Developing gender mainstreaming and 'gender respect'

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming has become the dominant development discourse for achieving gender equity in developing regions. It is the most recent in a series of strategies that have had varying success in delivering the feminist goals of women’s emancipation and gender equity in developing regions such as Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Gender mainstreaming is arguably a depoliticised and toned-down version of its predecessors, which attempts to avoid direct feminist confrontations while ultimately aiming not to exclude or threaten stakeholders in the development process. Experience indicates that as a result, gender mainstreaming is in danger of becoming yet another ineffective tool to promote gender equity. Much groundwork has been laid for promoting gender mainstreaming in developing countries, and, since the 1995 International Women’s Conference in Beijing, there have been some serious attempts to implement these strategies. Tempting though it may be to resign ourselves to the status quo, we argue that the status of women can only be advanced through gender mainstreaming strategies that are first adapted to each specific culture, place and political context, and which address the concerns and aspirations of locally active agents of change. Essentially self-critical, our writing here is borne out of our own work with women and men on gender issues and gender mainstreaming in Fiji, Indonesia and East Timor. This experience of gender mainstreaming training has brought into sharp relief the pitfalls of using generalised resources in strictly time-bounded workshops. At the same time, we have identified opportunities to ‘do’ gender mainstreaming more effectively. The challenge ultimately lies in attempting to merge feminist theory with bureaucratic practice.