Cornwall, Andrea

The term 'gender' has come to be synonymous with 'an interest in women's livelihoods and perspectives', rather than referring to women and men. Other assumptions made are that 'women' or 'men' 'form coherent interest groups' and that western understandings of gender difference are universal. A good starting point is to consider gender as 'less as something fixed that people have, than as ways of describing and evaluating what people do' which varies cross-culturally and according to different situations.

It focuses on social processes, experiential, practical and political elements which are often overlooked in the literature on agricultural research and extension. Methodological issues raised by a shift in theoretical perspectives from a structured to diverse approach are explored. A broader view of the 'farmer' is called for: an approach that locates farmers, researchers and extensionists as social actors within the process of agricultural production and extension.