Routledge Gender Equality and Sustainable Development (Pathways to Sustainability)

For pathways to be truly sustainable and advance gender equality and the rights and capabilities of women and girls, those whose lives and well-being are at stake must be involved in leading the way. Gender Equality and Sustainable Development calls for policies, investments and initiatives in sustainable development that recognize women’s knowledge, agency and decision-making as fundamental. Four key sets of issues - work and industrial production; population and reproduction; food and agriculture, and water, sanitation and energy provide focal lenses through which these challenges are considered. Perspectives from new feminist political ecology and economy are integrated, alongside issues of rights, relations and power. The book untangles the complex interactions between different dimensions of gender relations and of sustainability, and explores how policy and activism can build synergies between them. Finally, this book demonstrates how plural pathways are possible; underpinned by different narratives about gender and sustainability, and how the choices between these are ultimately political. This timely book will be of great interest to students, scholars, practitioners and policy makers working on gender, sustainable development, development studies and ecological economics. Review "Melissa Leach has brought together an outstanding team of practitioners and researchers to produce a crisply written and engaging review of the interlinkages among gender, environment and sustainable development. The forward-looking collection both challenges unsustainable pathways and charts new ones. A must read for all those working in the field of sustainable development." –Wendy Harcourt, Associate Professor, Erasmus University, The Netherlands "This is an excellent volume, with both range and depth. It not only brings an essential gender perspective to the issue of sustainable development, but also highlights the insufficiency of recognising women’s contributions without providing them resources and voice. The lucid introduction, with its reflections on past and current debates, and on alternative pathways, is a significant contribution in itself." – Bina Agarwal, Professor of Development Economics and Environment, University of Manchester, UK "This timely book provides innovative and exciting ideas for both scholars and policy makers, challenging dominant market-led development models. It shows how pathways to achieve sustainable development and gender equality can be built through women’s collective action at the grassroots and supportive public investment and services." – Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor, University of Essex, UK "This astute group of critical observers and participants dare to question the dominant narratives of capitalism, sustainability and development as well as facile gender and development formulas. They reiterate the critical feminist question "Sustaining what for whom?" and acknowledge the political choices embodied in green technologies, green economies and the feminization of planetary care work." – Dianne Rocheleau, Professor of Geography, Clark University About the Author Melissa Leach is the Director of the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. Between 2006 and 2014 she directed the ESRC STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre.