Thinking gender on International Women's Day

It could be significant that I am starting my blog for 2012 on Women’s Day.….

I have just been to two very stimulating workshops with interesting people from Asia and Africa, and of course with a sprinkling of some ‘mzungus’  from the UK, the Netherlands, Canada and the US in both.  In both we discussed the issue of ‘gender’.  So as Women’s Day 2012 draws to a close, I want to reflect a little bit about the concept.  (by the way, if you haven't already, take a look at the UK Independent’s  the best and worst place to be a woman, and Duncan Green’s blog  on International Women’s Day – what to celebrate, what to condemn, a must read!)

One issue  that struck me from the discussions we had in these workshops  was how easy it was to lose the gender perspective when we think we have mainstreamed gender into our analysis and our writing.   Sometimes this is because the overarching issue at hand is more potent than the difference between women and men – but this is no excuse.  ‘Gender’ is  now an integral part of every checklist emerging from the international development community but unfortunately, in many cases it tends to be equated with ‘women’ primarily because in most countries, women are the less powerful, and are seen to be the more disadvantaged gender.   But this focus on women can preclude deeper analysis of  the different roles, responsibilities and socialization processes of both women and men, the relationships between them, and their relationship with the social, political context.  Masculinities should be as much a subject of study as feminism, but there is very little of that around in this country.  The understanding  of masculinity is an important element in making sense of combatants behavior during the war, and post-war, as well as in reflecting on gender based violence. 

The second issue that struck me was about ‘walking the talk’.   In Bangalore yesterday, I met Nandana Reddy, the founder of the Concerned for Working Children (CWC).   I have known Nandana for maybe 20 years, and have always been impressed by the way she and her colleagues always, uncomprisingly, walk the talk in relation to child rights.  I first encountered their particular brand of walking the talk  in the 1980s when I visited their offices where everything was at a ‘child’s height’ so that the children they worked with had the same access to everything in the office as the adults.  Later, I saw them work with children at their training centre,maintaining steadfastly the  child’s right to participation as described in the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  CWC has just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, an accolade they well deserve.   

With relation to gender, I would imagine that walking the talk would mean having gender sensitive policies that prescribe the way you work within your organization; recognizing that women and men have multiple responsibilities, and that it’s important that human resource policies take account of this, and provide for a sensible work-life balance.  Years ago, as the Sri Lanka Country Director of Intermediate Technology Development Group (now Practical Action), I remember a newly recruited social scientist  coming up to me with a dilemma.  She was breastfeeding her 4 month daughter, but the energy programme team into which she was recruited to be a social scientist, had planned a field trip. What was she to do?  I gave her the only practical suggestion – I asked her to take the baby with her.  This practical intervention led to a consciousness within the ITDG office in Sri Lanka of the family responsibilities of both women and men, and concessions made for fathers to pick up children from school, for mothers to work from home etc.  Colleagues at CEPA tell me  that there are other such initiatives – at a reputed lawyers’ firm in Colombo, at the ETF offices.  Encouraging!