When women have wings : feminism and development in Medellín, Colombia / Donna F. Murdock.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murdock, Donna F., 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feminism--Colombia--Medellín.

Feminism.

Women in development--Colombia--Medellín.

Women in development.

Women in community organization--Colombia--Medellín.

Women in community organization.

Non-governmental organizations--Colombia--Medellín.

Non-governmental organizations.

Women--Colombia--Medellín--Economic conditions.

Women.

Economic conditions.

Colombia--Medellín.

Physical Description:

xii, 259 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2008]

Summary:

In When Women Have Wings, Donna F. Murdock provides an insightful and detailed look at the tensions, contradictions, and positive moments apparent in a women's development project in Medellin, Colombia. Based on sixteen months of ethnographic field research in a working-class women's community center run by a local feminist NGO, this in-depth account illuminates both working- and middle-class women's perspectives on the professionalization of feminist NGOs and provides an unusual ethnographic lens on the process as it unfolds.

Using detailed descriptions of the encounters between working- and middle-class women to high-light how the women's center attempts to negotiate the pressures of feminism and professionalization, Murdock depicts the frailty and complexity of cross-class organizing and the ways that this process may be threatened by professionalized NGO styles. Poignant accounts of women's attempts to navigate these challenges amid poverty and civil war show how changing political and economic demands may ultimately compromise feminist NGOs' long-held commitment to sustainable development practice focused on grassroots empowerment. With its clear and vivid style, When Women Have Wings fills a gap for scholars of feminist development, professionalized feminist NGOs, grassroots democracy, and Latin American women's movements and will contribute much-needed insight into the everyday problems of professionalization and democratic development.

Contents:

When women have wings

Professionalizing CFL : from collective to "social company"

A little space : feminism in the women's center

Debating autonomy in the women's center

The trouble with education

Participating between the wall and the sword

Working for life

The fragile wings of hope

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [233]-256) and index.

ISBN:

9780472070350

0472070355

9780472050352

0472050354

OCLC:

187417695