14 January 2014

Undressing Patriarchy, Gender and Feminisms: 3 new publications

Amid the sense that some commentators have that the post 2015 debate is not addressing gender sufficiently deeply or widely, here are these three outputs that definitely help broaden thinking and make some interesting lateral connections.

First up a report called "Gender and Social Movements" by Jessica Horn, at BRIDGE, the specialist knowledge service bridging research, policy and practice on gender and development. The report notes that social movements--not always progressive--are vital drivers of change.  It also reflects on the challenges of getting women's rights and gender justice embedded within even seemingly progressive movements--the barriers that exist in wider society are often reflected in progressive movements. But when they can be successfully embedded the movements then become powerful drivers of change for women and for men. This is a really authoritative piece and highly recommended.

Second, is a new IDS Bulletin led by IDS Fellow Jerker Edstrom, called "Undressing Patriarchy: Men and Structural Violence". The central message of the Bulletin, about patriarchy, is not that men are in any way particularly evil, but rather that we are all involved in power structures which are gendered in different ways. Nor does the report fall into the temptation of trying to stereotype men – an unfortunate old trend in gender and development which it is strongly critical of. Rather than "down-streaming" masculinities to an issue for ‘poor men in crises of masculinity’ in the south it looks at it in the power structures of development itself -- turning the gaze back onto men and women like many of us who write about development. 

Finally, we have a new Zed book, "Feminisms, Empowerment and Development" by Andrea Cornwall (U. Sussex) and Jenny Edwards (IDS). The book explores what women are doing to change their own personal circumstances whilst providing an in-depth analysis of collective action and institutionalized mechanisms aimed at changing structural relations. 

2 comments:

Jerker Edstrom said...

Having just come out from a consultation workshop on strengthening men's engagement in addressing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)here in Kenya, it is great to see that the discussions we were having between men's groups, women's organisations and other actors (incl. two police officer activists), the kinds of discussions and debates reflected here were also being debated hotly down at 680 Hotel just a couple of hours ago. My point is that these ideas about connecting perspectives and debates across social movements on gender is definitely not just an issue at the 'global - or academic - level' but very live on the ground. And, that is something these three publications highlight very well! (And, I'm not just saying that for having been involved in the production in one of them).

Lawrence Haddad said...

Thanks Jerker, I hope I did justice to your fab publication.. best