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| Date Added to Site: 26th June 2008 | ||
| Short Summary | ||
| Title | Mainstreaming Gender or “Streaming” Gender Away: Feminists Marooned in the Development Business | |
| Author | Mukhopadhyay, M. | |
| Publication Date | October 2004 | |
| Publisher | The Institute of Development Studies (IDS) | |
| Volume | IDS Bulletin | |
| Series | vol 35, no.4 | |
| Short Summary |
The pursuit of gender equality began as a political project, concerned with transforming power relations between women and men and redistributing resources and opportunities in favour of the disadvantaged. This paper argues that gender mainstreaming - the strategy adopted at the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 - has resulted in gender equality work becoming more technical and less political. The emphasis now tends to be on developing frameworks, planning tools and checklists to integrate gender equality concerns into the work of development agencies, or increasing the number of women within organisations or in decision making positions. By contrast, social transformation - i.e. challenging unequal power relations between women and men - is rarely explicitly acknowledged as a goal. The paper raises several specific concerns. Firstly, while a gender mainstreaming strategy does not preclude initiatives focused on women, it is often interpreted by mainstream development actors as moving beyond a sole focus on women. However, drawing on the case of a project to support women farmers in Yemen the paper shows how, in a country with extreme gender segregation, women farmers cannot be approached by male agricultural extension workers. In this case a women focused project may be more approprate. A second concern is that while gender mainstreaming is supposed to ensure that everybody is answerable for meeting commitments to gender equality, it has often meant that nobody is ultimately responsible for getting it done. The paper suggests that it is necessary to get back to the political project of gender equality by: working on rights and citizenship issues within development institutions, creating spaces for citizens to participate in political decision-making, and creating 'communities of struggle' in which women are able to articulate their priorities and demand accountability. ou can purchase this book from the IDS Bookshop: E-mail: Publications@ids.ac.uk Publications Office Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex Brighton BN1 9RE, UK Tel: +44 1273 678269 Fax +44 1273 621202/691647 Alternatively copies are available from the British Library of Development Studies (BLDS) which offers a document delivery and inter-library loan service, see: http://blds.ids.ac.uk/docdel.html |
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| Summary Source | Adapted from the source | |
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