Kalpana Wilson
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Agency
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This chapter traces the notion of 'agency' through a series of transformations: from its roots in the dominant ideology of early European capitalism and imperialism, through its appropriation by feminists in countering constructions of gender and race which denied women's ability to act, to the contemporary re-appropriation of women's 'agency' into neoliberal discourses of development. Moving beyond notions of 'equality' with men, socialist feminists sought to understand agency in relation to power and ideology, exploring the nature of the material structures of patriarchy and the construction of masculinity and femininity in the context of a commitment to social transformation. It can be argued that there is a basic contradiction in the notions of agency and 'empowerment' as they are applied within the context of development. On the one hand, empowerment is supposed to be achieved by women themselves through the exercise of agency.

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