International trends in gender equality work

An end to poverty, access to a good education and healthcare, freedom from violence, protection of reproductive rights, and sustainable livelihoods are still basic objectives of gender equality work worldwide. This paper takes this historical gender equality work as a given, and instead highlights both the shifting backdrop for this work, as well as new considerations and work agendas that have emerged in our efforts towards gender equality. From militarization to globalization, a fast-changing global terrain is dictating new challenges and new ways of approaching the women's rights agenda. This discussion paper explores these trends as well as the convergence of work inside the fields of gender and development and women's rights. Also presented here, is an overview of the ways in which gender equality advocates are trying to improve how we understand and confront gender inequality.

It should be noted that a paper of this nature will, inevitably, present both generalizations and subjective views. It is impossible to represent a clear picture of the dynamism of gender equality work simply by the fact that the women's movement has never been one singular movement but rather movements, multiple and diverse, each operating and based in different realities, with their own local struggles and challenges. Similarly, activists and practitioners rarely document the new ideas and trends - these are the subjects of animated corridor discussions or personal emails. As such, the majority of the substance for this paper comes out of surveys of emerging work priorities for different women's groups and development organizations, participation in email lists, as well as recent discussions with women's rights activists and researchers. Any errors or omissions are entirely the responsibility of the author, and do not represent the membership of AWID.

Shifting Priorities and New Approaches

a) Facing the new global conflict and militarization

The events of September 11th have undoubtedly ensured that the issue of global conflict and militarization will figure more prominently on the agenda of the women's movement. Reeling from the horror of these events and the escalation of military interventions, in addition to anti-Islamic sentiments, the international feminist community is currently mobilizing to show a different type of leadership in the post-September 11th world.

Building on previous peace-building efforts, the women's movement is rallying around a call for peace and justice - demanding that the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity are brought to justice through transparent judicial means using the full weight of the international human rights systems. Most women's groups are making the claim (as far as what is represented in public statements) that military interventions will only exacerbate the violence and insecurity instead of fostering security on our planet. If anything the peace movement is swelling, adding amongst its ranks, in particular, the analysts and activists whose most recent efforts have focused on trade, investment and the negative effects of the global economy.2

While joining support with other civil society groups in much of these peace efforts, the international feminist community is specifically making the connections between the terror imposed on the U.S., with patriarchy, the broader effects of globalization, increased militarization, and religious extremism. Statements sent by email around the planet by women's rights leaders outright condemn the attacks, but many acknowledge almost an inevitability of the violence borne from increasing gaps between the rich and poor, as well as protracted military interventions by the U.S. in many parts of the world. These tensions have fueled hostility particularly in the Global South towards the West/North, very often with religious leaders exploiting this resentment to mobilize the marginalized. Increasingly, therefore, the women's movement is blaming the current global disorder on a crisis in leadership - a leadership that has allowed such suffering to exist, as well as hatred to thrive. Whether it is hate against abortion providers, a particular ethnic group, religion, nationality, or race, our leaders have allowed it to flourish often for political, but more often, economic gain.

Little is still known about women's peace-building approaches in response to violent conflict and even less effort is made to include gender analysis as an explicit component of peace-building initiatives.3 To some extent this has to do with the fact that leadership and capacity has to be built amongst women to bring gender sensitivity and awareness into the development of alternative approaches to conflict resolution and peace-building.4 More challenging, this work requires us to both name and stop the internalization of hatred of 'the other'.5 Given the current global environment, and the dearth of women's voices in the mainstream media and policy circles in response to it, gendered approaches to peace-building will likely become an important issue and approach for gender equality work in at least the immediate future, if not longer.

b) The rise in religious, cultural, and ethnic extremisms

Religious extremism is closely associated with the current situation of conflict and insecurity whereby religion (in addition to ethnicity or culture) is used to gain and mobilize political power and exert social control. Very often, the control of women and the denial of women's rights is dictated by religious leaders - whether Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, or Muslim - thereby denying or undermining women's education, reproductive rights, sexuality, ownership of resources, or mobility. In addition, as the international network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws has noted "it is very clear that fundamentalist movements often stoke each other's fires, either through collaboration or through confrontation".6 Since feminist advocacy for sexual and reproductive rights made significant achievements at the Cairo conference on Population and Development, there is a dramatically strengthened conservative backlash led by the Christian "right" with the Muslim fundamentalists at the United Nations. At recent preparatory meetings for the Special Session for Children's Rights or meetings of the Commission on the Status of Women, these right-wing forces have been active in huge numbers, with hundreds of their young people "bussed in", and using many tactics to intimidate feminist delegates.

Women's groups around the world, therefore, are increasingly concerned about the ways in which extremist religious, cultural and ethnic forces have been gaining ground. With their networks, financial resources, and close ties to political power, many feminists see these political/religious movements as a foe so formidable it will take an immense amount of advocacy, consciousness raising, resources and political power to stand up to them. Networks like Women Against Fundamentalisms recognize that a multi-pronged strategy to countering the power of fundamentalist groups is necessary. They suggest that gender equality advocates will have to challenge governments who fund religious schools or impose religious practice and education, while defending individuals and women's organizations against attacks by fundamentalists.7 Similarly, Catholics for a Free Choice are leading a major campaign to change the Roman Catholic church's status at the UN from its current almost "state" ranking, to the status of a non-governmental organization in order to radically weaken its voice and political power at the UN (power that has been particularly undermining to the rights of women and girls).8 On the other hand, like in other areas of gender equality work, an insider-outsider approach is recommended whereby gender equality advocates are building alliances with progressive religious organizations, and interpreting religious texts from feminist perspectives. Other work in this area focuses on reclaiming women's own identity and spirituality as a means towards empowerment and greater control over their lives.

In any case, as religious (as well as ethnic or cultural) extremisms intensify around the world, greater emphasis on understanding it, advocating against it, and developing alternative approaches to counter it, will likely become a more central priority to gender equality work in the coming years. Furthermore, it will become even more critical for the movement, as described below, to make the links between poverty, religious extremisms, and militarization. Challenging the core conditions that breed and encourage extremisms -- such as lack of democracy, ignorance, corruption, and of course, poverty and economic marginalization -- by effectively offering an alternative vision and leadership to the one being proposed by extremists, will be essential in the long-run.

c) Economic Justice in a Global Economy

Trade liberalization, advanced technology, and economic integration all have contributed to a new global economy. Efforts to liberalize trade, open up markets and deregulate industries have been part of the dominant economic strategy pursued by governments and transnational corporations all over the world. While these processes are not new, the sheer speed and reach of global integration today is at levels never witnessed before. Furthermore the impact on women's lives - with regards to employment, access to healthcare, use of technology, and struggles for a livelihood - has been both profound and diverse. Globalization is radically transforming both the issues women's organizations are addressing and the strategies used to address those issues.

While the sites of struggle for the women's movement have traditionally been related to the household, the workplace, and the state, women now must engage with supra-national actors including international financial institutions and private sector corporations. For example, economic reforms means that capital can flow much more easily than in the past across national boundaries - as a result women have needed to understand how this affects their employment opportunities and the structure of their local economies. Also, because globalization has often required the rollback of state social protections for formal and informal workers, the sick or elderly, and the environment, gender analysts and activists in different regions are finding themselves facing the same issues of additional reproductive burdens, increasing insecurities, environmental degradation, and increasing disparities between the privileged and the most vulnerable. In terms of strategies, because international financial institutions, trade regulating bodies and transnational corporations now dictate policies that would formerly have been the purview of the state, more and more gender equality work is shifting to focus on influencing these actors in addition to (or instead of) making demands on the state, a shift which requires new tactics and an understanding of economic values and language.9

Within much of the work on globalization from a gender perspective (outside of the human rights community) one can find essentially two distinct approaches: WID/GAD approaches and economic justice strategies. The first strand has been characterized in terms of welfare, economic self-reliance, efficiency, equality and empowerment, having evolved over time to focus on relations between men and women and working towards the goal of equitable, sustainable development. Common to this strand are micro credit and gender mainstreaming projects that focus on enhancing economic opportunities and providing protections in the face of vulnerabilities.

Economic justice approaches are quite distinct, having developed out of socialist feminist and liberation movements. Economic justice approaches more commonly tackle the multi-dimensional causes of women's poverty and disempowerment and focus on the policies of international financial institutions (including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and regional development banks), the global trading regime and agreements as regulated by the World Trade Organization and regional trading agreements, and the larger questions of gender and economic processes. This analysis is situated within a framework of a critique of North-South relations and the neo-liberal economic agenda, and also attempts to take account of the gender, class and race dimensions of social and political relations in a holistic way.10

What seems more evident of late, is an increasing number of feminist researchers, activists, and practitioners working towards both understanding and achieving economic justice in the context of globalization. 11 In the past five years alone, the numbers of networks and organizations that are researching and advocating gender justice with economic justice have grown in numbers and impact. A large part of this work however, still focuses on the impact of globalization. There is a growing consensus that feminists must concentrate on the much tougher agenda of developing viable alternative economic models.

d) Governance

Gender equality advocates are also emphasizing that governance processes are integral to efforts for poverty eradication, women's rights, and economic justice. This means that there is much greater attention being given to women's participation in (and influence of) decision-making processes as well as accountability and transparency of governance structures at local, national, and international levels. For gender equality advocates, a focus on governance is based on the belief that only when the organizations and processes of power and decision-making are held to account for women's rights will equality ever be a reality.

Many countries (especially in South Asia) have witnessed a trend towards decentralization of power, functions, responsibility and accountability to grassroots communities while at the same time women have won constitutional rights to one-third of the seats in India and Bangladesh.12 Similarly, gender or women's budgets are being developed around the world in order to institutionalize priorities for women's rights within government spending.13

Feminists' concerns for good governance go beyond democratizing governments to market institutions that dictate global economic reforms. In fact, some feminist leaders point to the paradox where democracy may be expanding, but social and economic rights are shrinking as globalization diminishes the power of parliaments.14 Recent activism and demonstrations by anti-globalization protesters have revealed the need for the multilateral system and the international community to increase the opportunities for dialogue with civil society organizations on the governance of the global economy. As globalization continues to have dramatic effects on the rights of women around the world, many recognize that gender perspectives will need to be better articulated and advocated. Women's organizations and networks will need to be fully engaged and taken seriously in these global processes - whether at the World Bank, World Trade Organization, or high level United Nations meetings like the Financing for Development process. What is even more critical is that women do not just squeeze their issues into the margins of these agendas, but instead actually articulate what the agenda should be.

e) The future of technology

Globalization and increased corporate control has also brought about a transformation in technologies at a speed that none of us could have predicted. Within the gender and development and women's rights community, ICTs, or information and communication technologies have been heralded as a boon to the movement by creating the means for alliances and coalitions across great distances as e-mail and the internet make it possible to plan campaigns and share data almost immediately, wherever there is access. On the other hand, the communication revolution and increased corporate control of the media is leaving behind or marginalizing many women, and further strengthening the hegemony of the English language (and one particular world-view), so issues of access and a "digital divide" will be of growing concern to the women's movement. Moreover, policy debates related to the future control over sharing of information, the media, and communication technologies have until now not considered gender issues, but more gender advocates are recognizing the importance of influencing this field.

The production of new reproductive technologies (such as a controversial anti-fertility vaccine) as well as new bio-engineered organisms (such as genetically modified foods) by corporations is raising new, but very complex, issues with regards to women's safety and bodily integrity. In other words, with the new advances in genetics, technology can now happen inside the body. Testing is most often conducted on women in the South where fewer enforceable civil and regulatory protections exist. While this work is in its infancy, as the entire social justice and scientific communities come to grips with the implications and ethics of these new technologies, a growing number of gender equality advocates are ringing the alarm bell and naming new technologies as central concerns to the human rights of future generations.15

Other advances in human genetics beyond those relating to reproductive technologies have also been largely neglected by the feminist community. Even more difficult technologies, such as biotechnology, neuroscience, robotics, and nanotechnology (e.g. mechanical antibodies) are quickly coming into our reality and our markets. The implications of these new technologies are profound and far reaching and are inextricably linked to other forces at play in the world today…globalization, economic change, militarization and health care. Thus far, decisions about these technologies have been left largely to the private sector, with little or no analysis by feminists or even basic government assessment. It will be critical in the coming years to address these questions head on while there is still time to take a measured and careful look at the changes facing the world through these new technologies.

f) Facing the AIDS epidemic and women's health needs

Given the overwhelming magnitude of the AIDS crisis, and its impact on women, this issue is increasingly acknowledged as a priority in the gender and development and women's rights community worldwide. While the medical aspects of the crisis receive extensive attention, the gender aspects and links with poverty and globalization receive much less.16

Gradually, AIDS is being understood as more than a medical issue, but as an issue of human development, human security and human rights. AIDS is both a cause of poverty or deepening poverty, and as a result of the effects of poverty and social and economic inequalities. Furthermore, the fact that women are biologically, economically, and socially/culturally more at risk must figure into any viable responses. As a result, the World Health Organization and many reproductive rights and development organizations focusing on this issue take the position that unless and until the scope of human rights is fully extended to economic security this crisis cannot be resolved.17

This being said however, the gender and development community needs to remain vigilant that the focus on this concern does not divert financial and research resources away from other major women's health problems to tackle HIV and AIDS. Furthermore, the AIDS crisis has created additional health and human rights problems for women, unrelated to their HIV status. For instance, trafficking in girls and women and increased prostitution have become major symptoms of this pandemic - as virgins are seen as cures to AIDS, and then those whose family "honour" has been taken away are shunned by families and end up as prostitutes. Women's health and human rights priorities therefore, in all their forms, will need to remain priority concerns for gender equality work.

Improving The Way We Do Our Work

a) Convergence of Development and Human Rights Approaches

Throughout the 1990's, the UN conference processes, and the burgeoning of new organizations and initiatives working for gender equality, two communities and approaches were particularly visible: one associated with women's human rights and another working from a gender and development perspective. These two streams of the women's movement each have knowledge and experience to contribute, although they often haven't worked together. They have distinct terminology, different experts, specialized methodologies, separated agencies and ultimately they target different institutional actors. Over the years, this persistent divide has resulted in unnecessary duplication of efforts, as well as approaches that lack holistic understandings.

More recently however, we have witnessed the paths of development and human rights converging - in particular around issues related to globalization. Development actors increasingly recognize the link between laws and institutions that influence women's status on the one hand and the outcomes of development schemes and programs on the other. At the same time, women's rights activists and legal practitioners are increasingly focusing on economic and social well-being, cultural practices and traditions, and state economic policy. As the UNDP's Human Development Report for 2000 noted, human rights and human development share a common vision and purpose, which is to secure the freedom, well-being and dignity of all people everywhere.18

Development practitioners are recognizing the benefits for example, of using a rights approach over a gender mainstreaming approach. Amartya Sen puts forward a compelling rationale to adopt a rights approach so that our attention is focused simultaneously on the freedoms that make development possible and on the freedoms which constitute the ultimate objective of development.19 Organizations like Oxfam are explicitly adopting a rights-based approach. As many have found, so many gender mainstreaming initiatives have not borne fruit because of inadequate analytical skills, lack of political commitment to equality (instead commitment to abstract and often depoliticized notions of "gender") and inadequate funding. In many cases, while "women" as a category have become visible, steps have not been made towards their equality. A rights approach helps to avoid such pitfalls by keeping the end output - guaranteed rights for all - in constant focus. It provides standards by which to measure success and ties results to objectives and procedures.

On the other hand, development approaches offer strong analytical and methodological tools for understanding and shaping the effects of economic forces. In addition, with a longer history of incorporating gender analysis - particularly with the influence of feminisms from the Global South - the development field has been a powerful force in the global women's movement, organizing and presenting alternatives to the status quo. In general, development approaches have been more broadly focused, more participatory, more contextualized and inclusive than human rights approaches.20 Given the insights, strategies and shared agendas of both approaches, we will therefore likely see more convergence between human rights and development within gender equality work in the coming years.

b) Tackling institutional change

In the past decade, an increasing number of gender and development and women's rights proponents have turned their focus on organizational and institutional change issues. After years of promoting gender equality through institutions using gender training methods, gender policies and other bureaucratic tools to "mainstream gender" there is now a much broader acceptance that equality will depend more on changing the structures of organizations, and most importantly, the institutions (or rules of the game) that embody them.

Relatively recent research and analysis,21 as well as new approaches and practice,22 have influenced the broader gender equality community. Gradually, more of us are recognizing the need to work on understanding what organizational and institutional change really means and then what it implies for our work. For instance, much effort has gone into advocating for better organizational 'infrastructures' to ensure that equality objectives are met. Examples include strong national machineries for women, a gender focal-point and procedures in a mainstream development or policy organization, or the formulation of a women's budget. These established organizational changes however, manifest relatively little positive change because the underlying cultural and political norms within organizations are not tackled - namely power relations, attitudes, and political commitment. Similarly, the struggle for voice, resources and rights will depend on changing the broader institutional norms. As a simple example, while Bangladeshi women might have gained access to decision making in local government through seat quotas, until their husbands let them attend meetings change will not come about.

There is growing recognition therefore, that we need to work simultaneously on changing how organizations function and the cultural, political, and other underlying power relations that undermine paths to gender equality. This means tackling complex and deep problems behind gender inequality - ones that tackle power head on (such as classism, racism, and sexism), and issues that have hitherto been perceived in the private realm (such as the work-family divide, or cultural traditions). For many, the first step is to understand what institutional change really means, and then work on the more difficult task of how to make it happen. But an increasing number of actors are converging around this difficult agenda having recognized that change will depend upon it.23

At a more concrete level, an on-going but essential priority within gender equality work involves how best to make our organizations more effective both in terms of impact and sustainability. Without a doubt, throughout the world, women's organizations are relatively weak given the lack of economic and political priority given to gender equality work. Questions of sustainability and funding, balancing work and personal life, measuring results, and monitoring and evaluation are therefore constant challenges that will remain on the agenda.

c) Intersectionality

Both the work on institutional change as well as the recent World Conference against Racism in Durban brought to the forefront this concept of "intersectionality". This notion - of looking at how different aspects of our identities such as race and gender affect each other - has its roots in Third World feminism and feminist theory. Only recently has an actual approach to intersectionality gained more currency as an essential means to understand and tackle women's subordination in all its forms. Many have noted that one of the main weaknesses within gender equality work has been the inability to effectively address the diversity of women's identity based upon class, religion, race, ethnicity, age, ability, caste, sexuality, ability and location, whereby those with less privilege have ended up becoming further marginalized.

A current trend therefore, is the development of new conceptual frameworks as well as methodologies to understand the implications of diversity as well as the construction of power and privilege.24 The Expert Group Meeting on Racial Discrimination and Gender for example recommended a three part method of collecting disaggregated data, undertaking a contextual analysis by documenting the impacts of a problem that result from converging identities, and thirdly, evaluating policies and programs for their ability to tackle problems arising from intersecting forms of discrimination.25 This analysis is particularly important within human rights where there exists a constant tension between the respect for diversity and the demand for the universality of human rights. As Charlotte Bunch suggests however, we "must respond to this debate by emphasizing that all women have a universal right to the enjoyment of all human rights, but this does not mean that all women's experiences, strategies or choices in affirming their human rights are or need to be identical".26 More sophisticated work therefore will be needed to understand intersections of identities and discrimination, linking experience and perspectives from local to global perspectives, and applying this in effective ways to gender equality and human rights work.

d) Growing the movement and broadening alliances

In the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent that the involvement of younger generations in women's rights, development and social justice work is an absolute necessity. Many activists and professionals are reaching the last stretches of their careers, making it essential to foster the transfer of knowledge between generations and regions in order to sustain and build upon efforts to date. Similarly, the movement needs to further benefit from the new ideas, energy, strategies and visions that young women provide. Women's rights issues of today and tomorrow - resulting from increased economic integration, the "digital divide", the new genetics, or MTV - are different than those of a generation ago. Moreover, the rights issues of adolescents have received limited research and policy attention, yet interventions at this stage of life are so critical for addressing gender inequality.27

Although younger women are needed, so many are finding it difficult to find their voice, let alone employment in the fields of human rights and gender and development. While so many are eager to take on new challenges, there is insufficient support, information or opportunities. In the same way, the generation gap has illustrated a lack of appreciation of the contributions and experience of the women who have brought us thus far. There is a critical need therefore, to build a stronger movement, whereby younger leaders are empowered to take on the new complex challenges and understand the systemic linkages of gender inequality while explicitly recognizing that they "stand on the shoulders" of the feminist leaders of the past decades.28

Parallel to efforts to develop a more intergenerational movement and focus to women's rights, a growing number of researchers, activists and practitioners are encouraging alliances with men. Work by OXFAM, SIDA, UNIFEM and the Institute of Development Studies at Sussex in the past several years on men's roles and masculinities has slowly influenced gender and development work in order to give significance and legitimacy to working with men.29 In addition, male movements against violence against women are emerging in cities from South Africa to Nicaragua to Canada.

While indeed this is a growing trend, some would argue that building alliances with men is still at an early stage. With a few exceptions, men are seldom explicitly referred to in gender policy documents. The work ahead for men and women in understanding what some perceive now to be a "crisis in masculinity" - brought about my major economic, political and cultural shifts - will be ever more important given the current global situation. At the same time however, it will be critical to avoid certain pitfalls of working with the 'wrong men'; instead those men that can recognize that doing equality work requires sensitivity, and the ability to be effective while not taking up a lot of space.30 It is only those men that are willing to put themselves behind the women's rights agenda that can be genuine partners within the movement for gender equality.

The third trend, an on-going struggle, relates to how best to link gender equality work at the macro and micro level. That is, how can we truly ensure that we are forging solutions and positions from the grassroots up. SEWA (India´s Self Employed Women´s Association) for example, takes a pragmatic view of policy shifts by asking the most basic question: how will this affect our membership? In this way, SEWA has supported certain kinds of trade liberalization that increases work for poor Indian woman and oppose other aspects of free trade when it does the opposite.31 The more the gender equality community puts the interests of the poorest, as defined by them at the center, and then links these with macro or global policies, the more effective our solutions will be in that they are more influenced by reality, instead of ideology.

Overall, there is a general trend to do gender equality work across disciplines, sectors and issues, and between people of different ages, identities and regions. Given the interrelatedness of issues and root causes of gender inequalities, more and more are seeking means to come together to develop holistic analyses and viable solutions to common problems.

The key challenge, for all of this though is not just to find ways of tackling all these issues, but tie them all together so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For instance, we will not be able to tackle fundamentalism, until the religious leaders are unable to use poverty and the control of public opinion to their great advantage. Therefore, our efforts need to be more concerted, more holistic, and more collective - this is a time for forging new and stronger alliances with all progressive movements in order to strengthen us overall, diminish our isolation, and demonstrate an obvious and alternative form of global transformative leadership.

This paper was originally prepared for a Gender Policy Review workshop hosted by Novib, November 1-2, 2001 in The Hague. This paper formed part of the background to the review process of their work on gender equality to determine how best they can support their international partners and make a contribution to women's rights and gender equality around the world. AWID is appreciative of the opportunity given by Novib not only to prepare this paper but also to make it available to a wider audience.

Endnotes

1 This paper was originally prepared for a Gender Policy Review workshop hosted by Novib, November 1-2, 2001 in The Hague. This paper formed part of the background to the review process of their work on gender equality to determine how best they can support their international partners and make a contribution to women's rights and gender equality around the world. AWID is appreciative of the opportunity given by Novib not only to prepare this paper but also to make it available to a wider audience.
2 For instance, the World Bank and IMF protests to be held in Washington DC September 29-30 transformed into giant peace demonstrations.
3 In fact, the term "peace-building" is recent to international and regional gender equity work; it was not even used in the Beijing Platform Action. The UN however, under the leadership of UNIFEM has since then prioritized women's roles in peace-building.
4 Mazurana, Dyan and McKay, Susan. Women and Peace-building, (Rights and Democracy, Montreal 1999)
5 See the Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Plan of Action, Dhaka 1997 (available on www. wluml.org)
6 ibid.
7 See Women Against Fundamentalism at http://www.gn.apc.org/waf/
8 See http://www.seechange.org/ for details of this international campaign.
9 See Kerr, Joanna, "Responding to Globalization: Can Feminists Transform Development?", in Porter, Marilyn and Ellen Judd eds. Feminists doing Development (Zed Books, 1999)
10 See any statements by the Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice.
11 AWID for example, is participating in a collaborative project with ICRW, DAWN, WEDO, Global Fund for Women and AAWORD to find ways of supporting common agendas as well as work collectively towards institutional strengthening. At the start of the project each organization independently stressed the need for the group to work on economic justice.
12 See Institute for Development Studies, "Gender and Participation", Development and Gender In Brief, Issue 9, August 2001
13 The Commonwealth Secretariat is supporting many governments to integrate gender issues into their public expenditures (more information is available at http://www.thecommonwealth.org/gender/index1.htm). UNIFEM's Progress of the World's Women 2000 also describes the gender budget processes.
14 Gina Vargas, speaking at a Beijing +5 Panel.
15 From numerous discussions with Marsha Darling, AWID Board member and expert on race, women's health and new technologies.
16 See for example DAWN's recent DAWN INFORMS, on Trade, AIDS, Public Health and Human Rights, August 2001.
17 WHO, "Human Rights, Women and HIV/AIDS", Fact Sheet No. 247 (June 2000).
18 United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 2000, New York.
19 Sen, Amartya, Development as Freedom (New York: Knopf, 1999)
20 For instance, while a legal rights approach to land inheritance might focus on the impediment to women's ability to inherit land contained in religious personal law, a development approach might address family/household structures, women's organizations and small groups, the community administrative and market institutions, the political system, culture and the legal system.
21 See for example, Macdonald, Mandy, Ellen Sprenger and Ireen Dubel, Gender and Organizational Change: Bridging the Gap between Policy and Practice, (Royal Tropical Institute, 1997); Rao, Aruna, David Kelleher and Rieky Stuart, Gender at Work (Kumarian, 1999), and Goetz, Anne-Marie, Getting Institutions Rights for Women in Development (Zed Press, 1997). Even the recent World Bank World Development Report is focused on institutional change.
22 NOVIB's "Gender Route" project has, in fact, been a pioneer in trying to determine what could actually make an organization sustainably gender equitable. For a concise summary of the project to date see http://www.genderatwork.org/novib.php3
23 For example an international collaborative has just been formed known as Gender at Work, with CIVICUS, AWID, the Women's Learning Partnership and UNIFEM as a South-North knowledge building network to facilitate institutional transformation for gender equality.
24 See for example Marks, Ruby. Gender Race, and Class Dynamics in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Center for Gender in Organizations, SIMMONS Graduate School Management, 2000); Holvino, Evangelina, Complicating Gender: The Simultaneity of Race, Gender and Class in Organization Change(ing) (Center for Gender in Organizations, SIMMONS Graduate School Management, 2001); Nazombe, Elmira "Statement to the Commission on the Status of Women, March 2001", Centre for Women's Global Leadership, http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/csw01/intervention.htm
25 The full report, written by Kimberle Crenshaw, can be found at http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ daw/csw/genrac/report.htm
26 Bunch, Charlotte, 2001 "Why the WCAR is critical to Women's Human Rights Advocacy", Presentation at a panel held during the Commission on the Status of Women.
27 See the International Center for Research on Women, Strategic Plan for 2001 to 2005.
28 I thank Peggy Antrobus for sharing a speech that she just gave on "Feminism as a Transformational Politics: Womens' Leadership Now" given at the St. Mary's University, in Halifax on September 21, 2001 which discusses this issue of intergenerational strategies.
29 Institute in Development Studies, "Do men matter? New horizons in gender and development ", Insights, no. 35. Dec. 2000
30 Personal communication with David Kelleher.
31 See Kanbur, Ravi (2001) "Economic Policy, Distribution and Poverty: the Nature of the Disagreements" at http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/sk145. I thank Aruna Rao for this point, and example.