Expecting the World - by Jerri Dell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Expecting the World is the story of one woman's unlikely thirty-year rise through a male-dominated international organization, to pioneer a new approach to women in development, improve livelihoods and reduce poverty. It is an intimate account of Dell's work and travel training trainers to train village women and artisans in Africa, India, the Maghreb and Peru, while raising two sons at home.

Dell's story unfolds within the historical context of the last three decades of the twentieth century, encompassing world events that took place during those tumultuous years: the politics of oil, war in the Mideast, and the Egypt-Israeli peace accords of the 1970s; the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981; Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990; and the horror of September 11, 2001. It includes her personal encounters with international figures like World Bank president Robert McNamara and Egypt's first lady Jehan Sadat, both of whom provided critical support and inspiration for her work.

Review Quotes

When managers of the World Bank hired a twenty-three-year-old French major, they thought they were hiring a typist. Little did they know that this American "girl" was a third-generation feminist, starting with her suffragist grandmother. In the next thirty years of her career, Jerri Dell carved out a corner of the male-dominated international bureaucracy, empowering herself and thousands of women in the developing countries she worked in. Expecting the World is an inspiring story of how one determined woman can make a difference.

-Veronica Li, co-author of Viking Voyager, An Icelandic Memoir

Expecting the World is a story of women's empowerment at several levels: a journey from a world of men and "girls," bosses and secretaries in the World Bank, a large, complex international institution, to one where many women demanded and often came close to something approaching equality. It's a story of the women at the grassroots, working together to surmount the many barriers that face them. And it's also Jerri's story of living this transition and, in the words of Mary Catherine Bateson, "Composing a Life," with guts, setbacks, love, misunderstandings, growth, and adventure. The memoir offers both the living reality of the World Bank's rather reluctant transformation and a woman's journey through life.

-Katherine Marshall, author of The World Bank: From Reconstruction to Development to Equity

Jerri Dell's immeasurable charm and grit are palpable through every page of this book. Her unique experience-and voice-at the World Bank takes the reader by the hand on both a personal and universal journey through what it's like to be a woman-to be women-navigating a man's world. She demonstrates with passion and vivid stories, with courage and humility, that women in "left-out places" have more to teach us than a man's world ever imagined. Expecting the World weaves a global village of thoughtful women (and yes, men), rich and poor, powerful and seemingly powerless, but all willing to constantly learn from each other, to make a difference. As someone who came to the World Bank a decade after Jerri, I am eternally grateful for the path she cut that enabled those who followed to move one step closer to a world where everyone's voice counts.

-Linda McGinnis, Poverty Economist and former World Bank Resident Representative for Mali

The World Bank works in countries that are stuck in poverty, inequality, and mismanagement. But the World Bank itself has been stuck at times-in hierarchical rigidities that undercut its critical poverty-fighting mission. Both the countries and the Bank would do better if they unleashed the power of women, and Expecting the World tells the story of Jerri Dell, a career World Bank professional, who advanced this cause in the countries and within the institution.

-Tim Carrington, author of The Year They Sold Wall Street