This IDS Bulletin is entirely devoted to a report on IDS Conference 133: The Continuing Subordination of Women in the Development Process, and to some of the papers given at that conference, which was held at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), 17–22 September 1978.
One of the objectives of the conference was to allow the theoretical concepts developed by the IDS Subordination of Women Workshop (SOW) to be critically evaluated by people working in the same
field, as well as to provide a forum at which Third World women’s own work could be discussed.
Since the subject of women and development covers such a wide range of issues, it was decided early on to limit our discussions to four main topics: the role of women in production and the changes in these roles; the role of women in reproduction (both biological and social) and the changes noted in these roles; the activities of women to further their own development; and the effects of socialist development policies on women’s emancipation.
Each participant was asked to prepare a paper on an aspect of one of these broad topics. In all some 67 papers were offered and discussed in three plenary and 18 workshop sessions.