The topics that are so enthusiastically brought up in this book, Gender, Development, and Globalization, are all topics that have been discussed to great lengths by many others authors; however, Benerí takes a unique approach to trying to unify these ideas into one definitive issue. Beneria sees this as a definitive time in all of these issues because of the great changes occurring in each field, and even more so because of the blending of these issues. Having served as the coordinator of the International Labour Organization's Programme on Rural Women and having been an economics professor at Rutgers University, Beneria comes from a very relevant and important point of view in which she has seen all sides of these many complicated issues. .
In the first half of the book, Beneria looks at the issues facing the individual concepts of gender, development, and globalization. While Beneria admits that most of this is simply reiteration of previous books and papers, she takes this opportunity to introduce ideas that economists, or feminists, or social workers would know about their issues and share them with the others; however, remember this is written by an economist, so many conclusions from the other fields are drawn up in regards to economics. The main ideas that are brought up in the first half of this book include the dichotomy of economic versus gender justice, the other dichotomy of practical versus strategic gender needs, the integration of gender equality in the workplace and feminist goals towards progressive social change, and a change of focus in social sciences (and less so in economics) from material towards meaning.
The first dichotomy we are faced with in this new age is that between economic justice and gender justice. As Beneria mentions, these two justices do not necessarily agree what is best for people in developing countries, especially women in those countries.