DevPolitics

Men as partners on gender equality

Yesterday, I attended a brown bag session by an NGO called MenEngagewhich is also presenting at the 53rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)at the UN (2-13 March 2009). The organization "is a global alliance of NGOs and UN agencies that seeks to engage boys and men to achieve gender equality".

The refreshing part of this session was that the two representatives of MenEngage were both men. They have stressed their group's focus of viewing men in a positive light, such as partners instead of the problem, assets instead of obstacles. The notion of needing to "fix" men in order to achieve gender equality is indeed something that is prevalent in many discussions on the issue.

As examples of past interventions that have worked, the group noted addressing homophobia and gender diversity and linking these with behavior that leads to health issues, and questioning men and boys on manhood have showed significant behavioral change. Also, their survey results showed that division of labor led to life improvements for the whole household, such as better sex lives, less violence and overall happiness.

I was impressed by their comprehensive take on the issue, and their diplomatic skills in advocacy for policy change, but was drowning in the sea of partners and donors they have listed - Save the Children, CEDAW, WHO, SIDA, WHO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNIFEM, etc. They have noted that one of the challenges was coordination, such as MenEngage and a partner NGO requesting funding from the same donor - which is bound to happen despite efforts for fluid communication.

Gender and Development

The thought of development has shifted from modernization and structrual adjustment programs to poverty reduction. Under the poverty reduction goal, international development effort has focused on social welfare program. Then how gender equality relates to international development? The idea of gender equality has developed along with the evolution of development notion. In the 1970s, women entered into the thought of development - what women can contribute to the development process. Washington based female development professionals felt that development process, then modernization, deteriorated women's stand. Liberal feminists protested for equal rights, employment, equity and citizenship. Research on women in developing countries found that women are the main producers of agricultural products and can control the resources and process in an efficient way. Influenced by these movements and disappointed with the results of development process, development architects saw women as a "missing link" (from Wid to GAD) in successful development and reducing poverty. In the minds of WID(Women in Development), "women are producers and thus participants in the process of economic growth."(Buvinic, 1983:20) Women can contribute the economic development when they are equipped with resources.

However, this WID approach was criticized by many scholars and later has transformed to Gender and Development(GAD). Critics argued that WID is women specific project but failed to increase women's benefit from the programmes.  Women produced and contributed only in the areas of typical sex role boundary such as nutrition, traditional handcraft, health, education, home economy. Goetz argued that these works intensified women's workloads shifting them to extend their unpaid work as "headers, healers, and teachers of children to include the provision of basic services to the community."(Goetz,1994 a:30) They also argued that the research on the women's production in the economy was very limited to sub-Saharan Africa, where women have responsibility to provision of family food and labor. In this sense, the concept of being efficient producers in agriculture cannot be generalized into the other parts of the world. In most nations, men are responsible for provision and have ownership of the resources and production. Overall, WID failed in practical approach and logical approach. The practical projects were limited only to emphasize the traditional sex role and its logic failed to see that gender subordination is created in the social, political, and institutional structures. It means women only projects cannot increase the well-being of women and such kind of projects(gender equality) should take account of the gender ideologies in the nation and the relationship with development.

In this background, Gender and Development(GAD) has taken over from WID and led the goal of gender equality in the development process in the 1980s. GAD approaches gender equality issue in the context of institutions such as household, market, community, and nation. The development practitioners found out that allocating resources to women could not change women's positions because these institutions prevented women from control over resources and income. Microfinance project serves a good example.  Many projects help women start little business and generate income through the microcredit lending. However, there are many cases which women give up the opportunity of ownership but hand over the loan to their husbands or male relatives(From WID to GAD). GAD approaches the gender equality, mainstreaming women and gender at the development program and policy. It adopted participatory development strategies in the community level to achieve gender equality in the targeted areas of education, employment, representation, and health.

How well will GAD serve the development goal? In many developing nations, many GAD projects encourage women's participation in decision making process and planning. Many programs are designed to enhance or build women's independency in the households, markets, and government arenas. Surely, this has increased some women's visibility in many institutions. However, it is important to raise questions on whether GAD is really gender based or still in the sex role division. Many women only projects raise some concerns under GAD approach. Understanding women and men in the gender context, or power relation, or traditional social construction can increase the chance of success. Especially projects such as family planning and domestic violence emphasize the importance of integrating men into the program.

In conclusion, gender equality in development needs a lot of attention to achieve great success. Most of all, "togetherness" and "integration" of men and women is very important. Furthermore, to make the institutions more accessible and fair for women by power sharing, then women will be the real producer and participants in the economic growth and intenational development. 

Synergy of Failure

Response to New York Times article on December 1, 2006- Sex Abuse of Girls Is Stubborn Scourge in Africa

Obviously, reading this article is incredibly disheartening but I think it highlights one of the ever-present challenges in development which can sometimes be lost in an academic setting. As students, we can discuss and dissect issues of corruption, rule of law, and gender but the truly difficult task is to analyze them as an intertwined mass of problems. This article highlights the many aspects in which young girls are being failed. The criminal justice system does not protect them because it is bureaucratic, inefficient, and lacking in the most basic capacities (such as transportation). The system of corruption allows individuals to buy their way out of trouble, especially if the victim is poor. And the role of women in society prevents elder women from speaking out and protecting them from their abusers. And these are just the most obvious challenges being faced; there are far more subtle obstacles to be faced.

As a development expert or a human rights advocate, how do you separate these failures to develop solutions? Is it even possible? More importantly, even if you can disentangle these issues, there is a risk that in doing so you may lose sight of the elements which are most important. It may be that the elements that connect these issues in the first place are the most important.

ladies first

The readings and our class discussion on gender left me wondering about the role of women's-only groups.  I recognize the way they problematize a discussion of gender by excluding other groups, by relegating responsibility to female circles, etc. But I wonder if in countries where the chasm between men and women is so wide at every level (social, political, economic), that even to round up a few male "gender champions" poses a phenomenal challenge, would something like establishing a Ministry of Women's Affairs  (as has been done, for example, in Afghanistan) harm or help?  Is it a starting point? Or is it a trembling base?  Are we having a conversation about gender now because we had a conversation about women first?

Sahar

Gender Dimensions in International Migration

I attended the UN's 50th session on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) recently, and I thought I'd share a few points raised during the conference.The discussion started with panel experts (Maruja M.B. Asis, from the Scalabrini Migration Center in Manila, Ms Ndioro Ndiaye, from the International Organization for Migration, Professor Monica Boyd, from the University of Toronto) laying out their research and findings on several topical issues in women’s international migration which included the “feminisation of migration”, protection and exploitation of women migrants and human trafficking. Concerns and issues raised during the panel discussion broadly fell into two categories:

(a) “Origin” countries such as the Philippines and India brought up issues pertaining to the rights and abuses of migrant workers, as well as the domestic social impact of women workers who travel abroad and leave their families to single parenthood.

(b) “Destination” countries such as the Netherlands and Austria expressed their views on challenges that face the social integration of migrant workers, as well as political and social problems in “origin” countries that have instigated increasing migrant flows into Europe.

Thoughts:
The legal framework of women’s migration as domestic workers or entertainers does not provide sufficient guarantees for their protection, because legal migration is oriented towards the migration aspect (exit, entry, economic activities of migrants) and is generally non-committal on the working and living conditions of migrants. Their well-being is entirely dependent on the kindness of their employers and employment agencies. Asis noted that Hong Kong is the only exception in Asia because it has laws that provide for minimum wage, days off and freedom to form unions.

Labor migration in Asia has been accompanied by the rise of international marriages. Three countries: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, have experienced rapid increases in marriages between local men and women from the less-developed Asian countries. This as a response to an apparent “shortage of brides”, or “traditional women”, in destination Asian countries. The participation of brokers, the use of marriage as labor recruitment and the use of marriage to obtain residence in destination countries have raised concerns that such marriages may be channels of unauthorized migration or trafficking.

Labour migration has resulted in the formation of transnational families, especially since family reunification in the destination country is prohibited in most cases. When migrant workers become ill, they can be repatriated. Families of migrant workers thus bear the social costs of labour migration. One point raised by the Indian delegation was that when men are left behind, there is evidence to suggest that they do not fulfil the parental void as well as when women get left behind. This is due in large part to the fact that gender roles have remained resistant, particularly in Asian states.

Today more than 50% of the world's migration population are females. Development in countries of 'origin' will be key to affecting the propensity to migrate. For now, empowering migrant women and assuring gender equality rest on a number of key interventions including efforts to include women in development processes, as well as those aimed at eradicating gender inequality in both sending and destination countries and improving the situation of migrant workers and their families.