Getting Institutions Right for Women

Women’s Leadership in the

International Arena

‘Governance is presumed to be gender-neutral. But in practice, the discourse, procedures, structures and functions of governance remain heavily skewed in favour of men in general, and certain groups of men in particular.’

(Ashworth 1996:1)

Gender and Governance

A gendered analysis of governance has to bridge the separation of the public and private spheres of life.

It has to look at how gender relations in the private domain intersect with the tiers of governance in the public arena.

Women and Governance

• What sort of power do women exercise, where, how, and to what ends?

• What are the processes which empower women and how are their interests represented?

• How are women involved in decision-making and what difference does it make?

• How are governance structures and processes accountable to women?

Women’s participation in democracy and state building

• Encouraging women’s representation at all levels of government;

• Focus on local government – as a key site for women’s political participation as it is closest to women and their immediate concerns;

• recognition and support for women’s roles in conflict resolution, peace building and post-conflict societies;

• Promotion of mainstreaming of ‘gender’ across all government departments and non-government institutions:– giving women greater opportunities for decision-making – gender analysis of their policies and programs to ensure more

gender equitable results.

Human Rights and Legal Reform

• Women’s rights are human rights - those who espouse human rights (including the right to self-determination) need to recognize women have rights too;

• Violence against women is a human rights violation which prevents women from participating fully in development and has to be combated by a whole range of measures;

• Making sure that legal and constitutional reform includes measures to protect women’s rights and prevent discrimination - and developing women’s legal literacy to claim these rights.

At the economic level

• women’s economic participation – recognizing and valuing women’s economic roles in economic policy making;

• analysis of budgets and demanding accountability for resource allocations on a gender equitable basis; giving women economic literacy to analyse what’s happening, and advocacy training to have their input;

• combating corruption – there is some evidence of an association between women’s participation and reduced corruption.

Example 1: Melanesian women’s groups

• Women’s groups (church based) provide opportunities to share their concerns, build confidence, develop leadership and articulate their issues to men;

• The women try to convince men to change (eg reduce violence, make peace) by appeal to the good of the community.

Example 2: South Africa: budgets and local governance

• A budget is a key document which affects whether poor black women’s needs are being addressed – women are analyzing budgets in gender terms and advocating for better outcomes

• Efforts to engage women more in local government processes of integrated development planning are encountering many barriers;

• Women are alienated from participation in deciding issues of service delivery by lack of information, and insufficient effort on the part of local governments to consult them.

• Better results are being achieved where councils work with women through their own community based organizations.

Example 3: Women and self-determination: Timor-Leste

• Building a national women’s coalition• Holding District and National women’s

conferences (Yr 2000)• Establishing a Platform for Action (policies in a

whole range of areas)• Gaining 27% representation in the new

parliament (Yr 2001)• Tackling violence against women• Reviewing progress on the Platform (Yr 2004)

Gender Blindness

Unless Indigenous governance structures and processes are explicit about gender equity they will quite unintentionally miss opportunities for strengthening gender equity in both processes and outcomes

How does this relate to ‘cultural match’?

Feminist transformative leadership

A. Vision & Commitment• Equality• Equity• Empowerment• Human rights• Peace• Sustainability• Shared power,

responsibility & well-being

B. Institutional Behavior• Participatory• Egalitarian• Responsive• Transparent• Accountable• Non-corrupt• Consensus-oriented• Empowering .