From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sara Hlupekile Longwe
Sara Hlupekile Longwe
Sara Hlupekile Longwe is a consultant on gender and de-
velopment based in Lusaka, Zambia. She was the chair-
Views and controversy
person of FEMNET between 1997 and 2003.[1] She is the In 1992, Longwe successfully sued the Intercontinental
author of the Longwe Framework for Gender Analysis. Hotel when she was refused entry to a bar in the hotel
Longwe describes herself as a radical feminist activist. [2] because she was not accompanied by a male. She won
the case in the High Court of Zambia on the basis that
discrimination against her sex was against the constitu-
Early struggles tion.[9] Longwe was chairperson of the African Women’s
When Longwe was a young secondary school teacher the Development and Communications Network (FEMNET)
government refused to grant her maternity leave. This between 1997 and 2003. FEMNET, which was established
violated the government’s obligation under an Interna- in 1988, has the goal of assisting NGOs to contribute to
tional Labor Organization convention. Longwe formed a women’s development, equality and rights, and to pro-
lobbying group that succeeded in forcing the govern- vide an infrastructure for information and empower-
ment to introduce maternity leave for teachers in 1974.[3] ment.[3]
In another run-in during her career as a teacher, she in- In 1998 Longwe said that the school system contrib-
sisted on wearing trousers to school. The issue was es- utes to women’s subordination, so lack of schooling
calated all the way to the Permanent Secretary of the should not be seen as a cause for the low socio-economic
Ministry of Education.[4] In 1984, Longwe was a founding status of women.[10] Longwe has been outspken in criti-
member of the Zambia Association for Research and cizing lack of progress in programs to reduce the margin-
Development. This group played a role in ensuring that alization of women since the 1985 World Conference on
the Zambian government ratified the Convention on the Women in Nairobi. She has said "Gender policies have a
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against strange tendency to ’evaporate’ within international de-
Women.[2] velopment agencies". She talks of the "patriarchal cook-
ing pot ... filled with patriarchal bias, implicit in the
Women’s Empowerment agency’s values, ideology, development theory, organiza-
tional systems and procedures".[11] Her views on road-
Framework blocks have been criticized by workers in the Oxfam
agency as being too extreme.[12]
Longwe developed the Women’s Empowerment Frame-
Longwe was awarded the 2003 Africa Prize for Lead-
work, or Longwe Framework, published in 1990.[5] This
ership.[2]
Gender analysis framework helps planners understand
the practical meaning of women’s empowerment and
equality, and then to evaluate whether a development References
initiative supports this empowerment.[6] The basic [1] Sweetman 2000, p. 30.
premise is that women’s development can be viewed in [2] ^ Profile of an ICT Champion.
terms of five levels of equality: welfare, access, "consci- [3] ^ Sara Longwe 2003....
entization", participation and control. Empowerment is [4] Remarks by Sara Longwe.
essential at each of these levels. Welfare addresses basic [5] Sahay 1998, p. 39.
needs, and access addresses ability to use resources such [6] March, Smyth & Mukhopadhyay 1999, pp. 92.
as credit, land and education. "Conscientization" is a key [7] Sahay 1998, pp. 39-40.
element of the framework: recognition that discrimina- [8] Sweetman 1997, p. 29.
tion creates gender-related problems and women may [9] Bradshaw & Ndegwa 2000, p. 280.
themselves contribute to this discrimination. With par- [10] Leach 2003, p. 56.
ticipation, women are equal to men in making decisions, [11] Hertzog 2011, p. 21.
and with control the balance of powers between the gen- [12] Eade & Williams 1995, p. 172.
ders is equal.[7][8]
1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sara Hlupekile Longwe
Sources • "Remarks by Sara Longwe". The Hunger Project.
http://www.thp.org/what_we_do_key_initiatives/
• Bradshaw, York W.; Ndegwa, Stephen N. (2000). The honoring_africa_leadership/prizes_recent/2003/
uncertain promise of Southern Africa. Indiana sara_longwe. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
University Press. ISBN 0253338271. • "Profile of an ICT Champion: Sara Hlupekile
http://books.google.ca/ Longwe". ICT. 16 July, 2007.
books?id=3qx6pqSOhpMC&pg=PA280. http://www.apcwomen.org/news/
• Eade, Deborah; Williams, Suzanne (1995). The Oxfam profile_ict_champion_sara_hlupekile_longwe.
handbook of development and relief, Volume 1. Oxfam. Retrieved 2011-09-22.
ISBN 0855983078. http://books.google.ca/ • Sahay, Sushama (1998). Women and Empowerment:
books?id=vMly2TSCG2EC&pg=PA172. Approaches and Strategies. Discovery Publishing
• Hertzog, Esther (2011). Patrons of Women: Literacy House. ISBN 8171414125. http://books.google.ca/
Projects and Gender Development in Rural Nepal. books?id=trAAeQ2YpsMC&pg=PA39.
Berghahn Books. ISBN 1845457684. • "Sara Longwe 2003 Africa Prize Laureate". The
http://books.google.ca/ Hunger Project. http://www.thp.org/what_we_do/
books?id=9VYFdDNCzoMC&pg=PA21. key_initiatives/honoring_africa_leadership/
• Leach, Fiona E. (2003). Practising gender analysis in laureate_list/sara_longwe. Retrieved 2011-09-23.
education. Oxfam. ISBN 0855984937. • Sweetman, Caroline (1997). Gender in development
http://books.google.ca/ organisations. Oxfam. ISBN 0855983655.
books?id=mMkyOwwtjPYC&pg=PA56. http://books.google.ca/
• March, Candida; Smyth, Inés A.; Mukhopadhyay, books?id=i4OCQoO7htgC&pg=PA29.
Maitrayee (1999). A guide to gender-analysis • Sweetman, Caroline (2000). Women and leadership.
frameworks. Oxfam. ISBN 0855984031. Oxfam. ISBN 085598452X. http://books.google.ca/
http://books.google.ca/ books?id=-vS6MsRGVvQC&pg=PA30.
books?id=4JBHy_ObO2UC&printsec=frontcover.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sara_Hlupekile_Longwe&oldid=452085174"
Categories:
• Women's rights in Africa
• Living people
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