Gender Expertise Research Articles

Transformative indicators? Gender expertise and technocratic peace

Transformative indicators? Gender expertise and technocratic peace

From Norm and Theory to Practice: a Tailor-made GEP for the Institut de Ciències del Mar

The European Commission is fully committed to promoting gender equality in research and innovation. It is a priority for the European Research Area (ERA) and a cross-cutting principle under Horizon Europe. Gender equality plans (GEPs) have been established as the primary instrument for implementing institutional changes in Research Performing Organizations (RPOs) to address structural barriers to gender equality in research and innovation. Within this framework, specific objectives are defined, and thematic areas for intervention are recommended. In this regard, the formulation of a GEP for the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM), implied a broader challenge as it had to comply with diverse national regulatory frameworks. Nevertheless, the variety of reference frameworks, instruments and approaches did not condition the aspiration to design a GEP that fully responded to the specific context of the ICM. Thus, the GEP became the roadmap to generating an organisation cultural change that allows the effective integration of gender equality across all its areas and actions. Drawing from ICM’s experiences, we aim to share the path undertaken by ICM and shed light on the multifaceted challenges encountered during the GEP’s design and successful implementation. There is a pressing need to transition from mere adherence to the normative framework to achieving genuine gender equality in practice. Transforming normative principles into practice requires tailored and individualised strategies, feasible objectives with measurable results, appropriate measures to achieve them, and indicators to measure progress. This challenge involves effective institutional changes that remove obstacles to gender equality, both inherent in the research system and stemming from the institutional model of human resources management, funding, decision-making and research programs. The commitment to gender equality must transcend the field of research and research to encompass all staff and institutional practices. Successfully transitioning from theory to practice requires institutional commitment, data-driven decision-making, resource allocation, stakeholder engagement, internal collaboration, responsibility, leadership, and strong gender expertise. This paper stems from the European Horizon Project Leading Towards Sustainable Gender Equality Plans in RPOs (LeTSGEPs).

Integrating gender expertise into the Canadian Armed Forces: challenges for change agents and culture change.

Gender Advisors (GENADs) have played a key role in the efforts of military organizations worldwide to integrate gender perspectives, and culture change, within the defence and security context. Military organizations, however, continue to face challenges in regard to diversity and inclusion, including limited representation of women and other diverse groups who do not fit the white male, masculine stereotype, and subtle and overt expressions of prejudice and stigma towards under-represented and marginalized groups. In such an organizational context, the integration of gender perspectives has faced challenges, and transformative culture change has remained elusive. In particular, the experience of GENADs suggests that there may be unique challenges to serving as "gender experts" within military organizations. This paper, therefore, examines the lived experience of GENADs within the context of military organizations, as illustrated by GENADs in the Canadian Armed Forces. We consider two qualitative studies on the lived experience of GENADs and focus on the shared theme of legitimacy of gender expertise at both individual and systemic levels. This analysis highlights challenges that gendered power relations may pose for GENADs as individual change agents, and for systemic, transformative culture change, within existing military organizations, while reaffirming the importance of understanding the lived experience of GENADs in their pursuit of more equitable institutional and operational outcomes. Using social-psychological theories of tokenism, we consider more broadly what it means to be the gender person within masculinized military organizations and conclude with reflections on the potential contours of transformative culture change within the military context.

Gendered Socio-Economic Integration: Lessons From the Syria Response

Despite increasing awareness, there are gaps in implementers' policy initiatives and ability to effectively deploy programs that incorporate gender mainstreaming in refugee contexts. Challenges impacting the design and implementation of gender sensitive livelihoods programming are identified based on forty-eight interviews with UN and (I)NGO staff in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). Problems include a lack of gender expertise, internalized gender stereotypes, lack of donor commitment to gender goals, not being able to measure outcomes, and/or time constraints. We highlight best practices that make programs that help women refugees obtain work more successful. At the same time, interviewees raised important questions concerning the appropriate metrics for measuring the success of ‘livelihoods' initiatives, arguing that social integration, increasing women’s soft skills and self-confidence were just as or more important than economic objectives of many initiatives being rolled out.

Abandoning the idealized white subject of legal feminism: A manifesto for silence in a Lusophone register

AbstractThrough an account of white feminisms and white privilege, this article examines the tensions between local and international knowledge frames. The article considers the possibility of a feminist approach to global constitutionalism and argues for a twofold critique: first, a feminist interrogation of the dominance of a specifically male history of Western and Anglo-European knowledge frames; and second, a self-critique within feminist approaches to global legal regimes that acknowledges the complicity of mainstream feminist tools in the racist histories of knowledge production. To this end, the article examines the space of gender expertise to explore how this can be both an aperture for plural feminist encounters and a refinement of diverse feminist approaches into a form digestible by the contours of international institutions. To explore alternative, decolonized encounters, the article centres Lusophone African feminist silence and action in Luanda, the capital of Angola. The article explores how Angolan gender relations, informal labour and histories of protest unsettle the frame of a feminist manifesto, to argue for a place for active silence as a methodology for undoing the status quo of global constitutional expectations of how knowledge arrives at the global and transnational levels.

Making Gender Known: Assembling Gender Expertise in International Organizations

AbstractIn recent decades, gender equality goals have been adopted widely in global policymaking, creating a demand for specialized knowledge and evidence to support the design and implementation of gender equality policies. Bridging feminist scholarship on gender expertise and practice–theoretical literature on knowledge production, this article examines a knowledge production initiative of the World Bank, the Gender Innovation Laboratories (GILs). While research has examined the position of gender experts and the content of gender expertise in global governance, it has overlooked how knowledge about gender is produced. In this paper, we use a practice–theoretical approach—assemblage thinking—to study the practical work mobilized in the GILs to produce, maintain, and disseminate knowledge about gender inequality. Drawing on interviews with lab researchers, documents, and online materials, and focusing on the epistemic practice of impact evaluations, our analysis demonstrates the work invested in assembling them, such as forging alignments with and securing support among stakeholders, activating repertoires of expertise, and translating results into material objects. These practices produce gender inequality as a governance object, which is amenable to technical policy interventions, which facilitates certain forms of action to address it. Yet, they simultaneously silence more political solutions to gender inequalities.

Gender mainstreaming 2.0: emergent gender equality agendas under Sustainable Development Goals

Global governance frameworks have been largely ineffective at advancing gender equality through development cooperation. Gender mainstreaming, understood as a dual strategy comprising initiatives directly targeting gender equality objectives and integrating gender equality agendas across all other areas of policy and practice, remains limited. Based on insight from over 180 development specialists across the multilateral and national contexts of Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, this article situates the unachieved agenda of gender mainstreaming in the broader legitimacy crisis of global development. Traditional gender mainstreaming approaches are critiqued as insufficiently oriented towards the broader paradigm shift of global development that gender equality agendas require. Gender equality advocates are, therefore, increasingly leveraging the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030) as a tool for their broader sector contestation. Through new policy arenas for nationally led development planning and coordination, Agenda 2030 enables cross-sectoral and multi-stakeholder exchange in which gender equality advocates engage as more legitimised actors navigating and strategically challenging traditional paradigms of global development. Dubbed gender mainstreaming 2.0, this emergent strategy is embedded in and contributes to new paradigms of global cooperation that valorise local gender expertise and national ownership.

Scaling-out gender transformative approaches in agriculture research for development

This paper looks at the spread and socialization of gender transformative approaches (GTA) within a network of research and development organizations that focus on gender and agriculture. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 respondents from 19 development and research organizations who work in the agriculture sector and have some interest or engagement with GTA, and we analyzed the scaling drivers and patterns within and beyond this immediate network. The findings show a rapidly growing interest in GTA across the ecosystem, especially among organizations with a strong commitment to helping achieve gender equality. GTA are scaling out across the ecosystem in a nonlinear way, through both direct and indirect strategies. Factors such as the mandate and agency of an organization, as well as the persistence and passion of individual stakeholders appear to be important drivers in influencing how GTA are spreading. Despite the enthusiasm and high momentum for doing gender transformative work across the organizations, this study also surfaces serious reservations about how rapidly the terminology and/or tools related with GTA are being adopted, while there remain widely varying levels of understanding, gender expertise, and funding for the type of intensive effort that is required to achieve a true paradigm shift in the sector.

МОРАЛЬНО-ЕТИЧНЕ ВИХОВАННЯ В ГЕНДЕРНОМУ АСПЕКТІ ЯК ХАРАКТЕРНА РИСА ІДІОСТИЛЮ В. НЕСТАЙКА

The article identifies the characteristics of the psychological traits of Ukrainians, which are existed both in stereotypes of behavior and in the language, and artistic creativity of artists. It is found out that the rapid development of gender studies in the humanities in general and in Ukrainian linguistics in particular, contributes to the need for gender expertise of artistic texts used in the educational process of a comprehensive school. Linguistic means that are functioning in the tetralogy “Forest School” by Vsevolod Nestaiko and demonstrating moral and ethical guidelines are important for the educational process of primary school students in the gender aspect are analyzed. In the article, it is emphasized on the fact that all moral and ethical guidelines that are learned by a person are formed precisely by the means of language, influencing his/her thinking and behavior. It is found out that a stereotype is a formed mental evaluation of any action, thought, etc., which can be reproduced in stereotypical behavior during life circumstances and under certain conditions. On the basis of this statement, gender roles that are a subject to the stereotypical behavior of characters are identified in a tetralogy “Forest School” by V. Nestaiko. The study of gender balance is considered primarily through the provision of proper education of boys and girls, their orientation to partnership and interchangeability in the performance of family and social roles. It is noted that the main principle of such education is to avoid any manifestations of bias and discrimination in the requirements for their education and behavior, mastering future professional, family and public roles based on belonging to a certain gender, and debunking harmful gender stereotypes.

Troubled Comparative Trajectories and the Statistical Construction of Disempowered Arab and Muslim Women Subjects

AbstractSince 9/11, a number of scholars added gender as a new variable to explain how economic, political, and/or social developments in the Middle East have diverged from developments elsewhere. These studies relied almost exclusively on statistical analysis and frequently discounted much of the extant literature, especially the more feminist and historically sensitive and in-depth qualitative works on the subject matter. Almost uniformly, the point of departure for many of these works was the disempowered socioeconomic and/or political status of Arab/Muslim women. Most of the scholars of these works had no gender expertise and had never written on women previously. Regardless, these works spawned an important discussion in the field of comparative politics and their scholarly impact has been noteworthy. Such scholarship, however, is not benign.Accordingly, this article seeks to answer two critical questions: How does the work of non-gender specialists of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) come to have such a significant impact on the study of women and politics in the field of comparative politics? How can we approach these research inquiries differently so that expertise, lived realities, and history matter? The article argues that feminist international relations could serve as a critical corrective to this current trajectory of comparative politics research. This corrective also requires a commitment to feminist scholarship that begins with women's lives and seeks to eliminate gender inequality, as well as greater understanding of the composition and changing structure of our disciplinary communities.

Negotiating gender expertise in environment and development: voices from feminist political ecology

Negotiating gender expertise in environment and development: voices from feminist political ecology

Shattered glass piling at the bottom: The ‘problem’ with gender equality policy for higher education

Since 2014, gender equality has gained momentum in Irish higher education. Feminist organising and media attention resulted in an ‘almost-perfect storm of pressure’ to which the state responded by developing an ‘ambitious and radical’ policy. Employing Bacchi's methodology (WPR), this article demonstrates the problem of gender inequality has been gradually narrowed to address the lack of ‘women’ in senior positions. Competing problematisations were marginalised. The unequal distribution of care work in and out of higher education was ignored, silencing the gendered experiences of academics and non-academics, particularly precarious and outsourced staff. The policy machinery is found to reduce gender transformation to state-led stages and sideline feminist demands, highlighting the need to investigate the role of gender expertise and national statistics. The focus on the glass ceiling (a trend across Europe) is a form of ‘gender branding’ drawing on and reproducing neo-colonial progress-scales while stalling intersectional agendas.

“I Wouldn’t Want to Be a Gender Expert:” Gender Experts in Peace Mediation

Abstract Peace mediation is a professional practice that is increasingly reliant on thematic technical experts, including gender experts. The strategy of including gender expertise in peace mediation reflects the Women, Peace and Security agenda and the call to include dedicated gender expertise in all peacemaking efforts. Based on interviews with peace mediation practitioners, the article analyzes the role of gender experts in peace mediation. We argue that there is a tension between the art of mediation and the art of gender expertise that reflects the gendered power dynamics of peace mediation. We conclude that the strategy of appointing gender experts to peace mediation teams will not “dismantle the master’s house.” However, we acknowledge that without a gender expert very little will be accomplished on this issue. For peace mediation to address the gendered foundations of conflict we argue for the development of an alternate feminist peace mediation practice.

ГЕНДЕРНІ АСПЕКТИ «ПРИХОВАНОГО НАВЧАЛЬНОГО ПЛАНУ»

This article is devoted to the analysis of the results of theoretical and applied research of gender aspects of the "hidden curriculum" at the level of secondary educational institution. It is determined that the Ukrainian education system declares the importance of gender equality, proclaims the development of gender-oriented education, but gender stereotypes are often reproduced in practice of educational activities, certain gender roles and patterns of thinking, social expectations, ways of behaving are imposed, that is, the gender aspects of the "hidden curriculum" are implemented. The article presents an analysis of gender aspects of such structural elements of the "hidden curriculum" as the educational environment of a secondary school; the content of education; interpersonal communication in the learning process. In the study of the components of the "hidden curriculum" were used: gender analysis of the educational institution with the calculation of the index of gender parity; web application (Voyant Tools) for analysis of school documentation; questionnaires, interviews, surveys to identify gender stereotypes and segregation by gender; gender expertise of textbooks in certain fields of gender analysis; gender expertise of lessons. The analysis of the results of the survey of teachers and gender expertise of lessons showed manifestations of "hidden curriculum" among educators. Gender stereotypes about the "sexuality" of human qualities and psychological traits were revealed; rejection of feminine gender-specific job title and gendered educational space; support for various programs for girls and boys on labor training (Design and technology). Although the vast majority of educators consider achieving gender equality a pressing issue, they acknowledge their ignorance of the "hidden curriculum" and are willing to work with gender experts. The results of the survey of the students in 5-8 grades also confirmed the presence of gender stereotypes in the communication of teachers with the students; the dominance of students' sympathies for various subjects; found gender stereotypes regarding the use of free time. Gender examination of textbooks revealed a small number of gender stereotypes and showed positive changes in terms of gender equality and sensitivity in the new textbooks.

Understanding Gender Expertise in the Post-Truth Era: Media Representations of Gender-Based Analysis Plus in Canada

In this paper, we explore the post-truth era as a contextual factor in how gender expertise is constituted, challenged, and defended in policy discourse in Canadian context. Using post-structural policy analysis to explore the contours of media scrutiny and the resulting debate about gender-based analysis plus (GBA+), Canada’s approach to gender mainstreaming, we reveal that it was ultimately a debate about the role of gender/intersectional expertise within government. We demonstrate that GBA+, and the gender expertise informing it, was often represented in mainstream media as either a “political intervention” or as a “technical tool”, both of which reinforce traditional representations of policy expertise, including political neutrality and professional competence, which, in the past, have been used to justify the exclusion of “other” forms of knowledge. In unpacking these representations, we suggest that, even among critics of post-truth claims, post-truth discourse offers a new vocabulary, anchored in what Ringrose (2018, 653) refers to as “post-truth anti-feminism”, which emphasizes not simply identity politics, but also potential harm resulting from interventions based on feminist knowledge. We also suggest that such claims have resulted in a distancing between gender expertise and feminism, thus contributing to the erasure of feminist knowledge in policy contexts.

Issues of Gender Expertise of Drafts of Normative Legal Acts: Experience of Uzbekistan

This article studies the significance of gender expertise in drafting laws, which strengthen legal bases of democratic reforms in the Republic of Uzbekistan, aim of expertise and its importance. Some suggestions on improvement of the mechanism of gender expertise have been developed.

WOMEN’S POLITICAL RIGHTS IN A SOCIETY OF GENDER EQUALITY

Background. In the XX-XXI centuries politics is becoming an increasingly professional field of activity, to which more and more women are joining. Insufficient representation of the latter in state bodies gives grounds for doubts about the democracy of the state system, which determined the relevance of the study. Analysis of recent research and publications. Various aspects of the position of woman in Ukrainian politics have been studied by T. Martseniuk, Ya. Radysh, V. Smachylo, and G. Yurovska, but today we are required to carry out a comprehensive legal analysis of the formation of a gender equality society in Ukraine. The aim of the article is to study national legislation on the issue of gender equality in the political sphere, taking into account international standards; analysis of mechanisms for increasing the number of women in politics based on the generalization of the experience of developed democracies. Materials and methods, that were used - dialectical, comparative analysis, systemic, formal and legal scientific methods and principles. Results. An important aspect of the struggle of women for their political rights was that the latest constitutions of the states enshrined the principle of equality of citizens, including in the electoral process, regardless of gender, race and political views. Analysis of the political experience of social democracies has shown that the participation of women deputies in the work of parliaments and other representative institutions is extremely important and effective for society as a whole, because they focus on health care, upbringing, education, social protection of population, etc. In Ukraine, equality between woman and man has been established de jure, but gender stereotypes regarding the distribution of roles continue to dominate society and consciousness. The most successful international practices include the creation of a parliament on the basis of gender equality through the application of: positive actions for the implementation of gender quotas; creation of state institutions to monitor the observance of equal rights for women and men; implementation of gender expertise of bills. Conclusion. Our study has improved the thesis that in Ukraine there is an objective need to change the patriarchal type of political culture. In this regard, we have proposed measures that can increase the status of Ukrainian woman in politics: to further monitor national legislation; introduce national mechanisms to ensure the representation of women in government; create the necessary economic conditions for the implementation of women's political activity. Keywords: gender equality, democracy, parliamentarism, women’s political rights.

Where is the justice in EU anti-trafficking policy? Feminist reflections on European Union policy-making processes

In this article, we reflect on our personal experience of acting as ‘independent academic experts’ in an European Union (EU) policy forum, to reflect on how the EU utilises gender to legitimise certain policy discourses in combating sex trafficking. Starting from our personal experience, we draw on wider feminist research on gender expertise and on Fraser’s new reflexive theory of political injustice, to consider how the EU structures debates in this area to determine ‘who’ is entitled to speak and be heard on this issue. In a context in which sex trafficking policy intersects with a variety of competing agendas on – among other things – law and order, organised crime, immigration, asylum and border security policy, our argument will suggest that the exclusion of critical feminist voices and lack of alternative perspectives permits much scope for continuing inequality and injustice.

Making and unmaking culture: gender experts, faith, and the international governance of gender

ABSTRACT This article explores the workings of gender expertise inside the institutions of the international governance system as it engages with faith-based actors. Utilizing narratives of gender experts, documentary analysis, and observation, I focus on these experts’ encounters regarding gender equality and women’s rights with religious leaders, religious actors, and conservative governments. Focusing on episodes in which the terms “cultural difference” and “religion” are used synonymously, first, I show how encounters between transnational actors can play a role in hegemonic interpretations of these terms. Second, I explore how powerful actors can become more authoritative in making claims of cultural difference or how the existing distribution of power may be disrupted. I contend that these power relations affect discussions of gender equality. My goal is to contribute to feminist debates by highlighting the ways in which these transnational interactions disrupt assumptions of West versus East. Paying attention to these complex processes can challenge ethnocentric and racist discourses without taking claims of cultural difference at face value.

Gender Knowledge and Gender Expertise: The Implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in Swedish State Agencies

Abstract Through an analysis of the Swedish government development program for gender mainstreaming in state agencies—the JIM (Jämställdhet i myndigheter)program—this article analyzes how gender equality is constructed (gender knowledge) and what role specialized knowledge (gender expertise) has in policy implementation. The article claims that even in best-case scenarios, such as Sweden, where intensive efforts to integrate a gender perspective have been undertaken, gender knowledge is based on visions and strategies that do not question prevailing policy paradigms. However, cross-cutting and intersectional conceptualizations of gender equality have created epistemic space for transformative interventions on the part of gender experts.