EVALUATING
GENDER
EQUALITY
from a systems
perspective
WHAT THIS PRESENTATION COVERS
 INTRODUCTION
 What is gender equality?
 What are we trying to change?
 What do we know about a theory of change for progress on gender equality?
 Pause for questions and comments
 EVALUATING GENDER EQUALITY
 Evaluating gender capacity (architecture)
 Evaluating strategic gender interventions

Evaluating mainstreaming

Pause for questions and comments
 Looking at the draft MDG on gender equality (exercise)
 Other dimensions of equity (time permitting)
WHAT IS GENDER EQUALITY?
Equality between women and men (gender
equality): refers to the equal rights,
responsibilities and opportunities of women and
men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean
that women and men will become the same but
that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities
and opportunities will not depend on whether
they are born male or female.
UN Women
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/conceptsandefinitions.htm
WHY IS GENDER EQUALITY IMPORTANT?
Because fully using the talent, creativity and
energy of every human being strengthens
societies – you can’t go very fast if you leave
half the population lagging behind (World Bank report
2012; BRAC 1994)
Because discrimination against any group is
unjust – women’s rights are human rights (UN
Conference on Human Rights,Vienna 1994)
DIFFERENT BELIEFS ABOUT GENDER
RELATIONS
Gender relations are biologically determined
(see Fine, Delusions of Gender)
Gender relations are socially constructed
Dinnerstein, Mermaid and Minotaur)
Gender relations are divinely ordained
It’s the economy, stupid (see K. Marx)
(see
GENDER ANALYSIS ASKS THE FOLLOWING
QUESTIONS ABOUT WORK INSIDE THE
FAMILY AND IN THE LARGER SOCIETY
Who does what?
Who has access to and controls resources
and benefits?
Who has decision-making power and
influence?
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE TO FOSTER
GREATER EQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN
AND MEN?
WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO CHANGE?
Individual
Change
Women’s
and men’s
consciousness
Access to
resources &
opportunities
Informal
Formal
Informal cultural
norms and
exclusionary
practices
Formal
laws, policies, etc.
Institutional/Systemic
change
ARTICULATING OUR THEORY OF CHANGE &
MAPPING A CHANGE STRATEGY
TO LOOK AT THE FINAL
FRAMEWORK, WATCH THIS VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
vJG698U2Mvo
WHY IT’S EASY TO PERPETUATE GENDER
INEQUALITY
 We ‘see’ what we expect to see
 We ‘see’ what reinforces our existing beliefs– we ignore contradictory
evidence
 If we do see something unexpected, we tend to explain it to align with
existing beliefs ‘it’s the exception that proves the rule’
 Habits and beliefs, especially deeply formed habits like those about
gender relations, are more likely to be invisible
BUT WE CAN TEACH OURSELVES TO BE
MORE AWARE
RESOURCES
 www.genderatwork.org
 Cordelia Fine, Delusions of Gender, New York, Norton 2010
 Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid and The Minotaur, Harper & Row
1976
 Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/womens-empowerment-agricultureindex
 http://care.ca/sites/default/files/files/publications/IWDreport-med.pdf
 http://www.ilo.org/dyn/gender/docs/RES/536/F932374742/web%20gende
r%20manual.pdf
THANK YOU