About the book: patrons of women: literacy projects and gender development in rural nepal assuming that womens empowerment would accelerate the pace ofsocial change in rural nepal, the world bank urged the nepaligovernment to undertake a gender activities project within anongoing long-term water-engineering scheme the author, ananthropologist specializing in bureaucratic organizations andgender studies, was hired to monitor the project analyzing her ownexperience as a practicing development expert, she shows how theproject intended to benefit women, through teaching them literaryand agricultural skills, fails to provide them with any of thepromised resources going beyond the conventional analysis thatpositions aid givers vis--vis powerless victimized recipients, shedraws attention to the complexity of the process and the activerole played by the nepalese rural women who pursue their owninterests and aspirations within this unequal world it will appealto practicing development experts,