Esther Hertzog 
Patrons of Women [EPUB ebook] 
Literacy Projects and Gender Development in Rural Nepal

List of illustrations
Foreword
Preface
Map of Nepal
Acknowledgments
Introduction

• Development Projects – Persistence Despite Evident Failure


• 'Development’ and 'Development Projects’ – Neocolonialism behind Social Change Discourse


• Economic and Gendered Critique of Development and the World Bank


• Do Micro-finance Schemes Help the Poor and Women in Developing Countries?


• The Comeback of 'Development’ Theories – Maiava’s Study as an Example

Development and Women’s Empowerment Projects

• The Construction of Third World Women’s Underdevelopment and Subordinated Femininity


• Postmodern Feminist Theory Trapped in Development Discourse


• Ambivalence in Discussing the Futility of Gender Development Projects

Gender, Development and Literacy in Nepal

• The 'Third World’ Image of Nepali Women


• Nepali Women’s Participation in the Maoist Insurgency


• Power, Poverty and Women’s Illiteracy in Nepal

Methodology

Chapter 1. The Vulnerable Patron: Playing the Role of a Foreign Gender Consultant

• Patronage and Power-dependence Relations


• Deceitful Hierarchy – Privileged Experts and Low-ranked Paraprofessionals


• The Compelling Power and Appealing Advantages of the Consultant’s Position


• Manufacturing the Image of a Gender Expert


• A Tourist in Disguise


• The Professional Care-taker


• In the Name of Women’s Good


• Confronting Men’s Chauvinism


• Patronizing Anita


• Complying with Expectations to Patronize the Village Men


• Patronizing Male Officials


• Veiled Vulnerability


• Reluctant Patron, Vulnerable Foreigner

Chapter 2. Instrumental Patronage: Leon and Hanna

• Leon, as a Bossy Patron


• Complying with Hanna’s Dominance


• The Betrayed Patron


• Imposing Discretion for the Sake of Dominance


• Serving Tea and Power Gaps


• The Jeep – Symbolizing and Contesting Superiority


• A Eidiculed Patron


• Abusing the Defenseless Indoors


• Bribery, Drunkenness and Ethnocentrism – Cooperation and Mutual Dependence 

Chapter 3. The Phantom of Literacy Classes for Women Villagers

• Literacy and Economic Resources – On Paper


• Recommending Literacy – Fenster’s Report


• Illiteracy as a Case for Foreign Expertise – My Report


• Successful Negotiations for Stalling Time


• The Project’s Reports, The Social Order and Developers’ Compliance

Chapter 4. The Role of Economic Activities in Negotiating Consent

• Development Tourists and Collaborating Village-women


• Visiting Ekala, 'Literate Developers’ Meet 'Illiterate Villagers’


• Visiting Khumundihawa, Intruders Meet Locals


• Visiting West Baharaulia – Procedural Rituals and Cracking Stereotypes   


• Structured Social Distance and Men’s Marginality in the Village Encounters


• The Village Women’s Assertiveness


• Visiting Bhawarabari, Women Leaders and Economic Issues


• Brindban and Sikatahan, Encountering a Field-bank and Village Women’s Enterprises


• Manipulative Developers


• Ignoring the Women’s Wishes and Deluding Them


• Foreign Agencies Take Over Responsibilities of State Authorities  


• The Appeal of Women’s Organized Groups to Financial Agencies


• The Appeal of the Village Women Groups from the NGOs’ Perspective


• The Village Women – Neither Naïve nor Passively Manipulated


• Illiteracy as a Means for Establishing the Image of Women’s Collective Intellectual Failure

Chapter 5. The Seminar – The Successful Failure of the Women’s Empowerment Project

• Manufacturing a Fictitious Success – The Seminar and Thapa’s Class


• The Collaboration of the World Bank with the Nepali and Israeli Partners in Faking Progress


• The Seminar as a Platform for Exercising Men’s Power – The Use of Cultural Discourse


• Bossing Women in the Hierarchic Setting of the Irrigation Project  


• Men’s Supervision Over the Women in the Seminar


• No Books for the Seminar – Men’s Stalling and Women’s Anxiety  


• The Seminar – Degrading and Disempowering Women

Chapter 6. Gender and the Phantom Budget

• A Women’s Budget in a Male Dominated Context


• A Flexible Budget and Feminine Compliance


• Gender Consultants Accommodating to the Power of Men


• Stimulating Hopes, Providing Vague Promises


• Disillusioned Hopes: Gradual Unfolding of the Bluff


• Men’s Game: Power, Aggression, Devaluating Women’s Matters  


• Becoming Part of the System: A Coopted Feminist


• Manipulating Facts and Figures


• Feminine Coping with Confusing Messages and Stalling Tactics


• Unveiling the Truth: Women’s 'Peanuts’ Money for Men’s Bonuses


• No Budget for Women’s Activities

References
Index

Esther Hertzog is a Social Anthropologist at Beit Berl Academic College in Israel. Her research focuses on bureaucracy and gender relations. She has published Immigrants and Bureaucrats (Berghahn, 1999); Op-Ed, Feminist Social Justice in Israel (Hebrew, 2004); Life, Death and Sacrifice, Women and Family in the Holocaust (ed.) (Gefen, 2008); Perspectives on Israeli Anthropology (co-ed.) (Wayne State University Press, 2010); At Teachers’ Expense: Gender and Power in Israeli Education (co-ed.) (Hebrew, 2010); and many articles and chapters, as well as hundreds of articles in Israeli dailies. She has been involved in feminist activities for more than twenty years and founded a women’s NGO, two women’s parties, and the Women’s Parliament.