Gender equality in organisations: a good resolution for 2021

Gender equality is a key element of sustainable development – as illustrated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which weave gender across virtually all 17 SDGs. It makes sense that 'mainstream' organisations, which are not specialised in promoting gender equality, have developed gender policies and related activities. Where are they at, and what should come next?

Resources on gender, and gender & corruption

In 2012 and 2013, I carried out short series of gender sensitisation and gender mainstreaming training for organisations that work on development, human rights and governance issues. Some of the materials that have inspired the training are in the public domain. My favourites are:

Scared away by jargon?

Last month I discovered the new IDS-BRIDGE resource pack on Gender and Social Movements (scroll down to my 11 October post for all the links). I was so excited about the new resource that I distributed the handy "in brief bulletin" document to all prospective participants of a gender sensitisation workshop (with NGO staff relatively new to gender issues) - as a preparatory reading.

I should have known better.

5 reasons why gender mainstreaming remains important

Gender mainstreaming and work to end violence against women (VAW) have been on development agencies' agendas for decades. Why are they still important? Some of us feel that "everyone" in development and human rights organisations are well aware of the issues. But the truth is that in organisations without any explicit focus on gender equality or gender justice, the levels of awareness for gender-based discrimination (and the need to end it) tend to be uneven. Efforts to promote gender equality remain limited and often isolated. Some would prefer to drop "gender" altogether, busy as they feel with all those other issues that must be "mainstreamed" - good governance, environmental protection, HIV/AIDS prevention, "you name it!"

But there are at least five reasons why "gender mainstreaming" must continue:

1. Organisations that are committed to universal human rights have a responsibility to ensure their work respects and promotes human rights. Women’s rights are human rights, enshrined in widely accepted international treaties as the the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979). Any rights-based approach that neglects women's and girls' rights is inadequate.
2. International movements and campaigns rally large numbers of people. Women and girls make up the majority of the world population (although in India and China, sex-selective abortion and infanticide are skewing sex ratios towards boys). Opportunities are likely to be missed and mistakes will be made if planners, implementers and evaluators ignore women's interests and needs, and refrain from engaging women as interlocutors, collaborators and allies.
3. Many development and human rights agencies are into education and campaigning - i.e., they attempt to spread ideas around, and to mobilise others to join them in their cause. The messages they convey, implicitly or explicitly, influence people's minds: research has shown that campaigning can reinforce or weaken people's value systems - broadly speaking, what they consider to be "good" or "bad", "right" or "wrong". (See for example the report Common Cause - The Case for Working with our Cultural Values. I'll summarise it in a future post!) Hence, it is important to avoid reinforcing values that condone discrimination and other violations against women which would be in stark contradiction with the development and human rights goals most of us defend.
4. Gender-based violence is not only one of the most pervasive human rights violations, it also jeopardises development. For example, large numbers of women and girls (as well as a smaller proportion of men and boys) have experienced sexual extortion in schools, health services and police stations, with dire consequences for their physical well-being, their mental health and their social status. Getting girls to school is right, but if they risk their lives because teachers and classmates are likely to abuse them, something is deeply wrong. Gender-blindness (sometimes euphemistically called "gender neutrality") helps to turn a blind eye on the bleak situation that an estimated one-third of the world's women face.
5. In terms of efficiency, any organisation has an interest in ensuring that staff members and volunteers enjoy equal opportunities to unfold their full potential at work, regardless of their sex (and of the size and form of their households)

These are the main reasons that have come to my mind. Feel free to add more by using the comments function below!

PS: 2012 was my "gender year": I carried out several consultancies linked to mainstreaming gender into evaluations, into development programmes, and into the life of organisations without any particular focus on women's rights. In addition, I wrote a guide for Oxfam International on mainstreaming one aspect of its efforts for gender justice: its commitment to end violence against women (VAW). (Download its English version here; translations are in progress.)

Gender Budgeting in Europe

The European Community of Practice on Gender Mainstreaming came together in Berlin in late September to discuss gender budgeting in the European Social Fund. It was interesting to learn about the rich experience - and vast differences - in gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting by public administrations across Europe. The keynote speeches and other conference materials are available on the activities page of the ECP Website (click on the link to get there).

Where are the Men?

In a recent workshop on gender-sensitive monitoring, I found myself with some 18 women and one man - the latter being there, as he admitted, because the group was the only one to work in a language he understood. Most participants were well informed of and experienced in gender mainstreaming. Many felt there was a continued necessity to maintain gender mainstreaming as a separate item on the agenda, lest it would be dropped altogether. But we would have preferred to be a more "mixed" group - not quarantined in the women's ward, a sad déjà vu for those among us who have been "doing gender" for decades. Maybe we should have formed sub-groups and swarmed out to infect parallel, non-gender focused working groups with the gender bacillus?

German CEDAW Report - the personal remains political

Today, experts from 28 German NGOs have submitted the 2008 CEDAW shadow report to the Ministry of Family, Senior Citizens, Health and Youth. Given our demographic structure, this Ministry should be the most powerful of all, serving the majority of the population... It isn't. What if someone sneakily added "Men" to the Ministry's list of clients? Would its budget see a steep increase?

Strong women

On 11 November, the development bank KfW in Berlin hosted its 46th roundtable on globalisation, with the title Development Needs Strong Women". An illustruous selection of German women's development experts discussed issues around gender and development. Unfortunately, much time was lost to a sterile debate about the translation of the term "gender" into German. But it is reassuring to learn that KfW, a major actor in German development policy, has developed a stringent gender mainstreaming strategy, defended by an impressive policy expert, and that the Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development (BMZ) has equipped itself with a Gender Unit.
On the other hand, I was disappointed by some examples the speakers presented that focused on women's practical needs within female roles considered acceptable in mainstream culture, e.g. tailoring courses. Gender sensititive work must consider strategic needs as well, supporting women (and men!) who wish to challenge gender stereotypes within their societies. This happens, to a certain extent, when women play an active role as builders of their own water schemes - an example that was mentioned, to pay due respect to the panel. Personally, I am proud of a project we funded when I worked for Oxfam Germany: Afghan women engineers who could not exercise their jobs under the Taliban regime took refresher courses in engineering so as to put their skills to the service of national reconstruction. Here's a beautiful combination of the practical and the strategic.