Can Institutions Get Gender Right?

Missionaries and Mandarisn: Feminist Engagement with Development Institutions, by Carol Miller and Shahra Razavi. London: Intermediate Technology Publications and UNRISD, 1998. 226 pp. $17.50.

Gender at Work: Organizational Change for Equality, by Aruna Rao, Rieky Stuart and David Kelleher. West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1999. 247 pp. $23.95

Gender Works: Oxfam Experience in Policy and Practice, by Fenella Porter, Ines Smyth and Caroline Sweetman. Oxford: Oxfam, 1999. 346 pp. $18.50.

As more development institutions address gender issues in their work, they are becoming acutely aware of the role organizational structure and organizational culture play in the conceptualization, design, and delivery of gender-equitable programs and projects. The differential access to and control over resources and benefits women and men encounter in development and relief programs are inextricably linked to the gendered nature of an institution's internal processes. Too often, gender inequality is embedded in institutional values, culture, processes, and programs, rendering the stated goals of equitable and sustainable development unlikely. Over the past decade, those who work on gender issues in development organizations have expanded their focus from gender and development to gender and organizational change. The fundamental premise of this growing sub-field is that "... development can only have a beneficial outcome for women when the working culture, structure, systems, procedures, and underlying values of the institution which shape women's lives themselves reflect a concern for gender equity." ¹ Following this assertion, the question becomes, can institutions get gender right? Three recent books, extending the seminal work of Anne Marie Goetz, ² argue that they can and go on to detail the strategies and approaches used in a number of institutions--from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to multilateral development organizations to the state--to deliberately foster organizational transformation in support of gender equality.

The strength of these three books lies in the details. Unlike many texts, which examine the subject of gender and international relations that are heavy on theory and short on policy-relevant examples, the books reviewed here are extremely inductive. The conceptual framework in each text emerges from institutional case studies and is generally followed by unambiguous policy prescriptions. None of the institutions studied in the three books has gotten gender completely right, but all are grappling with the issue, some with more success than others. Organizational transformation rarely occurs overnight. The lessons these books share, challenges and accomplishments alike, form a useful blueprint for those seeking gender equality in their own organization's policies, processes, and programs, as well as for advocates of gender equality and organizational change consultants.

The first book, Miller and Razavi's Missionaries and Mandarins: Feminist Engagement with Development Institutions, is an edited volume that focuses on seemingly contrasting political strategies used to make development institutions more responsive to the gendered implications of their work. The case studies presented in this book encompass the International Labor Organization, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank, as well as gender departments of national governments and NGOs in Australia, Canada, Morocco, and Vietnam. The authors argue that development institutions are "too important to ignore" in the struggle for gender equality; hence the need for significant and sustained engagement within institutions that determine development outcomes.

The centerpiece of the chapters in this volume is what the editors call entryism, an engagement strategy where individuals work within institutional structures to promote greater gender equality. The contrasting strategy, disengagement, whose premise is a disbelief in development institutions' ability to promote gender equality, is not presented as a less useful strategy, but rather as an essential component of the process of feminist engagement with institutions. The authors argue that disengagement tactics like external advocacy and calls for greater institutional accountability have a critical role to play vis-à-vis the efforts of change agents within development institutions. Entryism raises essential challenges for change agents in development organizations that are difficult to surmount without external advocacy.

The most obvious challenge is that...