Description:
In the Sixties, Bengali women of Comilla challenged enduring traditions that kept them isolated and ignorant. Collectively they proved they could learn. Purdah was reinterpreted, micro-loans were implemented and village life was transformed.
Brief description: Growing up on a small farm in California, the author, as a young Berkeley graduate was sent as a Peace Corps Volunteer to what was then East Pakistan. Her assignment was to establish a program in household improvement for village women in Comilla, under the auspices of the Academy for Rural Development. This experience in women's development led to doctoral studies in the United States. In the years following the establishment of Bangladesh in 1972, she was Advisor to the Women's Program of the national Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), Head of the Women's Section of the Policy and Planning Division of the Ministry of Agriculture (1982-1986), and later Advisor regarding development priorities in women's programs for Norway, Sweden and Denmark in Bangladesh.Leaving active involvement in Bangladesh in 1989, she returned to academic life. Since then, she has contributed to establishing academic Service-Learning in South and Southeast Asia, as well as new programs in refugee education. She has published widely on these topics.
Review Quotes:
"Voices Across Time - part memoir and part history - tells a powerful story of development and transformations amid rigid traditions and adversities. It is also about a moving personal journey inspired by a call for public service. Florence E McCarthy shares her remarkable field experiments and experiences in Bangladesh dating back to the early 1960s. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in Bangladesh's economic transformations that have been powered by and in turn empowered women." Faisal Ahmed, Deputy Chief, Strategy and Evaluation Division, IMF