ABSTRACT
This chapter makes the case for a Bourdieusian lens on the analytical and theoretical foci on gender, feminism and development. Through constructing a “development feminist habitus” (drawing on McCall, 1992, p. 852) and a “gender capital” framework (see Huppatz, 2009), it informs empirical research within the field of gender and development discourses. These concepts are applied to gender and development debates for understanding contemporary gender practices in contemporary global India, where gender equality remains a grave challenge. Emerging evidence shows that gendered, racialised and other power-laden norms are embedded in everyday habitus and fields which reproduce those norms in development discourses.
