Body politics and women citizens

This volume presents empirical case studies of women's experiences of working for their livelihoods and of how they craft their everyday lives as wives, mothers and citizens. They do so in the shadow of the global market and neo-traditional and religious movements which resist change in the direction of gender equality. Phenomena such as polygamy and female genital mytilation are maintained or revived within modern African society. The perspective of body politics reveals a growing concern about the constraints on women claiming their rights, and points to the need to identify new methods to support women's full and active citizenship.