ABSTRACT
Expanding women’s access to resources, information, skills, and power requires better integration of women into the formal institutions of their society. Hence, effective linkages between formal and informal organizations must be created. As visible links between formal and informal spheres, women’s leaders who are recognized, but informal, present an attractive point for development intervention. Women’s patrons, ritual healers, or religious functionaries can, it would seem, become brokers of information, facilitating access to goods and services for the individual women in their respective networks. By contrast, where informal leaders operate as women’s public representatives and have embarked on active rather than purely defensive strategies, the possibilities for increasing their formal responsibilities may be greater. The greater visibility of leaders of active informal associations has masked these limitations on their leadership. Developmental change proceeds not just through the introduction of new resources, but equally through the transfer of new knowledge and skills.
