Aruna Rao

Is there life after gender mainstreaming

development agencies. We argue for changes which re-delineate who does what, what counts, who gets what, and who decides. We also argue for changes in the institutions that mediate resources, and women’s access, voice, and influence. We outline key challenges, as well as ways to envision change a n d strengthen the capacity of State and development organisations to deliver better on women’s rights.

Institutions, organisations and gender equality in an era of globalisation

Development organisations can play a significant role in supporting women in the communities where they work to challenge unequal gender relations. The authors of this article argue that the majority of development organisations fail to do so because they pay insufficient attention to the importance of social institutions in perpetuating inequality. Two prominent approaches to gender mainstreaming emphasise organisational infrastructure and culture. Ideas in these approaches are necessary, but insufficient, to enable organisations to play a part in transforming the social institutions that perpetuate gender inequality. Gender at Work is a new global capacity-building and knowledge network aiming to promote institutional change through encouraging development organisations to analyse gender relations in the societies in which they work, and in the institutions they need to challenge. It reviews past efforts of development organisations to mainstream gender into their work, and develops programmes and processes to challenge institutional norms which work against womens interests.

Gender lost and gender found: BRAC's Gender Quality Action-Learning Programme

This article describes and analyzes the BRAC Gender Quality Action-Learning (GQAL) Program. BRAC aims to bring about organizational change and improve program quality through issue analysis, action planning, and implementation with an understanding of gender. During the 1990s, BRAC increased the number of women staff and set up a womens committee. In 1993, it piloted a gender training program. By 1994, BRAC did not know what the real problems were. A needs assessment was carried out among 400 staff in various program types and levels and revealed 3 empowerment issues. An intuitive understanding did not translate into creative solutions. Staff preferred non-confrontation in dealing with womens subordination in the family and community. Staff strongly believed in training as a way of changing behavior and values. BRAC is an organization in transition. The goal is changing the relationship between men and women. BRAC needs multiple perspectives of men and women staff and primary stakeholders. BRAC is gendered. Quantitative targets must be balanced with quality improvements. Quality occurs by analyzing the process and outcomes of programs. The GQAL program and cycle began in 1995. The GQAL outcome was improved working and democratic relationships and more open communication. Success was based on, for example, a field-based learning intervention, followed by trained facilitators, and innovative and tested methodology. Constraints were the perceived lack of top management support in some programs, frequent transfers of staff, and natural disasters. The authors identify future issues.

Gender at Work: An Experiment in “Doing Gender”

Gender at Work is a virtual, transnational, feminist network with over twenty-six associates and a small complement of staff based in 12 countries that support organizational and institutional change to end discrimination against women and build cultures of equality in organizations. The linking of virtual and transnational aspects of Gender at Work enables us to be in many places at the same time, to explore approaches to organizational and institutional change that are acutely sensitive to context, and to exchange and co-create knowledge that subverts the traditional North/South divide. At the same time, the small management core with primary fundraising responsibility and part-time, intermittent nature of associate’s participation poses significant organizational challenges such as: How to support communication across the network and beyond? How to facilitate learning and knowledge building? How to develop approaches to accountability that resonate with our values? How to develop and resource institutionalized ways of supporting such functions and processes that don’t by default lead us into a hierarchal mode of operating or push up operating costs. This chapter will discuss the development of Gender at Work’s organizing strategy, how it functioned, how it was challenged by the growth of the organization, and how Gender at Work dealt with those challenges. It will also discuss how Gender at Work’s strategy may differ from other Social Sector Organizations (SSOs) and what difference that makes to “doing gender.”

No Shortcuts to Shifting Deep Structures in Organisations

In the late 1990s an international feminist network, Gender at Work, wrote about the ‘deep structure’ of organisations through which gender discriminatory norms and power relations are reproduced. In this article, the authors reflect on the evolution since the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 of Gender at Works theory and practice on approaches to shift deep structure. The Gender at Work Analytical Framework, used by dozens of organisations worldwide to assess, strategise and evaluate the process of organisational change, is described. Using a case study on the Dalit Womens Livelihood Accountability Initiative in Uttar Pradesh, India, the article demonstrates the adaptation of the Analytical Framework for working directly with community-level programmes, highlighting its strength at bringing into focus the deeply entrenched social norms and deep structures that exclude women from claiming their rights. The article concludes with reflections on what Gender at Work has learned since Beijing about working to challenge deep structures in organisations, programmes and systems.