Rural Women's Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy

A Critical Perspective on Development

Gisele Maynard-Tucker

Based on twenty-five years of fieldwork, Rural Women’s Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy: A Critical Perspective on Development examines rural women’s behaviors towards health in several developing countries. These women are confronted with many factors: gender inequalities, violence from partners, and lack of economic independence. The book also gives insight into the general weakness of the health systems in place and questions the progress of numerous international conferences ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) and MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) along with WHO (The World Health Organization) Frame Work for Action, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) all supporting women’s empowerment as related to violence, education, and reproductive health.

Chapters provide numerous concrete examples and vignettes describing constraints on women in a variety of countries related to their intimate lives and their struggle between traditional and modern medicine. Widely practiced clandestine sex work is a challenge to HIV/AIDS programs. The book examines the women who choose clandestine sex work and their clients’ sexual behavior and attitudes toward prostitution and HIV prevention. It also explores the negotiations between promiscuous, migratory men, and the ties of sexuality and fertility that women use to tie them to a male partner. The book argues for effective delivery of healthcare programs accompanied by multi-lateral responses from the civil society, governments, donors and agencies. Rural Women’s Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy is a useful resource scholars, as well as consultants and staff working in development agencies and public health.

Lexington Books

Pages: 158 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-7391-9232-0 • Hardback • December 2014 • $113.00 • (£87.00)

978-1-4985-0790-5 • Paperback • May 2016 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-0-7391-9233-7 • eBook • December 2014 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Women's Studies, Social Science / Abortion & Birth Control, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural

Rural Women's Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy

A Critical Perspective on Development

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Based on twenty-five years of fieldwork, Rural Women’s Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy: A Critical Perspective on Development examines rural women’s behaviors towards health in several developing countries. These women are confronted with many factors: gender inequalities, violence from partners, and lack of economic independence. The book also gives insight into the general weakness of the health systems in place and questions the progress of numerous international conferences ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development) and MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) along with WHO (The World Health Organization) Frame Work for Action, UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) and CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) all supporting women’s empowerment as related to violence, education, and reproductive health.

Chapters provide numerous concrete examples and vignettes describing constraints on women in a variety of countries related to their intimate lives and their struggle between traditional and modern medicine. Widely practiced clandestine sex work is a challenge to HIV/AIDS programs. The book examines the women who choose clandestine sex work and their clients’ sexual behavior and attitudes toward prostitution and HIV prevention. It also explores the negotiations between promiscuous, migratory men, and the ties of sexuality and fertility that women use to tie them to a male partner. The book argues for effective delivery of healthcare programs accompanied by multi-lateral responses from the civil society, governments, donors and agencies. Rural Women’s Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Illiteracy is a useful resource scholars, as well as consultants and staff working in development agencies and public health.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 158 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-0-7391-9232-0 • Hardback • December 2014 • $113.00 • (£87.00)

978-1-4985-0790-5 • Paperback • May 2016 • $54.99 • (£42.00)

978-0-7391-9233-7 • eBook • December 2014 • $52.00 • (£40.00)

Subjects: Social Science / Women's Studies, Social Science / Abortion & Birth Control, Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural

Author

Gisele Maynard-Tucker is research scholar at the Center for the Study of Women at University of California, Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: International Development and Rural Health
Chapter 2: Peru: First Experience in the Field
Chapter 3: Haiti: The Challenge
Chapter 4: Africa: Women’s Conditions
Chapter 5: Indonesia and Morocco: Birthing Huts and Self-Medication
Chapter 6: Madagascar, Senegal, and India: Sex Work
Chapter 7: Nepal and Madagascar: Broadening the Reach of Health
Conclusion: Lessons Learned?

Reviews

This is a readable account of a fascinating career in international health and family planning. Part memoir and part analysis, Women’s Sexuality gives us the big picture of women’s situation in poor and marginalized communities. The author takes a positive attitude in the face of difficulties that might overwhelm others, provoking the reader to ask, ‘What would I do in such situations?’ The author challenges the complacent and the corrupt to do something about female illiteracy and the ‘health illiteracy’ resulting from it. The specter of HIV/AIDS looms large, as the reader gets a close-up view of women’s struggles for survival and coping strategies that include ‘survival sex.’

— Suzanne Hanchett, Planning Alternatives for Change, LLC

This book offers a superb illustration of how anthropology and qualitative analysis may significantly enhance population and reproductive health policies.

— John May, Population Reference Bureau

At last, in one volume, Maynard-Tucker brings together her vast and valuable insights as one of the—perhaps the—most distinguished career applied anthropologists. She documents firsthand the common and persistent barriers to achieving rural women’s health throughout the world, as well as their survival strategies in the face of globalization—many of which entail unfortunate health compromises. A superb ethnographer, Maynard-Tucker practices what she preaches in the most challenging of environments and tells the authentic tales, to the benefit of us all.

— Kathy Oths, University of Alabama