Presents a forceful argument for a more responsive approach to fertility limitation in developing countries--one that builds on women's concerns about their survival and security and strengthens women's rights. Ruth Dixon-Mueller reviews the history of the debate between feminists and the birth control movement, examines the forces affecting U.S. population policy on the domestic and international fronts, and documents the relationship between women's reproductive rights and their rights in other areas. --amazon.com
Population Policy Reconsidered brings together a rare combination of scholars, feminists, social activists, and policy-makers across many disciplines to critically reexamine the scientific foundation of contemporary population policies. This book explores population policy dilemmas based on the perspective of ethics, women's empowerment and health, and human rights. The seventeen chapters are centered around the premise that the single-minded pursuit of demographic goals may not be the most effective means of achieving policy objectives--for such may lead to the abuse or violation of choice and human rights, especially of women. Rather, the book explores the alternative idea that population policies should focus on those ultimate aims of development that are linked to human reproduction--health, social empowerment, and human rights. If respectful of individuals, especially women, such policies are likely to promote better individual welfare and may well also result in desirable demographic outcomes.
A critique of population control narratives reproduced by international development actors in the 21st century Since the turn of the millennium, American media, scientists, and environmental activists have insisted that the global population crisis is “back”—and that the only way to avoid catastrophic climate change is to ensure women’s universal access to contraception. Did the population problem ever disappear? What is bringing it back—and why now? In On Infertile Ground, Jade S. Sasser explores how a small network of international development actors, including private donors, NGO program managers, scientists, and youth advocates, is bringing population back to the center of public environmental debate. While these narratives never disappeared, Sasser argues, histories of human rights abuses, racism, and a conservative backlash against abortion in the 1980s drove them underground—until now. Using interviews and case studies from a wide range of sites—from Silicon Valley foundation headquarters to youth advocacy trainings, the halls of Congress and an international climate change conference—Sasser demonstrates how population growth has been reframed as an urgent source of climate crisis and a unique opportunity to support women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. Although well-intentioned—promoting positive action, women’s empowerment, and moral accountability to a global community—these groups also perpetuate the same myths about the sexuality and lack of virtue and control of women and the people of global south that have been debunked for decades. Unless the development community recognizes the pervasive repackaging of failed narratives, Sasser argues, true change and development progress will not be possible. On Infertile Ground presents a unique critique of international development that blends the study of feminism, environmentalism, and activism in a groundbreaking way. It will make any development professional take a second look at the ideals driving their work.
The general assumption throughout history has been that a growing population is beneficial for societies. By the mid-1960s, however, the United States and other developed countries became convinced that population control was an absolute necessity, especially in the developing world. This absorbing study explains why population control is no longer the focus of global population policy and why reproductive rights and health have become the major focus. The book highlights the role that the US and other developed countries play in affecting global population policy, looking in particular at the stance of the George W. Bush administration since taking office. It also studies the influence of the UN as an international forum and explores how civil society questioned the ethics of population control. Global Population Policy will appeal to a wide audience, including readers in the fields of women's studies, development politics and international relations.
With a new preface, this feminist classic reveals the dangers of contemporary population-control tactics, especially for women in developing countries.
• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
India is the first country in the world to have an official programme for family planning that commenced in 1952. It has also seen a strong women’s movement to assert reproductive and contraceptive rights. This book brings to the fore several contestations and negotiations between public policy and the women’s movement in India. The comprehensive volume puts together key documents from archival records and authoritative sources, and traces the contours that have marked and defined the population policy in India as well as rights issues for women. A major intervention in the field, this book will be indispensable for scholars and researchers in public policy, public health, demography, gender studies, social policy, development studies, sociology, social justice, human rights, politics and those interested in the study of modern India.
Global population policies are under intense scrutiny as environmental and development organizations worry about the threat of overpopulation and call for stronger measures of population control. At the same time, women's organizations in both developing and industrialized countries are intensifying their attacks on the simplistic thinking of the population controllers and the quest for a technological fix on the part of the family-planning establishment. Population Policy and Women's Rights presents a forceful argument for a more responsive approach to fertility limitation in developing countries--one that builds on women's concerns about their survival and security and strengthens women's rights. Ruth Dixon-Mueller reviews the history of the debate between feminists and the birth control movement, examines the forces affecting U.S. population policy on the domestic and international fronts, and documents the relationship between women's reproductive rights and their rights in other areas. Dixon-Mueller begins by focusing on the evolution of the political positions of the women's movement and the birth control/population control movements. She examines the relationship between different aspects of women's rights and reproductive choice in developing countries. She concludes with a proposal for a woman-centered approach to reproductive policy-making, based on promoting women's rights and protecting women's sexual and reproductive health. Written from a sociological perspective, Population Policy and Women's Rights is recommended for researchers, policy-makers, and students in the fields of population, development, women's studies, and human rights.
This book uses political and socio-anthropological theory to examine the relationship between power, interest, and agency within population and family planning discourse across Africa, with particular emphasis on case studies from Tanzania.
In Marx, Women and Capitalist Social Reproduction, Martha E. Gimenez offers a distinctive perspective on social reproduction which posits that the relations of production determine the relations of social reproduction, and links the effects of class exploitation and location to forms of oppression predominantly theorised in terms of identity. Grounding her analysis on Marx’s theory and methodology, Gimenez examines the relationship between class, reproduction and the oppression of women in different contexts such as the reproduction of labour power, domestic labour, feminisation of poverty, and reproductive technologies. Because most women and men, whether members of dominant or oppressed groups, are working class, she argues that the future of feminist politics is inextricably tied to class politics and the fate of capitalism.
