The chapters in this book were written for a UNU/WIDER research conference convened to explore two parallel phenomena: the changing position of women and gender relations and the relevance of the concept of patriarchy, and the impact of development - and especially industrialization and wage work - on women and gender. They address these questions through theoretical, historical, and empirical approaches, and provide critical analysis and macro- and micro-level data for East Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the Nordic region, and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The contributors are well-known academics and researchers who utilize the methods of economics, sociology, history, and feminist analysis in their case studies of economic development and women's positions.