women's rights and development: vision and strategy for the twenty-first century

8/7/2019 Women's Rights and Development: Vision and strategy for the twenty-first century

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W omen's Rights and D evelopm ent

Vision and Strategy for the Twenty-first Century

A seminar organised by On e World Action, Oxfem UK /I, th e Ge nd er Institute of theLo ndo n School of Economics, and Q ueen Elizabeth H ous e, U niversity of Oxford

Held at Wolfson College, Ox ford, May 24 1995

Report compiled by Mandy M acdonald

Oxfam (UK and Ireland) and O ne World Action


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Oxfam 1995

A catalogue rec or d for this book is available from the B ritish Libra ry.

ISBN 0855 98 340 X

Published by Oxfem (UK and I rela nd ) 274 Ban bury Road, Oxford OX 2 7DZwith One W orld A ction, Floor5 W edde l Ho use , 13/14 West Smithfield, L ond onEC1A 9H Y

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Preface

The seminar held on 24 May 1995, Women'srights and development: vision and strategyfor the twenty-first century, provided a shortbut stimulating apace to think and talk, toreflect on what had been achieved on women'srights in the last 20 years, and to discuss how

we should move forward. It was an opportuni-ty for women's rights and gender and develop-ment specialists from European and SouthernNGOs and academic institutions to shift atten-tion from the process leading to the BeijingFourth World Conference on Women, andthink ahead about policy priorities for the nextdecade. The presence in die UK of representa-tives of women's networks, development andwomen's rights organisations from Africa,South America, and Asia (several of whomwere in Oxford for a meeting of the AdvisoryBoard of Oxfam's journal, Gender andDevelopjneni) contributed greatly to the successof this dialogue.

Over the last 20 years the policy agenda onwomen's rights, women and development, andgender and development has expanded. Asthe commitment to applying a gender analysisto our work has grown, so has the policy agen-da; no area of policy can be neglected. Thechallenge for activists and researchers is toclarify the policy connections, identify thestrategic policy areas, and build local, national,and international alliances across diverse inter-ests.

One World Action and Oxfam UK andIreland would like to thank the GenderInstitute of the London School of Economics,and Queen Elizabeth House, University ofOxford, for their collaboration in organisingthis seminar.

Helen O'ConnellOne World ActionOctober 1995


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IntroductionHelen O'Connell, One World Action

Th is semina r has an ambitious title; but at thistime, whe n we a re all very much involved in th eBeijing proc ess, itis perh aps a good oppo rtunityto try to think beyo nd Beijing and consider whatthe future might bring. Women and develop-me nt, as an issue an d a discipline, has bee n onthe international agenda since the early 1970s.Gender and development, gender analysis, andgender planning have gained internationalacceptance since the early 1980s. CEDAW, theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women, was ope ned forratification in 1979. It is time to assess whatprogress we have made, how women havegained or retained their rights.

Much ha s been achieved. Very many women

can now exerc ise m ore fully their civil, political,sodo-eco nomic, an d cultural rights. Many haveimproved access to education and training ofreasonably good quality, and control overincome, property and o ther resources. In mostcountries, women are taking decisions in localand national structures and in political, com-mercial, civil, an d social organisations. In almostall countries, there are strong women's organ-isations and international networks linkingthem. There is a wealth of good research. Wehave improved government andmultilateralpolicy stateme nts, with at leastsome recognitionthat the conventional development approach,integrating women into the developmentmod el, is no lon ger valid, that gender relationsare at th e co re of social, economic, political, andcultural life, and that those complex relationsare inequ itable in almost all aspects.

Yet, in all countries, progress towardsgenuine equality and equity is slight andprecar ious. Th er e has been no significant red is-tribution of resources, nor any real sharing ofpower. Poverty am ong women, as amon g manymen and child ren, is at appalling levels. Th ereare ev er-wide ning disparities in wealth, employ-ment, and productive resources. Disregard ofwomen 's rights is commonplace. Moreov er, theground gained by women at UN conferences

only a few years ago is now having to bedefended. What was agreed at the UNConference on Hum an R ights at Vienn a in 1993was questioned at the Inte rnati ona l Conferenceon Population and De velopmen t in 1994. Whatwas agreed at the Population Conference in1994 is now unde r serious thr eat in the processleading up to the Fourth World Conference onWomen at Beijing.

The free-market model of economicdevelopment has reach ed new levels of univers-ality and sophistication with the new liberalisa-tion policies of the 1980s and 1990s, linked tothe debt crisis. This economic m odel , despite allits obvious shortcomings and its inherent con-tradictions and inconsistencies, is still dom ina nt

worldwide. We have a new World TradeOrganisation, but it shows the same old lack ofrepresentation and accountability. Integral tothe market economy is a challenge to the veryconcep t of social solidarity w hich is the founda -tion of our welfare systems in Europe and ofsuch welfare systems as exist in othe r count ries.We are told that we can no lon ger afforduniversal benefits.

There are other threats: religious funda-mentalism of all persuasions poses a serious

dang er to women's rights, as do racism, nation-alism, ethnic conflict, and regressive immigra-tion policies. Conflict has become yet anotherissue high on our agenda: not only militaryconflict but also civil conflict and conflict overdwindling natural resources. This conflict hasproduced many millions of refugees. Thechanges in Eastern and Central Europe addanother new item to our agenda; they have notonly brought about dr am atic differences withinEurope but have also changed the wholebalance of relations between whatwe used to callthe North and the South.

However, there are a n um be r of policy areasthat offer some possibility for progress towardsequality in gender relations. First ofall, ther e isthe whole policy area of hu m an rights. CEDAWhas been very poorly implemented and


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Women in the N ew World O rder: Voices of Workers

from the Th ird WorldSwasti Mitter, United Nations University Institute for New Technologies(UNU/INTECH), Maastricht

I want to share with you today my ownevaluation of the effects of globalisation on theworking lives of women in the developingworld, and the dema nds that women themselvesare making to ensure dignity and security in th emidst of a rapidly changing world order. Thematerial for this pa peris primarily based on theresearch I have co-ordinated at the Institute inthe area of gender, technology, and develop-ment. O ur partners in research have been eitherwomen workers' organisations themselves (Ng,1994), or academics closely associated with suchorganisations (Mitter an d Rowbotham, 1995).'

What is the new wor ld order?At this point, I should like to make an apologyfor the use of the term 'new world order'. likemost cliches, this has often been used in animprecise and subjective manner. But, likemany other cliches, it also has an evocativequality: it captures the current uncertainty inthe economic and political spheres. T he collapseof socialism and the end of the Cold Warsparked alternative visions of the emergingworld order. While Fukuyama's The End ofHistory and the Last Man (1992) celebrated the

victory of the ideals of capitalism, EricHobsbawm's The Age of Extremes (1994: 584)wa rned us that the forces of the techno-scientificeconomy are great enoug h to destroy the envir-onm ent, th e material foundations of hum an life,and the structures of hu m an societiesby the endof the millennium. T heway the world is orderedis influenced by ideals an d visions, and yet theirassessment is beyond th e scope of my talk.

As I am an economist by training and aprofessor of business management by occupa-tion, it is understandable that I prefer to limitmyself to the materialistic explanations of thenew world order. I begin with the W orld B ank'sdefinition of itas a globalisation phenomenon:

World merchandise exports have risen from 11 to18 per cent of world GDP over the past two decades.

Services have increased from 15 per cent of worldtrade to over 22 per cent since 1980. One ofsevenequity trades worldwide involves a foreigner as acounterpart. And world sales of foreign affiliates ofmultinational corporations may now wellexceed theworld's total exports.

What do these statistics have in comm on?Globalisation, a change that is transforming the worldeconomy ... [by] widening and intensifyinginternational linkages in trade and inance. It is beingdriven ,by a near-universal push toward ...liberalisation,... and [by] technological change that isfast eroding barriers tothe international tradability ofgoods and services and the mobility of thecapital.(World Bank, 1995:1)

If the liberalisation programmes were thecatalytic factor, the information revolution hasincreased the speed of internationalisation.Computers and computer-aided technologieshave ma de it easy for m anufac turing companiesto locate production externally, to geograph-ically dispersed units within an d across nations.Such externalisation of work has been madepossible since digital technology has givenrise tothe miniaturisation of machines , as in personalcomputers; the modularisation of products, asin automobiles and television sets; the frag-

mentation of prod uctio n processe s, as in textilesand clothing.

The potential for out-sourcing productionactivities has led, significantly, to profoundchanges in the philosophy and practices ofmanagem ent in the corporate world. The pursuitof 'lean management', Japanese style, hasresulted in a 'down-sizing' of companie s, keepingthe n um ber of core workers in th e main site to aminim um, a nd relying as mu ch as possible on anetwork of subcontractors (Kaplinsky, 1994).

The result has been a substantial reduction inpersonnel in paren t companies and a more thancommensurate increase in foreign affiliates andthe offshore an d onshore subcontrac ting units ofcorporate organisations.

The relationship between the parentcompany and the foreign affiliates has also

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Women's rights and development

become multidimensional, entailing a morecomplex integration at the corporate level.Foreign affiliates ten d to specialise now in one ofthe many key functions such as assembly,

proc urem ent, finance, or research and develop-ment, with the common governance and aunified corporate strategy. With the growingimportance of intra-firm international divisionof labour, the distinction between affiliate andthe parent firm becomes less pronounced. Thecorporate organisation resembles more anetwork than a hierarchy. The n again:

.. .Ihese networks are connected -with other corporatenetworks through a variety of linkages, ranging fromsubcontracting, to licensing agreements and strategic

alliances. (UNCTA D, 1994:139)It becomes difficult to determine the

bou nda ry of a particular firm.An in crease in t he share of service activities in

global trade is ano ther feature of the new worldorder (World Bank, 1995). Advances intelecommunication technology, includingexpansion in electronic networks, havepropelled this growth. The growth has beenparticularly pronounced in information-intensive activities suchas data en try , analysis ofincome statement or development of computersoftware. These activities are particularlysuitable for out-sourcing and thus forinternationalisation.

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI)significantly reflects the trend in world trade,favouring service industries over other s (W or ld s-Bank, 1995:4).

Transnational corporation (TNC) activities,in the manufacturing and service sectors, thusdominate urban industrial employment of thedeveloped and developing world. At a veryconservative estimate , there are now 150 millionpeople working, directly and indirectly, for t h e "TNCs, representing 20 pe r cent of em ploymen tin the non-agricultural sector (UNCTAD , 1994:xxiii).Echoing Fukuyama, the World Bankobserves (1995:52) an 'end of geog raphy ' in ou rtransnationalised information era.

Gainers and lose rsIn this global order, countries that attract agreater volume of FDI stand a better ch ance ofachieving a high rate of growth and inter-national competitiveness. It has become lesscommon in ou r profession to question t he desir-ability of such goals, either in the developed orin the developing world .

Overall, developing countries have donewell. Between 1986 and 1993, investment flowsto developing countries increased fivefold,accounting for 33 per cent in 1992 and anestimated 4 1 pe r c ent in, 1993 of global FD I.South, East and South-east Asia, as well as Latin

Table 1: Som e of the largest recip ients of foreign-direct-investment flows in thedeve loping world j 1986-1992: actual amounts and rates of growth(Millions of dollars and percentag e)

Host economy (selected)

ChinaSingapore

Mexico

Malaysia

Brazil

Argentina

All deve loping co untries

Percentage share of the10 largesthost c oun tries * in total inflows todeveloping countries

1985

1,6591,047

491

695

1,348

919

13,582

68

1988

3,1943,655

2,594

2,332

2,969

1,147

27,772

73

1990

3,48715,263

2,632

4,469

901

1,836

31,266

74

1992

1,1565,635

5,366

1,454

4,179

39,060

76

* Th e other four countries are Hong K ong , Thailand, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Sources: UNC TAD, Division on Transnational Corporations and Investment, based on International Monetary Fund,balance-of-paymems tape, retrieved in April 1994; estimates o f the Organisation for Econom ic Co-operation andDevelopment

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Table 2: The ascent and descent of the 'big three' econom ic bloc s

l .OECD

2. CHINA

INDIA

INDONESIA

3. Six eme rging economies*

Share of Gross World Prod uct

Estimated 1990

54.0

11.3

4.1

1.7

10.1

Projected 2010

44.1

19.1

5.1

2.2

14.2

Rate of Growth(annual percentages)

1990-2010

2.7

6.5

4.9 - "

5.2

5.5

Ho ng K ong, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan an d T hailand.

America - but not Africa - participated in thisincrease (UNCTAD, 1994: 13). In fact, 76 percent of the total FDI to developing countries isconcentrated in only ten developing countriesof Asia and Latin America. China has em ergedas the largest recipient, accounting for nearlyone-diird of total FDI flows to developingnations. In contrast, Africa's share declinedfrom 12 pe r cent in 1985 to less tha n 7 pe r centin 1993.

Rates of growdi in per capita income infavoured Asian countries reflect the efforts ofFDI (Tables 1 and 2) and seriously question t hevalidity of grouping disparate countries fromAsia, Africa and Latin America in anundifferentiated category called 'die ThirdWorld'.

T he us e of information technology - thespearhead of globalisation - likewise has beenfor from uniform. If one takes the number ofcomputers registered on the Internet, a

reasonable indicator of die spread of thistechnology, one can say that the informationrevolution has,so far, elude d mos t of Africa an da large proportion of people in Asia (WorldBank, 1995: 46). In sub-Saharan Africa, 70 percent of the labour force are employed in theagricultural sector; in Asia, the comparablefigure is 65 per cent. The majority of people indie non-European world still rely on die localeconomy and traditional technologies: global-isation is by no m eans universal.

Even the countries diat have had consid-erable success in attracting capital do notnecessarily diereby ensure a certain future. T herece nt Mexican crisis illustrates the dam age tha tdeveloping countries encounter from hostingspeculative, portfolio investments from abroad.Globalisation is not always beneficial.

It is against diis background tha t I wish to setdie challenges and opportunities that dieworkers and th e worker s' movem ent face in ourtransnationalised world. Industrial workers, th efocus of my analysis, account for only a smallproportion of die workforce in the developingworld. In diat workforce, die proportion ofwomen is even smaller. Y et die issues, I feel, arevital, as potential gains and losses in die non-agricultural jobs become die major arena of

negotiation between die developed and diedeveloping world (Wood, 1994; Sachs andShatz, 1994).

Women's gains in the servicessectorIt is in this context di at die question of womenindustrial workers becomes especially signifi-cant. In open economies, women have becomemajor beneficiaries as well as pr im e losers in d ie

restructuring process. A focus on womenhighlights die contradictory nature of impactsof globalisation (Mitter an d Rowbodiam, 1995):a feature dia t is omitted from aggregate figuresrelated eidier to gross domestic products or toFDI.

Some of die major areas of expansion in dieglobalised economy are banking, finance andinsurance. In numerical terms, women havedone well, often gaining jobs at the expense ofmen. It is not possible as yet to give an exact

estimate of women's gains in dies e sectors in th edeveloping world. Some of die micro-studies,documented through research at UNU/INT ECH , however, capture die current trend.

In die last two decades, the Indian bankingindustry has experienced nearly 300 per centgrowdi in employment; women have gained a

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major sh are of the job s. Women have faredparticularly well in foreign bank s. In Citibank,Bombay, less that 5 per cent of th e worke rs werewomen in the early 1970s. They currently

account for more than 70 per cent of the totalworkforce. Women are represented, but onlymarginally, in the programming and manage-me nt are as; but they are m arkedly visible in theclerical and da ta-entry work.

T he rationale for recruiting wom en is stereo-typical but works in favour of women.Acc ording to a un ion official in B omb ay:

Management feels women are better on computers[than men] asthey have routine clerical skills ...[besides,] mana gement realises that wom en aresubmissive ... and have less time for union work.(Gothoskar, 1995:165)

As th e sh are of new obs , requiring computerliteracy, rises, the tra ditionaljobs, such a s thoseof sorters or messengers, become redundant.The result has been a decline in the'bargain able' posts - p osts that carr y with themthe automatic rights of unionisation. Womensee the ambivalent effects of the emergingsituation on th e quality of their wo rkin glives:

As a unionist I wouldoppose computerisation [andliberalisation]; as an employee, I wou ld welcome it.This is my dilemma. (Gothoskar, 1995: 154)

The emergence of a new white-collar femaleworkforce in the information era makesparticularly clear the need to differentiateworkers, on grounds other than gender(Gannage, 1995; Ng an d Yong,1995). The newlow-skilled data -entry w orkers sh ar e with blue-collar women workers some conc erns relating totheir m ultiple roles as workers, mo the rs, wives,and ho mem akers. Nonetheless, the new white-collar workers belong to a relatively moreprivileged class and hence have demands thatare different from those of the blue-collarworkers. In a programme for initiating orstrengthening workers' organisations, itbecomes important to bear in mind thedivergent needs and backgrounds of specificgroups of women workers. Ethnicity, too,moulds a worker's identity and status. Theexpe rienc e of Malaysia, as rec oun ted by CeciliaNg and Carol Yong (1995: 186), in the contextof the telecommunications industry, isilluminating on this point:

... ethnic and class differentials are as imp ortant as(and sometimes more important than) genderdifferentials. In the telecomm unications sector, the

hierarchical occupational ladder prevents the majorityof men and wom en from climbing to the top ... but it^remains easier or Malays of either sex or or Chines^'men. Indians... remain at the bottom.

The opening up of the national economiesand the rising share of the information-intensive services in the world export tradeherald fresh opportunities in some of the larg erand economically more powerful developing"nations. India and Brazil have made consider-able inroads, for example, into the softwarepro gram min g sector, both as consumers an d asproducers (World Bank, 1995: Mitter andPearson, 1992). The software industry hascrea ted lucrative jobs , for men as well as forwomen.

Wom en account for nearly 48 per cent of allinformation processing jobs in Brazil: t helargest number are in simple data-processingwork. Nonetheless, women have managed toget nearly 20 per cent or more of the softwareprogramming and developmental work - amuch better record than that in the traditionalprofessional jobs, such as engineering (Gaio,1995). In India, on a conservative estimate,women occupy nearly 20 per cent of software

and relatedjobs. With the rising importance ofthe 'soft' side of technical knowledge, such ascommunications and user-producer interac-tion, women in future are likely to achievegreater economic power in the managerial an dtechnical echelons. In the fields of software orinformation-intensive management, valuesassociated with femininity such as teamwork,service orientation, and communication skills,are becoming highly prized. The picture of aconfident Asian woman executive alongside

Peter Drucke r, on the cover of the March 1995issue of the management magazine WorldExecutive Digest, is a telling sign of ou r times.

Women lose out in blue-collarjobsThe position of blue-collar workers in theemerging economic order, by contrast, is lessoptimistic and more complex. Robotic tech-nology reduces the need for labour-intensive

assembly-line work and thus for cheap un skilledlabour in the developing world.As we move, inthe area of world trade and competition, fromthe notion of labour- or capital-intensive toknowledge-intensive modes of production,TNCs direct their investment to countries thatoffer the promise of cheap, skilled labour and

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Mitter, S (1994b) 'An overview', in Martens andMit ter (1994) .

Mitter, S, and R Pearson (1992) Global informationprocessing: the emergence of software an d data entry obs in

selected developed countries,Sectoral Activities

Programm e W orking Papers, ILO, Geneva.

Mitter, S, and S Rowbotham (1995) Women EncounterTechnology: Perspectives of the Third World, Rout ledge,London .

Ng , C, (ed.) (1994) 'New Techn ologies and the F utureof Wom en's Work in Asia: Conference Proceedings o fthe Workshop held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia',UNU/INTECH, Maast r icht .

Ng , C, and C Yo ng (1995) ' Information technology,gender and employment: a case study of thetelecommunications industry in Malaysia', in Mitterand Rowbotham (1995) .

Pearson, R, and S Mitter (1993). 'Employment andworking conditions of low-skilled informationprocessing workers in less developed countries',International Labour Review 132 (1).

Sachs, J and Z Shatz (1994) T ra de and jobs in USmanufacturing' , Brooking Paper on Economic Activity 1,Th e Brooking Insti tute, Washington DC.

UNCTAD (1994) World Investment Report, 1994:Transnational Corporations, Employment and theWorkplace, Un ited N ations, Ne w York and Geneva.

Wood, A (1994) North-South Trade, Employment an dInequality: Changing Fortunes in a Skill-driven World,Clarendon Press, Oxford.

World Bank (1995) Global economic prospects and thedeveloping countries, 1995, World Bank, WashingtonDC.

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Looking at the 'gender critique* of theNORDIDA health programme shown in thetable, the re ad er may get the uneasy feeling thatshe has already b een to Sundia, or at least other

places very like it. Ge nder policy evapora tionis acommon phenomenon. Sometimes the policyevaporates bit by bit, between policy andimplementation. Sometimes you only have totur n over a pag e of the plan, and all the gend erissues previously mentioned have suddenlydisappeared - evaporation can be a very rapidprocess-

Looking back at the original 1985 policy onWomen's Empowerment for Development, wecan see tha t its main aspects of gender equality,empowerment, and mainstreaming have effect-ively been disc arde d. The g end er critique showsthat the NORDIDA office in Sundia has notadopted the 1985 policy, but must instead beoperating the pre-1985 policy, confiningwomen's development to an interest in welfareand increased access to resources. In otherwords, the above example is enough to revealthat th e 1985 policyis being ignored.

We might have spent more time, and hadmore fun, identifying the further evidence ofpolicy evapora tion in Sundia. But this is not ourmain purpose here. The surface evidence ofevaporation is presented here merely for diepurpose of provoking an interest in itsunderlyin g causes.Who is doing what, and why?

Th e larger pattern of policyevaporationT he above exam ple of policy evaporation is notpeculiar to NORDIDA; it is common to mostdevelopment agencies operating in Sundia.Gender policy evaporation is the norm in allbilateral and UN agencies. The only develop-me nt agencies which are making a serious effortare some international NGOs; their pro-grammes are concerned widi linking up withSundian NGOs, particularly those which formpart of the growing Sundian women's move-ment.

Policy evapora tion am ong the major de velop-ment agencies isdosely mirrored by policyevaporation within the Sundian government.

The process of evaporation follows the samepattern here as in the development agencies:diere is some enthusiasm for a gender-orienteddevelopment policy at die political level ofgovernment, but evaporation rapidly occurswhen these policies reach the governmentbureaucracy. Although die government has

established a W ID D epa rtm ent in die Ministryof Planning, this department has made little^progres s in persu adin g the sectoral ministriesto -'produc e gender-orien ted policies and plans.

Feminist ana lyses of bureaucracyOur interpretation begins with die generalnotion that NORDIDAis a patr iar chal organisa-__tion which automatically repudiates" any-feminist ideas and policies. In this, NORDIDA ismerely following die pattern ofall odier instit-utions widiin die Nordian government bureau-cracy. Let us first look at the adequacy of diistype of explanation.

There is a growing feminist the ory of organis-ations which interprets bureaucracy as beinginherendy patriarchal.The general dieoreticalframework for diis literature is Weberian: diestarting point for analysis is that die Weberianideal for bureaucratic organisation is male-gendered and women are accommodated onlyon male terms. In odier words, women areaccommodated either in subordinate femalegender roles, or else as honora ry males.

From diis perspective, die very structure and

rationality of bureaucracy is interpreted asintrinsically patriarchal.5 T he hierarchical chainof bureaucratic audiority is seen as contradict-ory and antagonistic to women's more partici-patory way of making and implementingdecisions. Similarly, Weber's model of a legal-rational system of bureaucratic thinking isinterpreted as contradictory to die more open,pragmatic and consensual modes of thoughtwhich characterise femaleways of dunking.4

The bureaucratic division of labour intospecialised professions is seen as a division intomale gender roles, contrasting with a femaledivision of labour which depends on eachindividual playing a multiplicity of femalegender roles. Perhaps most important, bureau-cracy is seen as patriarchal in diat it is male-dominated, a nd serves male interests. However,investigations into die patriarchal nature ofbureaucracy have so for been confined to ananalysis of die internal gender relations ofbureaucracy. In odier words, diere has been aconcern widi how domestic relationships of

male gender dominance are reflected in diepattern of gender relations in die office andfactory.5 Bureaucracy is seen as a 'male dub'where women, if admitted, are domesticatedand subordinated.

However, in diis paper, our interest is verydifferent from the approach of die existing

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quite ou tside bureaucratic no rms . We must askourselves whether there is some other set ofnorms and rules operating, which are quitedifferent from bureaucratic norms.

OrganisationA thir d aspect of Weberian bureau cracyis that itadapts to new policy and new demands bydeveloping specialised departments, staffed byprofessionals w ith training in the are a of thenewpolicy interest. But, when you ask theNORDIDA office in Sundia why the healthsector programme has overlooked genderissues, the answer is likely to be: 'We havenobody with the training to understand these

things.'According to the policy, each NORDIDA

programme is supposed to have a genderadviser. How ever, when you look at the plan forthe Health Sector Support Programme, youfind that there are detailed terms of referencefor three or four specialised advisers, but nomention of a gender adviser. Such a situation,ten years after the publication of a new policy,reveals a dear unwillingness to develop thenecessary specialist expertise to interpret andimplement the policy. Again this behaviour isincom prehen sible w ithin a Weberian theory ofbureaucracy. It demands some other explan-ation.

From a Weberian perspective, bureaucrats'official opinions are formed only in terms ofgiven policies, and given rules and procedure s.Officially, they do no t have their own personalopinions, or if they do, such opinions must notinterfe re with their work. From Web er's point ofview, the w hole point of a m ode rn bureaucracywas that it broke with earlier and medievalsystems of administration which were patri-mon ial, patriarc hal, autocratic, arbitrary , incon-sistent, an d irrational.

Overt bureaucracy and covertpatriarchyThe evidence drives us towards an under-standing of the patriarchal behaviour ofNORDIDA in terms of its departure fromWeberian norms of bureaucracy. It is noteno ugh to say that NORDIDA is a bureaucracyand that bureaucracies are inherentlypatriarchal. The above analysis reveals that ifNORDIDA sticks to the bureaucratic rules, itcannot ditch the policy on women's advance-me nt. W e suggest that an organisation such asNORD IDA has tobe understood in term s of two

very different forms of organisation, the overtan d the covert, which both inhabit NORD IDA:

Th e overt organisation is the governme nt-"bureaucracy, with itsexplicit policies andprocedures and its legal-rational system ofanalysis, which is legitimated in terms of theWeberian ideal of what a bureaucracy oughtto be. In o ther words, the W eberian model isthe legitimating ideology of the burea ucracy. -

T he covert, patriarchal organisation, or th e"'patriarchal pot' within the organisation,which runs counter to the Weberian modeland which enables the subversion of allpolicies and directives which thre aten covertpatriarchal interests.

In oth er wo rds, NOR DIDA is simultaneouslytwo organisations under the same roof. T heovert organisation is a conventional bureau-cracy, which is obliged to implement policieshanded down by government. The covertorganisation is what we have here called the'patriarchal pot', which ensures that patriarchalinterests are preserved. When presented withfeminist policies, the overt and the covertorganisations have opposing interests, values,rules and objectives: bureaucratic principlesdemand implementation, while patriarchalprinciples dem and evaporation.

The cu lture of the patriarchal potIf we are to put the label 'patriarchal pot' uponthe organisation which subverts female genderinterests,we need to unde rstand more about theway the patriarchal pot can exist alongsidebureaucracy, given their apparently antagon-istic relationship. We nee d to know m ore aboutthe structure and behaviour of the po t and howit maintains its existence, which mea ns analysingthe interests served by the pot, the ideologywhich legitimates it, and the procedures whichmaintain it. Furthermore, if the pot is actuallyantagonistic to bureaucracy, we need to knowhow the contradictory and cancerous pot cancontinue to survive and thrive in partnershipwith bureaucracy.

Internal NORDID AinterestsTh e patriarchal interests within NORD IDA a renot hard to find. First, of course, like otherbureaucracies North and South, it is male-dominated. Gender inequalities in recruitment,conditions of service, an d p rom otion are essen-tial to maintaining the NORDIDA tradition ofmale domination, male culture, and male club

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The structure of thepatriarchal potWe have looked at the common interests and

culture of patriarchal alliance which sustain th econtinued existence of the patriarchal pot. Butwe still need to look at how the pot actuallyworks. How are we to understand the actualprocess by which a particular policy canevapora te while others d o not? H ere we have tolook at the structure of the pot, in terms of itsrelationship to the overt bureaucracy and interm s of its legitimating the ory and ideology.

Diplomacyin defenceofpatriarchyThe Ambassador's simple formula forimplementing a NORDIDA developmentsupport programme in Sundia is to drop anyaspect of NORDIDA policy which provesdifficult in Sundia. In fact the Ambassador'sgeneral stance on offering development assist-ance has no reference to NOR DIDA policies: theexplicit stance is merely to provide su ppo rt forselected aspects of MOP pr ogra mm es. As far aspossible, the Ambassador tries to reduceNOR DIDA policy in S undia to the selection ofthe particular MOP programmes for whichNORDIDA will provide support. Such aselection process is usually condu cted as if therewere complete Nordian-Sundian consensus ondevelopm ent policy.

However, this smooth diplomatic glossconceals the need for policy-level negotiation inareas where in fact there is not a policyconsensus. All NORDIDA development prin-ciples have implications for changing thestructure of Sundian society. Therefore alldevelopment cooperation between N ordia andSundia needs to be based on initial negotiationsto ensure that the policy priorities of both sidesare being pursue d.

In practice there is currently considerableexplicit conditionality on the provision ofNORD IDA aid to S undia. T his conditionality isconcerned with enforcing Sundian conformityto a policy of structural adjustment which hasbeen imposed by the IMF and which has thesupport of most development agencies inSundia, including NORDIDA. But the impos-ition of structural adjustment entails no con-ditionality on gen der equ ality. On the contrary,structural adjustment policies are actuallydetrimental to policies of gender equality andwomen's advancement.

Where structural adjustment is concerned,development agency policy is enforced by

conditionality. But when it comes to genderequality, a different rationale comes intoplay. ^Suddenly NORD IDA behaves like a diplom atic.-mission rath er than a development agenc y. Dev-elop me nt policy principles strangely give way todiplomatic principles. About NORDIDA'sgender policy the Ambassador suddenlybecomes very diplomatic, and states that 'wecannot interfere with the internal affairs ofSundia'. O n structural adjustment, " t h e .Ambassador's diplomatic gloss disapp ears, andhe talks tough. But when he talks of genderissues, his diplomatic gloss becomes impen-etrable.

When the Ambassador talks of structural

adjustment, he is in charge of a bureaucracy.When he talks of gender issues, heis in charg e ofthe patriarchal pot. We cannot describe hisbehaviour as bureaucratic in both cases, sincethe essence of the Weberian model of bureau-cracy is that t he same principles must apply to allcases.

Theory in support of pot preservationThe most important aspect of preserving thepatriarchal po t is that it should re ma in invisible,

since NORDIDA is legitimated as aWeberian-style bureaucracy which follows establishedNordian government policy. One importantway of enabling the pot to evaporate genderpolicy quietly and invisibly is to adopt avocabulary in which discussion of women'semp ow erm ent becomes impossible. This m ay beachieved by adopting a technical rationalisationof the development process, which has notheoretical power for the analysis - or even therecognition - of the political and ideologicalaspects of the development process. Here theessential technical rationalisation is to limit thediscourse on wom en's advancement t o the levelof providing for women's basic needs andincreasing women's access to resources. Withinthis vocabulary, it is possible to discuss wo men'sadvancement within the existing social system,and not in term s of the need to reform the socialsystem.

An equally important point concerns theplace of gen der issues in the p lannin g process.This is perhaps the most important theoreticalprinciple of the patriarchal pot: the principlet ha t addressing gender issues is a secondary concernin any project, and relates only to improved projectefficiency. In other words, it is not a primaryconcern of any project to address a ge nd er issue.Th e project's primary pu rpose relates to purelytechnical objectives: increasing the water

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supply, improving institutional capacity, orwhatever. T he purpo se of g en de r analysis is toidentify the different gender roles of men andwomen, so that both genders can make an

effective and efficient contribution to projectsuccess.The final important aspect of technical

rationalisation is that it automatically excludesall awkward norm ative a nd political words. Thisis in contrast to the NORDIDA policydocu me nt, which uses political phra ses such as'women's participation in decision-making','women's control over resourc es', and 'women'sempowerment'. But in Sundia, the NordianAmbassador has advised all NORDIDA staffthat, as technical advisers, they should avoid allpolitically loade d words in plan nin g documen ts.He has explained that this is particularlyimportant in the area of gender, which is a'sensitive' area in Sundia. In fact, theAm bassador ha s advised all NORD IDA staff toavoid the phrase 'gender inequality', andinstead to talk more diplomatically about'gender differences'. He has advised that thephrase 'gender equality' was identified asparticularly likely to upset the MOP, and thatthe word 'equality' should be replaced by'equity' or ot her non- threa tening vocabulary.

The implicit ideologyof thepatriarchal potHere we see that the purpose of theory is toobscure ideology. The underlying ideologicalprinciple is that systems of ma le dom ination inSundia are n ot to be the subject of developmentintervention s. Any intervention is this area is tobe labelled as 'interference'.7 Whereas, ingeneral, socio-economic aspects of inequalitymay be addressed in NORDIDA-supportedprojects, the of structural gender equality maynot to be the subject of development interven-tions, even in programmes concerned withother aspects of structural adjustment. Theprinciple is tha t NOR DIDAwill work within theexisting patriarchal structure .

This, of cou rse, must rem ain covert ideology.It must remain covert for the simple reason thatth e overt principle s are th e exac t opposite. BothNORDIDA and Sundia have explicit develop-ment policies concerned with promotinggend er equality and end ing practices of genderdiscrimination. This points to the absoluteimportance of technical rationalisation as asystem of discourse. W ithin a technical an d non-political vocabulary, the ideological contra-diction between policy an d practice ne ver comesu p for discussion. It rem ains invisible.

Covert procedures of th epatriarchal pot ^But the problem cannot be kept invisibleentirely by controlling vocabulary. T h e problemstill has to be managed in areas outsideNORDIDA's vocabulary control. For instancethere may be vocal members of the women'smove ment in both Nordia and Sundia wh o wantto kno w why there seems to be n o action" o nNORDIDA's policies for women's advance-ment. Within the Nordian government andparlia me nt, the re may be feminists wh o begin torealise that NORDIDA has no intention ofputting the policy into practice and is insteadactively thwarting the policy. Consultants and

evaluators from Nordia and elsewhere may askto look at NORDIDA-supported programmes,a n d they are very likely to com pare policy withprogress. All these situations have to bemanaged.

So, if a ge nder issue does actually get on to theagen da, how is it to be dealt with? T he answeristhat it must apparently be dealt with by normalbureaucra tic procedure. But this must be donein such a way that the gender issue will slowly,slowly, evaporate away.

Of course this is not bureaucratic pro ced urein the Weberian sense. Weberian bureaucracyis, by definition, an efficient method of publicadministration. By contrast, the p roc edu res ofthe patriarchal pot ensure that the issue evap-orates before it has been addressed. Theproc edu res of the patriarchal pot m ock burea u-cratic procedure, to make sure that w hat goes in,never comes out; the patriarchal pot enacts astrange slow-motion parody of bureaucraticprocedure. What looks on the surface likebureaucracy is actually the slow destructiveboiling of the patriarchal po t.

Let us take an example from the NOR DIDAHealth Sector Support Programme in Sundia.Let us imagine that the visiting consulta nt, sentby the Nordian Parliamentary Committee onDevelopment, has visited the project and haspointed out that Sundian government family-planning clinics are discriminating againstwom en . Specifically, the family-p lanning clinicsrefuse to provide women with contraceptivesunless they bring a letter of permission fromtheir husbands. In effect this makes contracep-tives unavailable to most ma rried w om en and toall single women. And a major part of theNORDIDA health sector budget is to providesupport for family-planning clinics.

The consultant has dearly revealed a lack ofattention to the NORDIDA gender policy on

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means by which patriarchyis perpetuated.Moreover, it is not merely the internal

patriarchal cultu re of bureaucracy which needsbe reformed. A related, and more important,

need is the need to reform bureaucracyso that itwill implement, rather than evaporate, thepolicies on women's equality which are handeddown from the political level of government.Bureaucrac y m ust be converted to 'femocracy'.Th is task may be necessary for all institutions ofgovernm ent bureaucracy in the North, not jus tdevelopment agencies.

But this pa pe r was written merely to analysethe p roblem , not to ex plore the implications ofthe analysis. Perha ps tha t should be the subject

of my next p aper .

Notes1 Th e declaration being prepa red for present-

_ation to the Fourth World Conference onWomen, the UN Draft Platform of Action ofMarch 1995, flatly states that 'the goals setforth in th e Forw ardLooking Strategies havenot been achieved' (para.35), and summ ar-ises the pattern of women's increasedimpo verishm ent (para. 39).

2 Some readers may already be familiar withsome aspects of Nordia and Sundia from mydiscussion of an earlier visit in Towardsbetter North-South communication onwomen's development: avoiding theroadblocks of patriarchal resistance', paperpresented at a WIDE Workshop on GenderPlanning (Dublin, 28 February 1992). I amgrateful to my partner Roy Clarke for theendless discussions which ledto the inventionof NORDIDA and Sundia. It should also benoted that the invention puts me in theprivileged position where my evidencecannot be challenged. My analysis ofpatriarchal resistance within developmentagencies was carried further in a subsequentpaper, 'Breaking the patriarchal alliance:govern men ts, bilaterals and NGO s',Focus onGender 2:3,1994.

3 For a recent overview of the literature in thisarea , and some of the latest contributions, seeMike Savage an d A nne Witz(eds), Gender and

bureaucracy, Blackwell, Oxford, 1992.4 T he claim tha t women have a differentway of

thinking was notably argued in CarolGilligan, In a different voice, HarvardUniversity Press, 1982.

5 Perh aps the most famous example of such aninvestigation is Rosemary Pringle,Secretaries

talk: sexuality, power and work, Verso, London,1989.

6 My earlier paper, To w ard s better N o r th s -South communication ...', refe rred to in note

3 above, represents my previous attempt toanalyse the North-South patr iarch al alliance.

7 For my earlier discussion of how the word'intervention' suddenly changes to'interference' see Sara Long we , 'Institutionalopposition to gender sensitive development:"learning to answer back', Gender andDevelopment 3:1,1995.

8 I first wrote about these 'proc edu res' und erthe heading of 'strategies of bureaucraticresistance' in Sara Lon gwe , 'From welfare to

empowerment: the situation of women indevelopment in Africa', Women inInternational Developmen t, Working Paperno. 204, Michigan State University,Michigan, 1990.

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account issues of gender, although there isample scope for doing so if we strategisecorrectly, because there are signs of change inthe EU on this issue. There is evidence of a

political will to change : Article 130u of title XV IIof the M aastricht Treaty indicates that th e EU'sdevelopment cooperation policy will be guidedby the following principles and objectives:

sustainable economic and social developm entof the developing countries and especially ofthe least advanced;

smooth and gradual integration of thesecountries into the world economy;

eradication of poverty; consolidation of democracy and the ru le of

law, and respect for human rights andfundamental freedoms.

There is scope here for improvement asreg ard s gend er, because the objectives set by theMaastricht Treaty show that the Union'sperceptions of the meaning of development andthe causes and conditions of unde rde velo pm enthave been m odified. The theoretical agen da hasshifted. Development strategy must nowemphasise not only economic growth but alsoequity, sustainability, and the importance ofinvolving people in programm es an d policies.

As we all very well know, no sustainableresults can be attained in any of these do mainswithout the full participation of women. Onewould think it would be easy: we know theconcept, we know whatwe want; the question isto obtain implementation. In the past, largedifficulties arose from the feet that theCommunity was dealing first with ten countries ,then twelve. Political will and political comm it-ment on these issues varied very muchaccording to the member state that had thePresidency of the Community (which rotatesevery six months). Over the years there havebeen high points of attention, with constantresolutions asking for the Commission toimplement policies quickly, alternating withdips in interest. Over the 13 year s since 1982,whe n the first Council Conclusion on wom en indevelopment was issued, interest in gend er anddevelopm ent has proceeded in waves.2

One thing has been constant, however, and

that is the lack of man agem ent intere st. Even ifthe political will was there, the response of theCommission has been very poor, both in DGV III , the directorate-general for development,which administers the European DevelopmentFund for the ACP countries, and in DG I, thedirectorate-general for external economic

relations, which deals with the ALAMEDcountries. T he Commission did not unde rstand,it did not care. Until a few years ago, there wasnot even a full Women in Development (WID)

desk in DG V III or DG I . Also, of course, therehas been a shortage of resources - until threeyears ago there was not a Women inDevelopment budg et line - and I must say thatthis was partly our fault. The women'smovement in Europe has shown insufficient_interest in gender and development issues. Wehave always been very mu ch co ncerned with ourown agenda as European women and, apartfrom women in the development N GOs, therehas not been much attention on the part of thewomen's movement to international solidarityoutside Euro pe. I think political commitmentisclosely related to the kind of mo veme nt and thecivil society that stands behind it. Lately, thistendency to make a division between domesticand international women's agendas has beenchanged, and I think we must really strive tokeep up the political momentum.

The political momentum is there now. TheEuropean Parliament will soon hold, not ahearing, but a brainstorming session, whichshows great interest on the part of the womenparliamentarians. The parliament now haslarger powers so that it can intervene in adifferent way in the actions of the Commission.Women in development, an d g enderissues, arenow firmly enshrined in the Lom e Convention.They are mentioned in the protocols of theCooperation Treaty with the Asian and LatinAmerican countries, although not yet in theprotocol with the Mediterranean countries; sothis is the right time to work for the inclusion ofgender issues in agreements withM editerranean countries as well.

We should also decide whatwe want from theCommunity and how we want aid money to beused. The main focus of the WID and gendermovement in the last 15 years has been main-streaming, but, in the light of the assessmentthat has been done in pre par atio n for Beijing, Ithink we should reflect also the n eed for positiveaction. As Europ ean w omen, we have had manypositive action programmes. I use the phrase'positive action ' in theway the E uropean women

have used it and theway European programmeshave been implemented through DG V, thedirectora te for social affairs, which has an equalopportunities unit. There has been a kind ofbridging strategy: programmes on training, oneduc ation. I think we shou ld go back and reflectfurther on what mainstreaming has achieved

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Overview of discussion

Discussion following these three very variedpresentations centred on two main topics:institutions, and the nature of the globalisedeconomy.

W omen and the globalisedeconomyThere was debate around the extent to whichthe globalised economy touches ordinarypeople in the world. Swasti Mitter hadsuggested in her paper that the globalecono my 's outrea ch was in feet quite limited inthe d eve lopin g world, since 76 per cent of totalforeign direct investment to developing coun-

triesis

concentrated in ten developing coun triesof Asia and Latin America, while Africa waslosing ou t in th e globalisation process. This putshalf or m ore of the world's population beyondthe periphery of the globalised economy, andgives the lie to the arguments of internationalfinancial institutions that the global capitalistmodel is a fait accompli to which there is noalternative. If most people are left outside theglobal economic model, then there is room forthe development of alternatives.

An op posite view was pu t forward by DevakiJain, who considered that, on the contrary,globalisation reaches every household in theworld, especially in Africa and Asia, and isespecially affecting women. Its presence is feltnot only in employment an d prod uction, but inconsumption, in die social impact of structuraladjustment, and in the conflict and violenceresulting from the inequalities and injusticesimplicit in th e neoliberal model.

Despite this universal outreach, however,economic globalisation is not a unifying force.Indeed, there is evidence that the industrialisedworkforce is a new site of confrontation betweenNorth and South, as production is shiftedaro un d the world in search of ever cheaper andmore compliant labour. More specifically, oneparticipant identified the female industrialworkforce as the terrain on which international

economic and labour battles are currendy beingfought out. Th us d ie building of internationalsolidarity around women's labour rights iscrucial.

It is important, however, to distinguishbetween different gro up s of women in differentcountries, when dem ands are being formulated.What is die common ground, and what are diedifferences diat must be recognised, betweenrural women prod ucing cashew nuts in GuineaBissau, women working in export processingzones in die Dominican Republic, and home-workers in Britain?

It was note d diat some demands for wo men'srights should be directed towards the cor po ratesector; but we must also remember diat diecorporate sectorwill never meet some dem ands,even if it can; a nd atthis point responses must b esought in die new role of die state.

Institutions and the'patriarchal pot'Many participants identified strongly widi diesituation described so graphically in SaraLongwe's paper, which resonated widi dieirexperiences in dieir own institutions. The'patriarchal pot' is clearly a comm on feature ofdevelopment agencies, academic institutions,and governm ent bodies.

Daniela Colombo's experience of losingcontrol and ownership of her work for dieEuropean Comm ission was a case in poin t. H erinputs into die EU draft policy paper on gen derand developm ent had simply evapo rated, and itwas impor tant to find ou t why, at what po int indie process, and who was responsible. Sarareminded participants of die importance of

uncovering die patriarchal pot in each of dieirown institutions. Institution s need to be called toaccount for n ot m atching dieir practice to dieirtiieory or dieir rhetoric.

One of di e ingredients of the patriarchal po tis language. Devaki Jain was troubled by diedifferentiation between academic and activist


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discourses. Academic language can bemystifying and excluding, and is often designedto be so, and feminists a re no t exem pt from thisfault. A seminar held by UNRISD (UnitedNations Research Institute on SocialDevelopment) on mainstreaming gender indevelopment policy was cited as an example ofalienating languag e.

On the other hand, it was pointed out thatgender and development activists and expertshave to use the language understood by thepeople with whom we are negotiating. IfEuro pean bureau crats do n ot take us seriouslyunless we speak their langu age, then we have tolearn and use that language in orderto maintaina dialogue with them .

In fact, it was suggested, these differencesreveal that th ere is scope for a different kind ofalliance, an alliance between development--NGO s, academics, and women's organisations.People working in NGO s and concentrating onday-to-day practical work often have no time todo research or to think about the theoreticalissues that underpin their work. On the otherhand, academics have the facilities to do theresearch but are often far removed from the.realities of everyday life. Each activityis valuableand necessary, and a meeting grou nd should besought where research and activism cancomplement each other. This requires greatercooperation . between academic and activistinstitutions.

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First, she pr opo sed a very na rrow , minimalistagenda for the worldwide women's m ovement.The experience of many working-class move-ments has taught that solidarity is best built

around a one- or two-point programme. Sheproposed th ree points arising out of the Indianand South Asian expe rience:

Deepening women's exercise of politicalrights This is fundamental: first, because itenables adoption of the advocacy and diebelief of women that women's rights arehum an rights, an d second , because it enableswomen to command and redirect die globalpolitical economy tow ard s justice. Th eunderlying assumption is that the choices

made by women, especially poor women,about development can determine thatalternative development to which we allaspire. One way of deepening women'sexercise of political rights is to use theelectoral process, th atis , to develop in womenvoters the negotiating power to argue fortheir agend a, lobbying for womenby women.Next year, die Indian Association ofWomen's Studies will be carrying out diisprocess of empowering the woman's vote -

mak ing the woman's vote a vote for women -nationwide.

Local self-government with affirmativeaction. Again, experiences from India andBangladesh can be drawn on. Devakiproposed, in answer to Sara Longwe'sanalysis, district-level implementation ofsocial development, deconstructing bureau-cracy and replacing it with feminist politicalleadership.

Trade policies and women UNIFEM hasrecendy held a seminar in South Asia onwomen and trade and plans to hold others inall die regions of die world. Looking ateconomic blocks all ove r th e world - OPE C,NAFTA, ASEAN - we ca n ask whedie r diereis anodier form of economic cooperationbetween reg ions which brings justic e andmore for the poor. Can women network tomake this happen ?

Th e second item in Devaki's proposal was thereversal of South-North hierarchies. Women'salliances could reverse die hierarchies observ-able both in the state and in d ie male-dominatedalliances described by Sara Longwe as die'patriarchal pot'. Another positive reversalwould be diat of die slogan T h in k globally, act

locally'. We should, rather, be thinking locallyan d a cting globally. Local experience ha s m uc h^to teach die macrolevel, and h er e die w orldwide --women's movement can provide solidarity to

the learning done from below. This is anintellectual and conceptual exercise, in whichgrassroots activism needs to be backed up bysup por t from the other world of reasoning andwriting.

Lastly, Devaki looked at die question of die.women's movement in relation to national andinternational structures. At die national level,she felt tha t the focus should be on local politicsand how women's access to local politics canreach right up to international politics. At dieinternational level, DAWN is involved in analliance, coalition, or network of networks,inco rpo rating a n elected coregroup. W ithin it, amu ltitude ofmeetings would be held aro und thepro po sed minimalist agenda, across and withinnations and regions and in many intellectualfora, dius building up an und erstanding whichcan ultimately provide the basis for women tobecome a political force nationally and inter-nationally. This can not be achieved on the basisof a very broad wish-list like die Forward-Looking Strategies. But such a network ofnetworks, working on a minimalist politicalag en da , would have the potential for gen eratin genergies a nd reverberations in die internationalwo me n's movem ent diat would last beyond UNmilestones.

Ines Smyth (Development Studies Institute,London School of Economics) suggested diefollowing areas - some of diem raised by diemo rnin g's presentations - for fur therquestio ning an d reflection:

The need to develop new forms ofunderstanding and intervention in relationto women in situations of war and conflict:In the post-cold-war period, conflict hastaken on new connotations which have adifferent and mo re serious impact on wom enand girls. We ne ed to go beyond emotionallychar ged reactions to this and to diink clearly,in effective, analytical, and practical ways,abo ut how to prevent and limit these impactsan d how to lessen their consequences for th ephysical, mental and social well-being ofwom en an d girls. Thisis an urge nt issue, butit also has a long-term p erspective.

* Moving beyond international conferences:As academics and activists, we need to take aclear and honest look at the real benefits of

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conditions of slavery in which women inmany relationships are living, and to recog-nise diis as an issue of self-determinadon.

The contradiction between real and tokenprogress, and coherence between policycommitment and practice. Here thechallenge is to use the language ofgovernments and mainstream policyprocesses - the only language currendypossible in dialogue with policy-makers -while changing their discourse (i.e.strengdiening the content of conventionssuchasCEDAW).

The n eed t o get die question of rights andresponsibilities across to economists.Economists need to realise diat economicpolicies violate rights. The arguments ofgood governance and state responsibilitiesare useful here, to show how die state mustexercise its power on our behalf (akhoughthis demand is fraught with paradoxes) toregulate p owerful violators (suchas - but notexclusively - transnational corporations), inorder to create an environment in whichgen der equality is a reality.

For Eugenia Piza-Lopez (Oxfam UK/I), diefuture agenda for die women's movement iswomen's hu m an rights. She examined how diisagenda relates to institutions like internationalfunding agencies. The new developmentmodel, sometimes known as die "Washingtonconsensus', defines good development accord-ing to diree main criteria: good governance,competitive markets, and governmentresponsibility for managing the state whilerecognising private rights and individualinitiative. These are die cridcal components ofdie cur ren t policies and ideology ofbUateral andmultilateral development institutions, dieinternational financial institutions, and dieinternational NGOs.

It must be acknowledged diat diere has beensome shift in neoliberal language since 1985.The supremacy of die market has beenquestioned. Th er e is a recognition of die im por-tance of rehabilitating die state and giving itrenewed social and economic responsibilities;and a recognition diat die promotion of hum anrights and die rule of law are essential for diemaintenance of law and o rde r, die developmentof an effective a nd efficient la bo ur force, an d diedevelopment of environm ents w here economicgrowdi and efficiency are possible andsustainable.

How ever, diis appa rent policy shift is m or e ashift in discourse than in real understanding ofhow to achieve long-term development. The-~model contains inherent contradictions whichare very problematic. The market continues tobe die driving model for development, despitedie huge inconsistencies between promotingcompetitive markets and achieving prosperityfor individuals insocieties. The importance, ofpolicy to improve die quality of life, raisestanda rds of education and health, and protectpolitical rights is recognised, but all diesepolicies are extremely vulnerable to die state'sability to pay for diem, and tend to be jettis one dif not consistent widi relatively short-termeconomic growdi and efficiency.

The good governance debate so far has notfully unde rstood w hat women's hum an rightsinvolve or how women can exercise diem. Thepolicy agenda is largely focused on formalpolitical processes such as elections. Yet weknow diat it is not principally in diis forum dia twomen are denied and excluded from dieirrights of citizenship. Indeed, die most import-ant way in which women can actually exercisedi eir citizens' rightsis as workers. Yet how man ywomen in the Third World have a formalrelation widi die labour market? The conceptsof good governance put forward so far, andincreasingly taken up by internation al age nciesof all kind s, have not really addressed wo me n'srights dioroughly enough to enable policies tobe challenged and rethought.

Th es e new discourses, aldiough diey pro videus widi opportunities, are fraught widi prob-lems from a feminist and gender perspective.W hat ar e die alternatives? How can N GOs worktowards promoting women's hum an rights an d

make die most of die new ideologies anddiscourses? Linda Mayoux, in her paper'G en der policy and blackholes: some quesstionsabou t efficiency, participation, an d scaling -up inNGOs' (September 1994) summarises it veryclearly. She oudines changes of dire e types:

grow di an d internationalisation; stre ngd ienin g advocacy capacity; achieving greater efficiency in aid delivery

an d proble m solving.

All di ree processes, which affect in differentways different NGOs, bodi North and Soudi,have characteristics diat exclude women'sexperiences and perspectives. The processesbeing promoted actually marginalise womenrath er dia n bringing diem into die picture; dieorganisations trying to promote die change are

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An alternative and more radical view putforward by Devaki Jain, amon g othe rs, was thatthe pa triarch al or bureaucratic pot itself m ust besmashed, the structures changed. For years we

have been developing our gender analysis (andinstitutions everywhere pay it lip service) andcarrying out our policy advocacy (and we haveachieved apparent changes on paper), but wesee very little change in practice. We mustconclude that th e problemlies with bureau cracyitself.

Development agencies replicate andperpetuate governmental structures and thusthrow up die same obstacles to change asgovernments and IFIs. It should be clearby now

that male-dominated institutions will never letwo me n in on a n eq ual basis, sowe have to createa new institutionality. This can only be d on e bybreaking the pot and reassembling it with newinstitutions, institutions whichare so structured asto guarantee women's participation, power-sharing and leadership. Representation ofwomen is ne ed ed at every level, from the villageto the UN , and any restructuring of institutionsmu st allow such rep resentation.

For Devaki, the model which allows for thecreation of substructures is predominantlylocal. Her vision was one not of reforming orremaking central structures but of shifting thelocus of power and leadership to localgovernment level, where bureaucracy can beovercome by local self-determination, makingmore space for women's participation on anequ al basis. In contradistinction to an emp hasison good governance, which is seen by manySouthern organisations as a way of shiftingresponsibility from the state on to NG Os, a focuson local self-government represents a shift of

responsibility back to the state, but at a lesscentralised a nd thus more accountable level.

Another alternative was offered by PamSparr, drawing on new experiences in theUn ited States which suggest that th e best peop leto make policy are not policy-makers. Policy-makers are bureaucrats and seldom belong to,or have a real stake in, the community orpop ulation on whose behalf the policy is beingmade. In some communities in the UnitedStates, stakeho lders from different sectors have

come together to hammer out solutions accept-able to everyone in the community. This cangenerate more satisfactory results than relyingon bureaucrats or elected officials to makepolicy on the community's behalf. Again,structures or processes of this kind are poten-tially more women-friendly.

Some other strategies for relocating powerwere mentioned in passing. Pam Sparr referred ^to new thinking about institutional restruc--"turing in NGOs which involves a thematic

rather than a geographical redistribution ofwork areas. It is a problem atic fea ture of manyNorthern agencies that they ten d to divide workalong North/South lines, so that wholedepartm ents (or even w hole agencies) deal onlywith overseas issues while others deal only^vithldomestic issues, thus failing to explore eitherthe common ground between women or poorpeople all over the w orld, or the tru e inequalitybetween North and South. In Pam's organis-ation, work has been redistributed so that

everyone works on thematic areas which haveboth domestic and international dimensions.This could be a way of resolving the tensionarising from Southern perceptions of goodgovernance, for instance, as a N orth ern conceptdeveloped largely for the purposes of imposingconditions on aid. Another strategy for therelocation of power could be to shift centres ofresearch much m ore extensively to the South.

Rights and em pow ermentImportant ingredients in the new pot are thegenuine recognition of rights and empower-men t of peo ple in civil society. W e m ust not losesight of the fact that g en de r is a political issue -there is often a danger that gender issues willbecome over-technified and their politicaldimension will evaporate.

Several participants stressed that when wetalk about rights an d ge nd er we ar e also talkingabout rights to resources a nd to political power.There was a feeling that although women arevery ready to make political demands anddemands for hum an rights, we are too reticentabout claiming rights to economic resources.Wanjiru Kihoro pointed out that althoughwomen are the backbone of the economy,we areshy about insisting on our right to more thanhand outs. Yet ifwe do not do so, we risk rem ain-ing trapped in the discourse of aid an d margin-alised from debates about trade and macro-economic issues that affect u s mor e deep ly. PamSparr urged the inclusion ofcollective rights into

ou r strategies, citing the efforts of assembly-lineworkers in Mexico to force companies to beresponsible not ju st for wo rker s' rights,narrowly defined, but for com m un al rights suchas clean water and acceptable h ou sing .

This idea of collective rights promptedconcern as to whether, by conceptualising

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women's rights as human rights, we risk beingmisled by the neoliberal discourse, possiblylimiting ourselves to questions of individualaccess, participation , and equal opportunities,and skirting issues of real, collective em power-ment. Further, is the discourse of rights adiscourse appropriate only to Northernwomen? What are the areas in which Southernwomen are framing their concerns in terms ofrights? Are there different discoursesof rightsfor South and North? Eugenia Piza-Lopez felttha t, on th e con trary, it has only been possible toinsert the languageof rights into the U N agendabecause it is the langua ge w hich best reflects andgives comm on expression to the experienc e anddemands of women in both th e North and theSouth. Women's insistence on expressing theirdemands in terms of rights has extended thediscourse of rights to embrace literacy, econ-omic survival, reproductive rights, and sexualpleasure. A great achievement of the women'smovement has been to express in technicallanguage what millions of women- haveexperienced.

How ever, rights exist in a vacuu m unless theycan be enforced; and perhaps the grea tes tdifficulty arises at this point. N aila Kabeer gave-*an example from India, wherethe governmenthas given land rights to wom en, but they cann otexercise them because the people they have todeal with are the m en in their own com munities,and whether they are prepared to give up theland to women is entirely at the men'sdiscretion. Again, the patriarchal pot is on theboil, and women's land rights evaporate-Enforcement of women's rights m eans chan gingmen's behaviour, at both die institutional andthe personal level, which shifts the terrain ofstruggle to a different plane.

Devaki offered the model of local self-gove rnm ent as an answer to this dilemm a, usingdie story of a woman who, denied her right,went on to claim it through local self-government, where women hav e some power indie structures. She elaborated on somemechanisms for empowering women to claimrights, such as mechanismsfor redressal againstviolence,an d legal literacy for women.

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th e bu ilding of international alliances arou nd agende r agenda?

T he other gr oup focused on whether gender-fair developmentshould take place inside our

outside the dominant model. Is there anypossibility today of operating outside thedom ina nt model? T o what extent, for instance,do small enterprises within the dom inant trendof privatisation embody strategies for creatingan economic model that benefits women? Arethere different economic alternatives to suitdifferent national or regional experiences?

PowerAnalysing power, and getting rights

implemented by those who have the power toimp lem ent the m, requires a very clear picture ofw her e the locus of power is situated and whereinstitutions o r agencies ar e located in national o rinternational power structures. Globalisationhas moved the centre of economic and politicalpower away from nation states and into thehands of international capital or finance, whichstates cannot control, undermining the auton-omy of both states and individuals. However,powerful organisations like the World Bankpreten d to be powerless. Th is is par t of the myththat the free market is apolitical and that itsinstitutions therefore do not have to beaccountable to people.

At the same time, many gen de r policy targetshave been about getting more women intonational bureaucracies; bu t, once they are the re,they find that national bureaucracies are nolonger the centres of power. Where has thepow er gon e an d how is it exercised? How shouldpolicy be reorientated to get women intopositions of real power? Or is the main questionon e of reco nstructing the system of pow er itself?

Despite the new language, power still restsoverwhelmingly with men. The gender anddevelopment agenda is in danger of beingcoopted by male-dominated 'powers that be'such as multilateral agencies, and becoming asafe, technical issue. Can th e discourse of rightsrepoliticise gender and development andreturn it to the feminist agenda?

North and SouthThere was discussion of the changingSouth /Nor th dynamic, whichis in part impelledby globalisation processes. While theseprocesses frequently set South and North indear competition - for example, in the trans-nationalised labour market, where therelocation of industrial jobs to the South is

contributing to the feminisation of poverty inthe North - the re is also growing p otentia l forthe developm ent of international mov eme ntsto-_-defend livelihoods everywhere. There is a

growing awareness of 'the North in the Southand the South in the North' and a sense that theonly way to hold out against the uncontrolledglobal movement of capital is through someform of internationalism, perhaps built aroundinternational labour standards. - ~

Many gains mad eby the women's m ovement,for instance at Vienna, have been devalued orunderm ined by the South/North divide. O n theother hand, participants did not agre e that thediscourse of rights has been imposed by theNorth on the South. The success with which agroup of Asian NGO s had argued their supp ortfor universal human rights at Vienna was dtedas an example of Southern com mitme nt to theconcept of human rights. However, the applic-ation of human rights conditionality to aid byNo rthern' aid donors has made it seem asthough the North owns the concept of humanrights. This cooption of the discourse of rightsshould alert us to the need to questionconditionality in the aid 'p art ne rsh ip'.

Within the women's/GAD movement, theSouth/North divide must be bridged; not tobridge it plays into the hands of male power.Th e im porta nce of alliance-building, solidarity,and networking cannot be too highly stressed.One partidpa nt gaveas an exam ple of practicalNorth/South solidarity the idea that Northernand Southern women could lobby in collabor-ation for the release of unspent EuropeanUnion development cooperation funds.

The role of NGO sIn a discussion of NGOs' work in seeking toinfluence and shape UK development coop-eration policy, it was noted that NG Os tr ying toinfluence the policy process are curiously coyabout markets, which inhibits their politicaleffectiveness. The myth that the market is anapolitical force mustbe exploded. NGOs shouldbe able to provide links in a process ofglobalisation which isalso very localising.

The value of alliances between NGOs anddevelopment academics and researchers wasreconfirmed. Research findings can help toprovide the evidence n eeded to call institutionsto account. But NGOs also need to be maderepresentative an d accountable.

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StrategiesThere was a general sense that beforeformulating strategies (especially at theinternational level) we need first to define asha red women's vision, an d common policies ondevelopment and w omen's rights. However, thatvision should leave room for a healthy variety ofstrategies app rop riat e to different circumstances.Indeed, the need is for multiple and combinedstrategies and a readiness n ot to confine ourselvesto working for one goal at a time.

Some strategies which have been tr ied beforecan be reapplied to different situation, and newones can be developed. There was recognitionthat a strategy applicable in one context (forexample, affirmative action) may not work inanother. However, it should be possible todefine broad principles within which thestrategic approach can be varied according tocontext Our commonalties and differences canbe u sed creatively to build a coalition o n broadissues such as political p articip ation .

Participants also recognised the need for aholistic approach and for a certainsystematisation of strategies, sharing successesand failures and learning from our own and

each others' experience. The following strat-egies were suggested by th e working gr oup s:

Making people aware of rights and bringingrights onto the agen da. T o give on e exam pleof how this is being don e, w here governmentshave ratified agreements, such as CEDAW,women's organisations are he lping wom en toinvoke CEDAW in taking certain issues ofdiscrimination to court. Information andpublic education a re also crucial.

Organisation of women in all contexts, asworkers, right down to household level.People are not given rights by states; rightsar e only wonby struggle in organised grou ps.Therefore any strategy has to begin withmobilising women in organisations. Formal-sector workers who ar e wom en are in a betterposition to be organise d; bu thow do we reachth e mass of women who are not activists, suchas domestic, unpaid, informal-sectorworkers?

Broadening the base of the women's and

gender movements, bringing in new sectorsof women.Gaining entry for more women into political

systems, while being awar e of the con straints.To get more women into formal politics, agreat deal of previous w ork must be d one toempower women to stand for office (for

example, by increasing the time they haveavailable for political work). We need tocreate conditions for a political, economics-cultural base for women. This idea was not

accep ted as usefulby everyone. The problemof cooption was acknowledged. Someparticipants though t quotas for women w eremeaningless, especially in government instit-utions whose legitimacy is currently beingseverely eroded. The suggestion of creating^women's political parties and caucuses as analternative was floated.

Decentralisation of political power, encour-aging and organising women to use theirvoting rights to gain power and resources ata

local level. This was seen by many as a keystrategy, and one which might avoid some ofthe pitfalls of increasing women's partici-pation in centralised government structures.However, political participation, even at thelevel of exercising voting rights, means verydifferent things and can have a very differentforce in different countries. Whereas 75 percent of women voted in the most recentelections in India, only 30 per cent of w omendid so in the United States, indicating thedifferent value women in the two countriesset on the effectiveness of their vote. Oneparticipant warned that it is dangerous toassume that there is a homogeneous'women's vote'; unity can only be builtthrough information and public education.

Affirmative action. Opinions were divided onthe effectiveness of affirmative action as astrategy ; bu t it can play a catalytic role.

Identifying where the power is in any struc tureand challenging it. Th is can involve confron-tation, even direct action. Ultimately, em-powerment means self-empowerment. Butthere is the risk of backlash and evenrepression.

Building gender parity into any newinstitution. Patriarchy is self-perpetuating,so care must be taken no t to allow replicationof old structure s or models. Institutions ne edto be studied systematically in order topropose a model of the gender-fairinstitution.

Exposing and confronting poor practice bydevelopm ent institutions, especially failure tomeet policy commitments, lip-service, coop-tion and avoidance strategies. This alsoapplies to ourselves as NGOs and academicinstitutions. We should be transparent andopen about the ethical values we believe in asindividuals and as a movement. We should

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Closing remarks

Helen O'Connell, One World ActionT h e question of political pow er has been raisedfrequently today. That is impo rtant, because wehave a habit, in development circles, of not

discussing political power. What has alsobecome dear is that political power no longerlies only in conv entional, political structures , butalso in othe r are as, for exa mp le, in the hand s ofpublic corporations and international financialinstitutions. Th is raises the question of to whomwe are addressing our de ma nds.

The debate about human rights was veryinteresting and has produced some clarity. Ithighlights the feet that we need to work evenharder to bri ng tog ether th e agenda of develop-ment and the agenda of human rights. As adevelo pm ent prac titioner I tend to use the termhuman rights very broadly, to mean somethingth at affects every aspect of peop le'slives, rathertha n as an instrument that people can use.

It is clear that development should be ourissue, and th at is why we are at this meeting; butwe need to redefine developm ent both from thebottom up and from the top down. It has alsobeen remarked today that poverty should beou r issue, an d that is also a reason why we arehere; but we must rem em ber that povertyis not

the only issue or th e only form of inequality.An area of strategy which is dose to my he art

is that of exposing contradictions: contradic-tions between policy statementsand action andbetween rhetoric and reality, and also contra-dictions that are inherent in the dominanteconomic mo del. I th ink this is an urge nt task.

This brings us to the question of resources,which is something that also deserves our closerattention. If we are serious about co

women's rights and development: vision and strategy for the twenty-first century

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