Fenella Porter

Gender works: Oxfam experience in policy and practice.

In the name of gender management of gender issues organizational procedures evolution and solutions the history of gender issues working at different levels challenges of implementation learning and good practice.

Unpacking ‘women’s health’ in the context of PPPs: A return to instrumentalism in development policy and practice?:

There has been a significant increase in funding for health programmes in development over the last two decades, partly due to the formation of public–private partnerships. This article examines the impact of public–private partnerships from the perspective of women’s health, asks whether the current culture of funding has led to an increased instrumentalism in women’s health programming and what effects this has on how women’s health is addressed at the level of practice. The article is based on research carried out with UK-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and its conclusions raise further challenges for improving women’s health policies and programmes in development.

Negotiating gender equality in development organizations:The role of agency in the institutionalization of new norms and practices

This article considers how, in the context of development, the negotiation of meanings and individual values can create a crucial link between an awareness of gender relations and actual changes in the norms and practices of an organization. I use the concept of institutional agency to question whether as gendered individuals, development practitioners can challenge how development organizations go about their work? Or whether we are all trapped in a ‘meta structure’ of norms, practices and meanings that ultimately block both our own agency and the changes we are trying to bring about?

Gender and Development

women in developing or less-developed nations. The answer? Positive concepts that celebrate the achievements of women! The examination of economic disparities between women and men is dealt with similar poor research and snide language, as well as faulty reasoning. His argument that no gender discrimination in earnings exists is proved by reference to the fact that 30 per cent of working wives earn more than their husbands. Apart from the fact that we are not informed of where this is the case (in his neighbourhood? In Canada? The world?), it does not seem to strike him that this means that 70 per cent of husbands earn more than their wives. And so on and so forth . . . Where I sought better understanding of men and practical guidance for my work, I found petulance, intellectual dishonesty, and disparaging language. If the hope of the book, as stated in the very final statement, was to contribute to ‘our mutual empathy, admiration and love’, sadly, I am left with little empathy and admiration, let alone love, for this particular man and his brand of masculinity.

Gender in World Perspective (3rd edition)

us, as readers, with excellent glimpses into the complex transitions at play in modern India, and the generation of novel concepts (for example ‘Real New India’ as opposed to ‘Village India’, in Nicol Foulkes and Stig Toft Madsen’s chapter) gives us much to reflect upon. The volume will be of interest to students, practitioners, and scholars from the disciplines of gender and development, anthropology, and sociology and is equally of relevance to feminist theory and postcolonial studies. While this collection has been published in the United Kingdom and New York by Anthem, a local edition would benefit scholars in India, enabling them to have access to the rich ethnographic material included in the book.

The Future of Feminism

The Future of Feminism comes at a critical time in European and international politics. It provides a clear and thorough account of the contribution of feminism and its organisations, particularly within European (and also North American) contexts. It provides well-substantiated arguments with a huge amount of detail on different organisations and initiatives. Sylvia Walby’s central argument is that feminism is not dead, and that the major successes, and opportunities for its future success, lie in embedding the principles of women’s equality into social democratic and other (particularly human rights) projects. In the first two chapters, Sylvia Walby defines her terms (including feminism), and refutes the argument that ‘feminism is dead’. In Chapters 3 and 4 (‘What Does Feminism Do?’ and ‘New Forms of Feminist Organisation’) she provides numerous illustrations of feminist organising and reaction to the challenges feminists have faced over the last four decades. Chapter 5 addresses the issue of mainstreaming, and Chapters 6 and 7 look at the broader political context, and how feminism has ‘intersected’ with other political ‘projects’ (or agendas for change). Finally, the book looks towards ‘Alternative futures’ for feminism. Probably the main strength of the book is the level of detail on women’s organisations and movements in the UK and European Union (EU) in particular, and it is interesting to have this perspective recorded so diligently. The other real strength of the book is the way that Sylvia Walby embeds her understanding of feminism and its opportunities in her (very thorough) understanding of political philosophy, and the development of different democratic traditions in Europe and the USA. But I’m not sure that I would agree that this is what I see as feminism, or the future of feminism. The definition used by Sylvia Walby of feminism is where the problem starts for me: