Dorothy Hodgson's Gender, Justice, and the Problem of Culture is an exemplary study of the history and contemporary impact of justice mechanisms for marginalised rural communities. Her book should make anyone pause to wonder, ‘What assumptions do I have about rural individuals and communities? Do those assumptions prevent me from understanding their struggles?’ The culmination of three decades of research, this book demonstrates that international and state authorities played a major role in the marginalisation of pastoralist communities in Tanzania. Moreover, state officials and activists alike use the concepts of culture (e.g. ‘harmful cultural practices’) and women's human rights in ways that undermine Maasai women's autonomy and power.

In Chapter 1, Hodgson shows how colonial governments adopted policies that truncated Maasai women's power. Through the invention of indigenous law, customary law and colonial law, European leaders and their local counterparts overlooked the fact that there were many kinds of marriage in Maasai communities, that (some) women enjoyed sexual autonomy, and that there was variation in who retained custody of children following marital separation. Instead of recognising the diversity of these relationships and women as authorities, colonial rulers institutionalised the power of men as legal guardians, heads of households and property owners.

Chapters 2 and 3 examine how liberal concepts of individual human rights create opportunities and constraints for Maasai individuals and communities from post-independence through to the early 2000s. A legacy of colonial rule, official state courts became a site for contestation between daughters and fathers and husbands, wives and families over marital unions. Colonial-era discourse criticising so-called backward cultural practices only modestly shifted in the 1970s to international criticisms of female genital cutting as a violation of women's human rights. Meanwhile, many pressing priorities concerning hunger, poverty, access to clean water and to affordable and quality health care receive proportionally less attention.

Given their colonial and post-colonial histories of marginalisation, how can Maasai communities effectively demand economic and political injustice? Hodgson explores the rise and power of Maasai women who organised and participated in protests against forced eviction and land confiscation. These political and economic decisions over large swaths of land were undertaken by the Tanzanian state to make way for companies from the USA and United Arab Emirates to expand private ventures in hunting and tourism. The narratives in this chapter of collective protest are riveting and deserve the reader's closest attention.

Thus, while Hodgson finds that individuals can and have used indigenous law, national law and the human rights framework to fight for autonomy and recognition, it is collective protest that could promise to bring justice for Maasai communities. Hodgson's book is both rich in detail and broad in its implications for understanding struggles for justice for marginalised groups. It deserves the attention of students and scholars of African studies, anthropology, history, political science and women's and gender studies.