Role of women in the third world

(Photograph) - They borrow, they save, they invest and repay, they create wealth as well as families. Yet the role of women in the third world has been largely ignored by mainstream economics. Partha Dasgupta, above, argues that they are just as motivated to better the lot of their children and themselves as their first world counterparts. "Ask them," he says, "when they are not being terrorised." David Walker profiles the Cambridge economist on page 20.