The result of two decades of research and local collaboration, the author invites us on a journey through time and space to illustrate the uniqueness of women in human cybernetics, based on real-life cases drawn mainly from Asia and Africa, but also, to a lesser extent, from the Western past.
The book focuses on women in all their dimensions: as childbearers, wives and mothers, but also in their central role as managers of daily life and in maintaining the balance of the family unit. The various testimonies highlight her vital role in community life and in the often precarious economic balance precarious balance of the family. This precariousness is created and perpetuated by a combination of several factors: endemic unemployment mainly affecting men, human relationships dependent on social status within the community, the persistence of practices that lead to debt (dowry, marriage), the aggressive commercial policies of the banking sector and various intermediaries, an age pyramid distorted by the high proportion of young people in need of training and therefore financial support, changes in traditional resources, the emergence of new needs, etc.
Women are largely responsible for managing the burden of debt and financial obligations towards lenders, whether they are the community, banks or loan sharks. This involves difficult negotiations with problematic outcomes, sometimes obtained in exchange for favours, with the woman’s body becoming a bargaining chip or a means of facilitation. This sexualisation in the process is a significant factor, particularly in Africa, despite attempts at alternative forms of financing, such as microcredit or those set up by religious congregations. Furthermore, lenders favour commitments from women, which are considered more reliable, and this strengthens the lender/borrower relationship.
In summary, in a traditionally patriarchal system, traditionally patriarchal system, the qualities recognised in women enable them to occupy a central place in family life, community life and in the economic and social environment. In return for the mental, physical and sexist burden that is their daily life, women often find often find a joyful outlet in the bonds that unite them. This state of indivisibility tends to diminish with the emergence of a new, more educated generation.
A thoroughly researched, resolutely feminist work, offering insight into the intimate details of the cases studied over a long period and, through them, the opportunity to explore other cultures, as well as to relive European life in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries.
Isabelle GUERINSocio-economist. Research Director at IED and CESSMA, affiliated with the French Institute in Pondicherry. She co-founded and co-directed the Observatory on Rural Dynamics and Social Inequalities in South India. She has published numerous works on the financialisation of inequalities, the resistance it provokes, and the investigative approach that brings lives and figures into dialogue.
Reading notes Hubert
Alcaraz