Close Encounters of Another Kind

Reviews / Votes

Devaki Jain has been a pioneer in bringing to light gender inequalities and injustices in India for the past several decades. She was one of the first to highlight through her Time Use Study (included in this volume), women's significant contributions to not just reproductive and care work in India, but to production as well. She has also worked closely with the UN system to ensure women's rights are taken on board in policy and practice.



The first volume The Journey of a Southern Feminist contains the speeches and writings of Devaki on various occasions. The present second volume contains papers of more recent origin. She broadly deals with the gender dimensions of poverty and political and social power. The papers have a Gandhian touch with as much attention to ethics and equity as to economics. The final essay in this book titled 'The New World Re-order' is an appropriate term to indicate the potential for creating order from disorder. In short, Devaki's writings and speeches have dominated public and political thinking on gender issues during this century. I commend Volume II and recommend that everyone interested in gender dimensions of our life should read both Volumes I and II. -- Professor M.S. Swaminathan Devaki Jain has been a steadfast voice in international debates, bringing to the conversations the perspectives of feminists and of the Global South, which are not only critical of mainstream but also show alternative approaches. This inspiring volume is a must-read for new generations of activists and scholars alike. -- Sakiko Fukuda-Parr I am impressed by [Devaki Jain's] continued efforts over several decades to bring the feminism issue to the intellectual forefront. I am glad she brought out the volume because otherwise I, and several others, would not have known about these efforts. -- Indira Rajaraman "This collection of 15 essays by Devaki Jain represents her journey as a pioneering scholar, activist and advocate of development alternatives and gender equality on the national (Indian) and international stages for over five decades." -- Review of Development and Change, 25 (1), 2020 "These volumes, easily accessible to an international audience, complement Jain's already extensive publications and should be read and appreciated in concert .... (She) is intuitively intersectional, emphasizing the dialectic between diversity and unity." -- Feminist Economics, 24 May 2020 "These two books are remarkable contributions by a veteran feminist economist with an experience that spans the early period of India's independence, forays into socialism and globalization and marks the unfolding of the women's movement through these periods. These books are a must-read for all women's studies."

-- Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Vol. 27, Issue 2