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INDEX:
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I. Database Highlights: “Feminist Fables and Gender Myths: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and Practice” workshop papers
II. Francophone Websites: ENDA-SYNFEV, Gender in Action and Gender and Development
III. On-line Discussion: join the Feminist Fables and Gender Myths forum

I. Database Highlights: Feminist Fables and Gender Myths
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Please find below a selection of papers presented at the "Feminist Fables and Gender Myths: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and Practice" workshop, held at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK from 2 to 4 July 2003.

- The NGOisation of the Arab Women’s Movements, Jad, I., 2003
The paper calls for an alternative to the NGOisation of the Arab women's movement which serves particular western agendas and fails to mobilise women around anti-colonial struggles.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/jad_arabngoization.htm

- Political Cleaners: How Women are the New Anti-Corruption Force. Does the Evidence Wash? Goetz, A. M., 2003
This paper contests the myth that women are by nature less corrupt and argues instead that if women show less corruption this may be because they are excluded from the opportunities for corruption.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/goetz_politicalcleaners.htm

- Gendered Policy Research in the Cashew Sector in Mozambique, Kanji, N. and Vijfhuizen, C., 2003
This paper explores women's subordinate position within power structures at different levels - household, community and nation - but at the same time analyses the strategies which women employ as they seek to further their interests.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/kanji_cashew.htm

- Globalisation Hurts Women more than Men, Mbiliny, M., 2003
This paper uses case studies from West and Southern Africa to challenge the myth that globalisation hurts more women than men, and reveals a more complex reality.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/mbiliny_globalisationhurts.htm

- The 'Gender Lens': A Racial Blinder, White, S., 2003
This paper looks at how paradoxically, first and third world women have been merged into one category of 'women', and at the same time constructed as essentially and always different from each other.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/white_genderlens.htm

- The Construction of the Myth of Survival, González, M., 2003
This paper examines how anthropological and sociological insights into the life of the poor and the organisation of poor households became mythologized.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/gonzalez_survival.htm

- Women as Natural Environmental Carers: Earth Mother Myths and Other Ecofeminist Fables or How a Strategic Notion Rose and Fell, Leach, M., 2003
Gender-blind environment and development work seems on the rise, and a more politicised gender relations perspective on the environment remains rare in policy in practice.
http://www.siyanda.org/static/leach_earthmother.htm

More resources on the above topic can be found through the “Simple Search” function: http://www.siyanda.org/search/. Type "Feminist Fables" in the "Search Words" box.

**We welcome cross-posting of Update summaries and resources provided that you kindly credit Siyanda and, if possible, provide a link to the website**

II. Francophone Websites:
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- ENDA-SYNFEV, Dakar, Senegal (Bridge International Advisory Committee (IAC) member)
http://www.enda.sn/
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Synergy Gender and Development (SYNFEV) is part of Third World Environment and Development (ENDA)- a non-profit international organisation based in Dakar, Senegal. ENDA-SYNFEV promotes gender equality as a crucial dimension of sustainable development, by tackling obstacles to women's participation in development and challenges faced by women in the context of globalisation. Enda-Synfev has developed the Famafrique website (http://www.famafrique.org), an information and communication space for women in Francophone Africa engaged in promoting sustainable development. Famafrique currently hosts sub sites on activities aiming to promote communication for and among African women, such as the Gender and ICT Network. "La toile d'elles", is a free monthly electronic bulletin which provides updates of the latest materials published on the Famafrique website. You can subscribe to the bulletin by sending an email to: Toiledelles-subscribe@yahoogroupes.fr.

For more information contact:
Marie-Helene Mottin-Sylla
ENDA-SYNFEV, B.P. 3370, Dakar, Senegal
Tel : (221) 823 45 42 ; Fax : (221) 822 26 95 ;
E-mail: mhms@enda.sn
URL: http://www.enda.sn/synfev/synfev.htm, http://www.famafrique.org

- Genre en Action (Gender in Action), Bordeaux, France
http://www.genreenaction.net
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The multidisciplinary Francophone website provides extensive information on gender and development issues related to Francophone Africa. It aims to bring together Francophone users engaged in gender and development in the North and the South to network, access information and exchange experiences. It also aims to act as a catalyst to support its members' initiatives. The newly launched website is open to contributions (in French). You can subscribe to the electronic bulletin by sending an e-mail to: infogenre@genreenaction.net. Genre en Action is funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and is hosted by the Centre for the Study of Black Africa (CEAN) in Bordeaux, France.

For more information contact:
Claudy Vouhe
E-mail: claudy.vouhe@genreenaction.net

- Genre & Développement (Gender and Development), Geneva, Switzerland
http://www.genre-dev.org
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The gender and development programme was established in the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Switzerland in 2003, with the aim of helping to fill the gap in training, research and debates on gender and development in Switzerland and other Francophone countries. To date, the programme has produced a series of gender and development readers in French entitled 'Gender: A Necessary Tool', 'Gender and the Economy', and 'Gender, Globalisation and Poverty' which feature key materials. An upcoming theme will be ‘Gender and Migration’ which will also be the theme of an IUED workshop January 22-23 2004, to be held in Geneva, Switzerland.

For more information contact:
Christine Verschuur
Christine.Verschuur@iued.unige.ch
or
Fenneke Reysoo
Fenneke.Reysoo@iued.unige.ch

III. On-line Discussion: Feminist Fables and Gender Myths Forum
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During the 1970s and 1980s, feminists identified previously invisible aspects of gender relations in development. They drew attention to issues such as women's contributions to agriculture, the differential impact of poverty on women and men and the limitations of conventional models of household utility. The policy significance of this work was profound. Over time, however, insights from this work have become powerful narratives and have been simplified, and turned into slogans and tools, as they have been popularised.

In the process, a number of key assumptions about women and men have 'stuck', gaining such appeal that they have become barely questionable. These include the evocative images of the African woman farmer, toiling in the fields whilst her husband barely lifts a finger to feed his children, that of the squeaky clean woman politician, and that of the innocent victim of sex trafficking who'd never contemplate selling sex for a living. These, and other such ideas have gained the status of 'gender myths', stories that have a powerful resonance with feminist beliefs and that can be shown to be true in some instances, but are rarely as generalisable as the 'feminist fables' that are told to promote interventions would have us believe. Whilst they retain strategic value as organising concepts, the simplifications entailed by their widespread adoption in gender and development institutions are very problematic.

In this discussion, we'd like to debate three key questions: why do those working in gender and development hold the gender myths and feminist fables so dear, and what are the costs of letting them go? We'd also like to talk more about how gender mainstreaming or the way in which gender work is done fosters a need for the kind of stories that these myths and fables represent, and the simple slogans to which complex insights tend to get reduced. What effects do development institutional settings have on the way in which ideas are taken up and put to work? And, lastly, we'd love to hear more about what people think about particular 'gender myths'. Have older 'gender myths' and 'feminist fables' outlived their purpose? Which remain good to think, work and advocate with? Which jeopardise positive outcomes for poor women and may need to be debunked? What lessons are there from this for feminist engagement with development?

(This discussion is sparked by the "Feminist Fables and Gender Myths: Repositioning Gender in Development Policy and Practice Workshop", held at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK from 2 to 4 July 2003.)

Post your views on the Siyanda discussion board http://www.siyanda.org/participate.htm and make your voice heard on this topic (If you do not have easy or cheap Internet access, please e-mail your contribution to: siyanda@ids.ac.uk and we will post it on the forum).

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