The article “The Role of Women’s Organizations and Groups in Community Development: A Case Study of Bolivia” has been written by Jane Benton in 1993 (Benton) extracted from the book “Different Places, Different Voices Gender and development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America”.
Jane Benton has been involved in the analysis of the situations arising in Bolivian, Agrarian regions and he has ascended a number of works related to such regions that are not easily accessible. Reviews from different sources including the Mountain Research and Development and the Geographical Journal indicate that Jane has good penetration in the Bolivian issues and his perspective is updated with respect to the gaps and efforts that are being made for the development of women and culture.
In this article, Jane explains about the efforts that are being made in order to bring the cultural development and to address the women’s role in the community. He develops his article basing on a research project in 1987 for investigation of the change and development of the lives of the women living in Lake Titicaca region. The article touches step by step the scenario that is prevailing and the development with respect to the non-Governmental Organizations that are emerging and struggling for the cultural development more importantly, women development in the region.
The article explains that the contribution made by the non-Governmental NGOs is significant in community development due to the non-bureaucratic and small scale programs. Several NGOs have emerged in the region working for the development of the society as a whole, especially after the drought of 1982-83 when bodies like UNICEF and CARE started to send their representatives and NGOs to Bolivia to serve and strive to deal with a bunch of crisis including poverty, hunger, education and gender discrimination. According to the Center of Documentation and Information as referred by the article, the number of NGOs has exceeded 500 in the region while the Center of Information and Women Development keeps track and documentation of the NGOs working solely for women development.
Jane Benton states in his article that the role of Women in grass root organizations is growing. He refers that half of the teachers in Bolivia are women and this is due to cumulative effort of the NGOs coming from abroad as well as the local organizations emerging and led by local Women. Ahead in his article pointing a major problem as well arising in the development of the local women and communication with them as young, attractive, but slightly silly upper class women in the NGOs are dealing with the old, poor women of the rural areas that embeds a communication gap between the two entities and thus entails problem in getting the local women’s affirmation to speak out for their rights and make efforts for their well-being. Jane refers a regular feminist program on Bolivian television,
“It shows well-dressed, well educated, attractive, but slightly stupid young women from the upper classes going out to interview women who are older, uglier, poorer and more intelligent than they are about the problems women face in contemporary Bolivian Society” (Benton 235).
Despite the fact that the awareness among the women to speak out and strive for their rights to involve in major decision making and community development, Jane points that majority has been living in isolation, not really concerned about their rights and role in the community and organizations. However, women from Aymara and Quechua are improving dramatically in claiming their rights and making their roles in the society with the access to education and development programs (Kinnaird and Momsen).
The article also mentions “Housewives Committee of the Siglo XX” in which, women who are the wives of the miners have emerged and have given a tough time to the government to focus the women development and involve them in the important decision making and development of the society, backed by several processions and meetings such as “March for Life and Peace” (Kinnaird and Momsen).
Major Themes of the Article
Jane summarizes in his article after reviewing different sources including Latina America and Caribbean Women’s Collective, Center of Information and Women Development data and speeches from the First National Congress of Bolivian Peasant Women that the roles of the women in the development of the society is growing with the advent of Governmental and Non-Governmental organization realizing the problems of poverty, hunger, gender discrimination, malnutrition and political issues and this has led to the improvement of women’s lives in different areas who are now getting access to education and community. He remarks that even more efforts might be needed to overcome all problems and make women realize about their role in the community.
Article Sequence and Terms
Jane Benton starts his article with the introduction of the situation prevailing in the Bolivian region. He mentions that the NGOs have emerged during the last 20 years and working actively for the development of culture and women in the region. The article then peeps into different movements and organizations including “Housewives Committee of the Siglo XX”, Center of Documentation and Information, Latina America and Caribbean Women’s Collective and Center of Information and Women Development to give a brief about how local women and organization are working to bring the change and how awareness is spreading with the access to information and education. He concludes that this provides strong base of shifting towards more developd and improved women’s role in Bolivia.
Works Cited
Benton, Jane. “Agrarian Reform in Theory and Practice.” Ashgate. Nottingham Trent University. Web.
The Role of Women’s Organizations and Groups in Community Development: A Case Study of Bolivia. London: Routledge Pres, 1993.
Kinnaird, Vivian and Janet Henshall Momsen. Different Places, Different Voices: Gender and Development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. New York: Routledge, 1993.