Fiona Leach

Gender violence in schools in the developing world

This paper explores gender violence in schools in what is commonly known as the ‘developing world’ through a review of recent research written in English. Violence in the school setting has only recently emerged as a widespread and serious phenomenon in these countries, with the consequence that our knowledge and understanding of it is embryonic; much of it remains invisible or unrecognized. Informed by research from elsewhere, we use theories of gender/sexual relations to provide a more coherent understanding of the issues, to point to absences and open up spaces for further research with the potential to contribute to strategies through which it might be addressed. We start by clarifying the purposes and the broad position adopted in writing this paper. Then, we trace the conceptual connections between gender/sexual relations and gender violence in schools, acknowledging the importance of locating understanding of the phenomena within the context of the school’s culture, its structures and processes. We organize the review using two overlapping categories: implicit gender violence, which relates to the everyday institutional structures and practices, and explicit gender violence, which relates to more overtly sexualized encounters. Both categories cover gender violence perpetrated by students on other students, by teachers on students, and by students on teachers. In the final section, the theoretical connections (and distinctions) generated by the research allow for a critical overview of the strategies that have been used to address the problem to date.

Microfinance and women's empowerment: A lesson from India

This article describes an NGO project intended to empower scheduled caste women working in the silk-reeling industry in India through the provision of microfinance. It documents the impact that the project had on their economic and social status over a period of time and highlights the negative consequences of excluding male relatives from playing any meaningful role. It suggests ways in which the project might have been made more male inclusive while still empowering women. At the same time, it acknowledges that even if the mens hostility to the project had been overcome, the womens micro enterprises were unlikely to have been viable commercially. This is because the project insisted that the women operate as a group in what was a high-risk area of economic activity, with no clear strategy as to how their work could be sustained.

Gender violence in schools: taking the 'girls-as-victims' discourse forward

This paper draws attention to the gendered nature of violence in schools. Recent recognition that schools can be violent places has tended to ignore the fact that many such acts originate in unequal and antagonistic gender relations, which are tolerated and ‘normalised’ by everyday school structures and processes. After examining some key concepts and definitions, we provide a brief overview of the scope and various manifestations of gender violence in schools, noting that most research to date has focused on girls as victims of gender violence within a heterosexual context and ignores other forms such as homophobic and girl-on-girl violence. We then move on to look at a few interventions designed to address gender violence in schools in the developing world and end by highlighting the need for more research and improved understanding of the problem and how it can be addressed.

Practising Gender Analysis in Education

Tools and frameworks for gender-sensitive analysis have long been used in development contexts. They can help to clarify issues of gender bias, discrimination, and inequality, and to identify possible strategies for change. This book presents a number of established gender analysis frameworks and suggests modifications to suit educational settings, highlighting strengths and limitations and using case studies drawn from education.

Women in the informal sector

This article reviews the extent to which the educational system has acknowledged the importance to women of the informal sector of the economy, and the extent to which it has sought to prepare them for employment or self-employment within it. It assesses the record of both formal and non-formal education in providing women with the necessary skills to compete with men for employment, and concludes that both have generally failed to assist women to obtain skilled, well paid, and secure jobs, leaving them in overwhelming numbers in subsistence-level activities in the informal sector. Within the non-formal approach to education, the article examines training in income-generating projects, which are a major conduit for assistance to poor women in developing countries. Some recommendations for improved strategies of education and training provision are presented. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development with Women.

African girls, nineteenth‐century mission education and the patriarchal imperative

This paper draws on Anglican mission archive material to uncover the extent to which girls’ schooling in early nineteenth‐century West Africa developed as a response to male interests and perceived male needs. The founding of the colony of Sierra Leone in 1787 as a home for freed slaves followed by the arrival of Protestant missionaries in 1804 offers a laboratory type environment to trace the development of girls’ formal schooling in Africa. In particular, the missionaries understood the importance of educating women if Christianity was to prosper on the continent. Girls were to be educated to take their place in the new Christian monogamous family, to provide moral and practical support for men, and to bring up their children in the new faith. They were to be taught separately from boys where possible, by female teachers and with a differentiated curriculum dominated by sewing. Educational opportunities were expanded only insofar as women needed to provide fitting and accomplished marriage companions for educated men seeking to advance their careers in the new meritocratic society.

Counterpart personnel: A review of the literature with implications for education and development

Abstract Despite the large sums spent annually by donors on the provision of project-based expertise and training, surprisingly little attention has been paid in the Technical Cooperation literature to the importance of the roles and relationships that develop between individuals on projects, and in particular their impact on project implementation. This is true of projects across all development sectors. However, the human dimension of project work becomes especially important when institution-building and the development of human capacity are involved. This is the case with much education-based Technical Cooperation. This paper offers a cross-sectoral review of the literature on counterpart personnel, with the aim of drawing some major implications for the implementation of education projects.

Resisting Conformity: Anglican Mission Women and the Schooling of Girls in Early Nineteenth-Century West Africa.

The origins of modern schooling in early nineteenth-century Africa have been poorly researched. Moreover, histories of education in Africa have focused largely on the education of boys. Little attention has been paid to girls’ schooling or to the missionary women who sought to construct a new feminine Christian identity for African girls. In the absence of personal accounts of African girls’ schooling from that period, this paper draws on a slim body of 71 letters written by women and girls associated with one British mission society in Sierra Leone between 1804 and 1826 to suggest a fluid and at times contradictory construction of gender and racial identity, which sits at odds with the ideology of domestic femininity that the missionaries sought to impart through girls’ schooling. The handful of letters written by African women and girls also casts doubt on the assumed subservience of black subjects to white officialdom.