Caroline Moser

Caroline Olivia Nonesi Moser is a British anthropologist and academic. She specialises in urban social anthropology and social policy. She is primarily known for her field-based approach to research on the informal sector generally - but particularly aspects such as poverty, violence, asset vulnerability and strategies for accumulation in the urban setting. Gender analysis is central to her approach. She has looked at many countries, but the Americas have been her main interest. Countries studied closely include Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Jamaica.

She has also researched community participation, looking at the social dimensions of economic reform, the role of human rights, social protection and responses of the urban environment to climate change.

Career Her career has included time at University College London (1978–1986); London School of Economics (1986–1990); the World Bank (1990–2000); the Overseas Development Institute (2001–2002); The New School (New York) (2002–2003) Brookings Institution (2004–2007) and the University of Manchester (2007–present).

Gender and Planning Framework One of Caroline Moser's more notable works is “Gender Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs.” Moser's studies led her to develop a framework in third world countries in terms of gender and planning. The basis of her theory is that men and women simply have different needs from one another, and therefore require different strategies to satisfy those needs. She primarily focused on women in her study, and how to improve frameworks based on the group's specific gender needs. In her paper, she states that when incorporating women into these third world countries’ plans, policy makers need to strategize based on gender – not the fact that they are women. Moser promotes a cross-sectoral violence-reduction framework. This framework is important to anthropology because it takes all perspectives into consideration, including first-hand experience and statistics. She mentions that the reason she chose Latin America to develop this framework and study is because the nation has the highest rates of violence recorded. The framework highlights that there is a link between mainly inequality and impoverished communities, mixed in with a number of other factors including violence. They added onto her framework by suggesting education about the domestic/forgotten roles of women, in contrast to their expected roles. Similar to Moser, the article highlights the importance of identifying the various roles of both genders, and how it relates to their economic status.

Since Moser is a known feminist, there is a common misconception that she only addresses women in her work. However, some of her frameworks include benefiting both genders. Her gender and planning framework specifically examines the roles of women and how to develop policies that can cater to their needs. On the other hand, her violence framework does not only concern women, but includes men. The violence framework is aimed to protect both genders from the effects of inequality that result in brutality. The only part of her violence framework that separates the two genders is her call for changes in social violence. The other forms of violence are experienced by both genders, but social violence in particular most often portrays men as the violator and woman as the victim. Moser shows great interest in equality for society as a whole.

Works Moser, C. (1993) Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training, New York and London, Routledge.