income and own 1% of the fam ily
property, produce almost half the world's population and yet there are fewer girls
in schools.
90 Book Reviews
There is a clear-cut division of labour by sex and according to the writer this is
as a resultof colonialism, sexual segregation, capitalism and modemisation, where
the traditional economies have been overtaken by the modem sector. These
traditional economic activities were (and still are) done by women, and consequently
new and better-paid jobs go to men, yet the income so derived is not spend on the
family.
Discontent is expressed in the book that theUniled Nations Third World Decade
on Development has come to an end without having done anything to change the
attitudes of institutionalised male dominance. Janet Henshall Momsen
acknowledges that there is an awareness of the neoo to consider women when
planning for development. She highlights approaches to women and development
and suggests use of the integrated approach which is human-centred.
All societies have division of labour by sex, although this varies from country
to country. There are gender roles within a household, but an integration of the
women's reproductive and productive work should be realised within the private
sphere of the home and public spheres in order for people to appreciate women's
roles in development. Productivity has been equated with the cash economy,
thereby ignoring women's economic contributions. Women are involved in smallscale
agriculture and marketing, whilst men migrate to towns where the majority
are found in areas of high economic value, where they work as producers.
Over-emphasis is made on female marginalisation which is due to historical,
cultural and ideological factors. However, the commonly cited attributes of female
marginalisation are the physical weakness of women, women's concentration on
the periphery, that is on the informal sector-type jobs, the idea of making jobs
feminine thereby according them a low status, eg nursing and teaching, economic
inequality, that is occupational differentiation, and lack of fringe benefits and job
security on work considered as women's.
Stude~ts of social work and sociology would quest for more answers to this
gen~e.r~Ifferentiation and the writer briefly discusses the theoretical explanations
of dlVISIOnof labour by sex. She indicates that there is the Neo-Oassical Economic
Theory which maintains that workers are paid according to productivity. This
theory .emphasises the disadvantaged position of women, characterised by poor
education,less physical strength, lack of training and high turn-over. This line of
thought pre-supposes that differences can be ironed out by way of exposing women
to education which is intended to improve them. It assumes that there is an equal
acc~ to employment, yet ignores gender-based segregation prevalent in most
SOCieties.
The writer also discusses the Labour Market Theory which assumes that the
labour market is institutionally controlled through formal and informal types of
employment As a result women are seen to be more in the informal sector due in
part to their high turnover and unreliability.
Book Reviews 91
The Feminist Theory, on the other hand, discusses the position of women in
ternlS of social and cultural factors that restrict women's access to the labour
market: "A woman' splace is in the kitchen" . The argument is that the reproductive
and productive roles of women are inseparable. It is only when men perceive
women as equals that a balance can be rea1ised. But while men expect women in
employment to fall back on their gender-based social expectations, and continue
treating women as sexual objects, then this still remains an issue.
Janet Henshall Momsen discusses and presents in the book ten case studies with
personalised stories of women's lives and how they have developed coping
strategies in the context of the Third World. She has established that women are
central to development; they control most of the non-money market economy
through bearing and raising children; they provide labour for the household;
provide maintenance and subsistence agricul lure. They also contribute to both the
formal and informal sector of the economy.
She concludes the book by challenging policy makers by calling for increased
opportunities for women so that they can become economically independent.
I recommend the book to students of social work for it would give them an
insightinto some of the problems that society today faces, and gender di fferentiation
is just but one of them. The book is very informative, educative, interesting and
attempts to clarify some of the myths that arise because of women's issues; perhaps
the question remains as to whether there should be positive discrimination so as
to accord women an equal status. Definitely the problem cannot be isolated to the
ThirdWorld. It is a global issue and therefore needs a united (global) confrontation.
Reviewed by Agatha Tsitsi Dodo, National Association of Non-Governmental
Ogranisations (NANGO), Harare.
The Politics of Africa's Economic Recovery, Richard Sandbrook. Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1993, ISBN: 0-521-41543-8 (hIb), 0-521-42563-8
(p!b), 27,95 pounds (bib), 10,95 pounds (p!b).
Sandbrook raises the most perplexing and unseuled question of concern to the
student of African politics: which is the appropriate development strategy for
Africa? Since independence, there has been no agreement on a suitable model of
development, hence two predominant ideologies of development were adopted:
state-capitalism and (African) socialism. The issue of appropriate development
strategy is particularly important because of the current economic crisis in Africa
and the need for a model that would overcome the crisis to promote sustainable
development Sandbrook's work is a vivid portrayal of economic hardship in sub-
Saharan Africa.