ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a three-part expedition through time, theory, and space. It begins by tracing the quarter century of intertwined gender and economic history since 1970. This period witnessed the rise and evolution of the field of women in development (WID), a great increase in the proportion of income-earning women around the globe, and sweeping changes in the world: its economy, its ecology, its political geography, and its population patterns. The chapter describes the relationship between women and income and argues that women's control of economic resources, especially income, is the most important predictor of the degree of gender equality. It discusses the evolving field of women/gender and development, which has come to focus less on women's victimization by development policies and world economic trends and more on women's rising contributions to the economy and welfare at micro- and macrolevels.
