ABSTRACT
The issue of women in development is not, as a member of the Jackson Committee quipped to Australian Development Assistance Bureau staff at the launching of the Jackson Report, a ‘fashion’ in development thinking. It is a logical outcome of individuals and movements working to bring it to the attention of policy-makers. The fact that 60 - 80 per cent of agricultural workers in Africa are women should have started people asking questions about women’s work in this vital sphere, for a long-term solution to Africa’s food problem will obviously have to involve women at every level. The Jackson Committee, quite rightly, puts emphasis on education as an important prerequisite for women’s advancement in any country of the world. One of the real problems faced by those who are working to expand women’s role as participants and beneficiaries of development is that many of the obstacles faced by women in developing countries cannot be solved by aid projects.
