Publisher's Synopsis
In this provocative volume, Handwerker advances the thesis that the key factor in revolutionary social change accompanying industrialization is the change in women′s power relationships with their family. The author draws upon ethnographic, demographic and survey research on Barbados where industrial revolution and the transition from high to low fertility rates has occured quickly and recently. He compares his West Indian data with cases from the modern Third World and from England′s own industrial revolution. Handwerker challenges many of the tenets of Third World modernization theory and fertility planning policy and suggests that providing women with resources through education and employment may be the best method of fostering modernization and avoiding world overpopulation.
