Communicating Gender and Advocating Accountability in Global Development

Women are more central than ever before in visions of global development. So then why has the development industry failed to resolve gender gaps on a global scale? In this book, limitations of development are explored through research on micro-enterprise programs in South Asia, celebrity funding of girls' schools in Africa and Afghanistan, and population programs and conferences in Egypt. Concerns are raised with the overly narrow articulation of women's empowerment at the expense of gender dynamics, privileging of communication as a technological tool rather than as discourse or global industry, and assertion of neoliberal development without attention to political-economic global contexts. Critical inquiry can contribute to advocacy by subverting accountability to meet the demands of global social justice.

Karin Gwinn Wilkins has a PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania and is John P. McGovern Regents Professor in Health and Medical Science Communication and Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Her work addresses scholarship in the fields of development and social change, health communication, and global communication.