This study looks at local forest management, the making of women's groups within them and how the women's groups became a threat to mainstream institutions. Insights from India, consistently ranked as one of the most gender-biased countries, are compared with similar situations in the ostensibly gender-equal Sweden. Arora-Jonsson also analyzes how dominant ideas about the environment, development and gender equality shape the spaces in which women and men take action through global discourses and grassroots activism.
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of comparative gender diference in Europe. In addressing a range of issues - from employment and households to the state, migration, male violence and values and attitudes - the book transcends the conventional 'economy/cultural' divide.