A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Michel Friedman, Gender at Work
Ray Gordezky, Threshold Associates
For more than fifteen years, Gender at Work has worked with civil society organizations to
address women’s rights, gender equality and social justice issues. What has grown out of
Gender at Work’s experiences in Bangladesh, South Africa, India, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somaliland,
Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar is an evolving practice that is multi-factorial (individual,
organizational, societal) and holistic (head, heart, hands). It is concerned with the individual
psychology and consciousness of women and men, their access to resources, and the social
structures in which they live and work – both inside organizations and within the fabric of
communities. Out of these ideas, Gender at Work created the Organization Strengthening
Program. It has resulted in women and men being able to imagine and act on what was felt to
be impossible. In this paper we will describe three key elements of this program, and conclude
with some questions for those undertaking social innovation and societal change initiatives.1
INTRODUCTION
It is difficult to desire what one cannot imagine as a possibility.
– Amartya Sen2
In the sphere of women’s rights, bilateral agencies acknowledge that gender equality is critical
to development and peace3. Despite the considerable energy invested to further social justice
and major gains for women through policy reform and changes in workplace practices, positive
outcomes for women’s lives are far from the norm. We’ve found two reasons for the lack of
more progress. One reason for this situation is that insufficient attention has been given to
factors holding inequality in place, such as culturally supported traditions and norms which
determine who gets what, what counts, who does what and who decides4. These factors include
values that maintain the gendered division of labour, the restrictions on women owning land,
the limits to women’s mobility, the permissive customs that condone violence against women,
1 This paper would not have been possible without previous papers written for Gender at Work. Kelleher, David.
(2009) Action Learning for Gender Equality. Gender at Work. Friedman, Michel and Kelleher, David. (2009). In Their
Own Idiom: Reflections on a Gender Action Learning Program in the Horn of Africa, Gender at Work.
www.genderatwork.org. 2 From an interview with Amartya Sen, Nobel prize winning economist in an interview with Eleanor Wachtel on CBC
radio program Writers & Company, broadcast August 8, 2010. 3 See for example King, Angela E. V. (4 December 2000). “The Global Perspective: Outcomes of Beijing+5, Gender
Equality, Development and Peace”. Key note speech for panel discussion "Progress for Women in the New
Millennium: the Way Forward" at The Commonwealth Secretariat and the UN Information Center, London.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/speech/bl_sp_beijing_un_1.htm 4 Friedman, Michel and Shamim, Meer (nd). Change is a Slow Dance. Gender at Work. www.genderatwork.org
A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice
Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 2
and the devaluing of reproductive work. The second reason for lack of progress is the
predominance of approaches that give preference to rationality and the mind over the body5.
Gender at Work’s ongoing efforts to address gender inequality have woven together practices
and ideas from a variety of fields to address both reasons for lack of progress in gender equality.
In what follows, we will first provide a brief description of Gender at Work’s Organizational
Strengthening Program, the foundation of our work and learning. We will then discuss three key
elements of the program: the Integral Framework, Action Learning and Capacitar practices. We
will finish with questions concerning scaling up impact and a short case study of work
undertaken in Ethiopia.
THE ORGANIZATION STRENGTHENING PROGRAM
The foundation of Gender at Work’s approach is the Organization Strengthening Program. The
program is explicitly not a training program; it is explicitly an organizational change initiative
intended to address gender inequality. Informal evaluation of impact indicates that the program
has considerable personal impact, and has resulted in organization and community change.
The Organization Strengthening Program starts with a series of meetings between Gender at
Work and the organizations that are potential partners. Once partners have decided to
participate, a three-member organization change team attends a two-day meeting at the
organization’s office, a meeting we call “Hearing Our Stories.” We reflect with them on the
history, culture, and programs of their organization, explore together how women and men live
in their region, and generate ideas for what project they might initiate to improve gender
relations either inside their organization or in a community in which they operate. In addition,
they are introduced to both Capacitar practices and the use of collage and creative expression to
release tension and free up energy for new understanding and action.
The Organization Strengthening Program then unfolds with a pattern of three action-learning
workshops, one-to-one consultations with organizations between Action Learning meetings, and
a writing workshop at the end.
The First Action Learning Workshop: The first Action Learning workshop brings together
the change teams from five to eight organizations (12 – 24 individuals) to build a climate
of collaboration and trust for peer learning. Participants are introduced to the Integral
Framework (see below) and how to use it as an analytical and action planning tool.
Participants are also supported in developing plans for change projects. The session often
challenges existing perceptions and offers new ways of seeing. Following the workshop,
participants work for six to eight months to implement their change plan, supported in
their work by a Gender at Work facilitator who visits them at their organizational setting.
The Second Action Learning Workshop: During the second Action Learning workshop
change teams share what they have done and how they have done it. Some teams have
been unable to change anything. Other teams have altered and sharpened the focus of
5 Keller, Catherine. (1986). From a Broken Web: Separation, Sexism, and Self. Beacon Press.
A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice
Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 3
their change projects. Change team members reflect on lessons learned, and get advice
from their peers and Gender at Work staff. Facilitators introduce concepts and processes
for use in working with personal and organizational power, help participants deepen their
peer-learning practice, and support the use of the Integral Framework to assess their
organization and change initiative. Finally, change teams review and re-plan their change
project work based on their insights and advice received. During the next six months, or
so, change teams continue their work, supported by a Gender at Work facilitator.
The Third Action Learning Workshop: The third Action Learning workshop invites
participants to tell stories of their change process and to identify the factors responsible
for what they’ve changed and how change came about. Where relevant, the Gender at
Work team provides ideas to assist participants in developing deeper insight and
understanding of the issues that emerged during the change projects.
The Writing Workshop: Writing is a particularly powerful means of undoing the silence
that has built up from years of exclusion, We make use of different writing techniques as
tools for reflection, self-reflection, self-discovery, and learning throughout the Action
Learning meetings. Writing about their experience of the process builds a personal sense
of power, for many women participating in the program have not been in the position of
expressing their thinking in a way that gets read and listened to.
A key theory underlying the Organization Strengthening Program is Ken Wilbur’s Integral
Theory.
INTEGRAL THEORY
Integral Theory emerged from philosopher Ken Wilbur’s synthesis of Western and non-Western
understandings of consciousness with accepted wisdom about cosmic, biological, human and
divine evolution6. An Integral approach to community development draws on moral,
sociological, psychological and cognitive research to more fully address the complexity of long
standing social and cultural issues. The theory has helped advance an approach that weaves
together divergent disciplines, such as psychology, policy- and law-making, capacity
development and spirituality, into a pragmatic multi-disciplinary approach.7 One of Wilbur’s key
developments has been the Integral Framework that distinguishes two major polarities: 1)
individual and collective; 2) interior and exterior.
6 Wilbur, Ken. (1996). A Brief History of Everything. Shambhala. 7 Hochachka, Gail. (2009). Developing Sustainability, Developing the Self: An Integral Approach to International &
Community Development, http://www.drishti.ca
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The matrix resulting from combining the two polarities produces four quadrants, or lenses, that
guide exploration of complex issues. Many proposed solutions to global problems (and to
organizational problems) focus on only one quadrant, or perhaps two. According to Wilbur,
interventions will be more comprehensive, effective and sustainable when change efforts focus
on all four quadrants.
The Experience Quadrant concerns the invisible, or interior, aspects of individual consciousness.
This is the area of individual values, intentions, thoughts, principles, morals and religious beliefs.
The Behaviour Quadrant is the external view, what we can see and measure of individual
consciousness. This includes hormone levels and blood pressure, as well as observable skills and
physical manifestations of feelings such as a loud voice and red face. The Systems Quadrant is
about the institutional and material forms of the collective aspects of consciousness. These
include social, political, economic and ecological systems, from systems of governance and
finance to architectural styles and population levels. Finally, the Culture Quadrant is about the
interior of our collective experience. This quadrant includes collective beliefs, traditions, values,
mindsets, and ways of doing things that community’s share, such as how women are treated.
Applying Wilbur’s Model: The Gender at Work Framework8
Wilber’s framework has been applied to a number of complex issues, particularly environmental
and poverty issues, yet as far as we know has not been used to support efforts to address
gender inequality. Gender at Work evolved Wilbur’s framework, altering some of the terms to
encompass actualizing women’s rights at the individual, organization and community levels.
8 The following tables are adapted from Hochachka. op. cit.
Experience Mindset Consciousness Commitment Feelings
Behaviour Physical aspects
Competencies Skills
Culture Worldviews Shared Values Traditions Beliefs
Systems Policies Assets
Processes Governance
Individual
Collective
Exterior
Interior
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The Experience Quadrant focuses on women’s and men’s consciousness at the individual level,
such as knowledge of and commitment to change toward equality and women’s rights, and
willingness to take action to empower women. It also includes the psychological and cognitive
processes by which individuals make meaning and construct identity. For example, women in a
Kenyan community, after much self- and collective-reflection, banded together to plant shrubs
around their homesteads so that they could get firewood close by, thus enabling them to earn
money and spend more time at home. While this is an example of behaviour change (and thus
an action addressing the Behaviour Quadrant), it also is an example of women (and men) who
shifted their mindset to one where it is women’s right to claim income for themselves and their
families.
Experience Quadrant
What We are Trying to Change Practices We Use
– Inter- and intra-personal consciousness and
commitment to gender equality
– Commitment of leadership to gender
equality
– Capacity for dialogue and conflict
management
– Experience of feeling whole and valued
– Self- and collective-reflection
– Coaching
– Free writing and journaling
– Meditation
– Setting intentions
– Yoga and tai chi
The Behaviour Quadrant focuses on resources for women. In the community context, resources
refer to such “assets” as access to health, education, leadership positions; as well as the access
Experience Women’s & men’s consciousness
Behaviour Resources for women
Culture Cultural norms & exclusionary
Systems Formal
policies & arrangemen
Individual
Collective
Formal, Explicit
Informal, Tacit, Hidden
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to the presence of increased security and freedom from violence, and the communication skills
to productively discuss highly sensitive issues such as shutting women out of the power to make
decisions and set direction within organizations. Research has consistently shown that women
benefit less then men from income generation activities; services such health and education,
access to land ownership, and security.9 Thus this quadrant still receives the bulk of attention in
work on gender equality. There is no doubt that access has needed this attention. As an
example, an organization providing credit and saving services in Ethiopia within Islamic
communities, initially conceived of its change project as improving access to paralegal services
(access to courts, law, justice) to address gender-based violence. (During the Organization
Strengthening Program, the organization expanded its focus to training community change
agents to discuss and educate community members on underlying misconceptions about
gender.
Behaviour Quadrant
What We are Trying to Change Practices We Use
– Budget and training devoted to projects to
advance equality
– Women’s involvement in leadership
positions
– Freedom from fear
– Deep listening
– Skill building (asking questions, making clear
requests, planning projects, working with
people in positions of power)
– Setting intentions
– Monitoring and evaluation
– Tai chi and strength building
– Writing
– Systems Thinking
The Systems Quadrant concerns formal policies or arrangements. This includes visible social and
power structures, laws and policies, strategies, work processes, modes of production and
income generation, the natural and built environment. An example of action taken in this
quadrant is an Indian NGO, which successfully brought about a law enabling the NGO to audit
whether or not officials were giving poor women their rightful money. A Pakistani NGO was able
to include a more gender-sensitive curriculum for early childhood education. In both cases, the
relevant authority agreed to a formal arrangement intended to advance women’s interests.
9 Corner, Lorraine and Repucci, Sarah. (2009) A User’s Guide to Measuring Gender-Sensitive Basic Service Delivery.
UNDP.
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Systems Quadrant
What We are Trying to Change Practices We Use
– Mission includes gender equality
– Policies for anti-harassment, work-family
arrangements, fair employment, etc.
– Accountability mechanisms holding
authorities and organizations responsible to
women
– Systems thinking
– Office and room layout
– Operational and strategic plans
– Power analysis
– Policies and budgets
The Culture Quadrant focuses on traditions, norms and practices that devalue women and
privilege men, limit women’s opportunities to exercise their rights, limit interventions for
change, and override formal laws or constitutions that mandate equality. We have heard
countless stories of how challenges to inequity are silenced by the threat of violence and fear of
social ostracism. For example, in India, there’s a law that provides a number of seats for women
on local elected councils. However, it’s not unusual for women to be prevented from running,
or, if elected, relegated to powerless roles. The Hunger Project, an Indian NGO, challenged such
practices by helping women candidates organize, and offered them leadership training. The
NGO also took action to protect women candidates from harassment and monitored election
processes for abuse. Such interventions slowly change the cultural practices in communities.
Culture Quadrant
What We are Trying to Change Practices We Use
– Acceptance of women’s leadership
– Organizational ownership of gender issues
– Acceptance of needed work-family
adjustments
– Women’s issues firmly on the agenda
– Valuing of women and women’s experience
– Respectful and inclusive work practices
– Dialogue
– Participatory methodologies, including
action learning
– Collective visioning
– Appreciative inquiry
– Storytelling
– Group Tai Chi and relaxation exercises
– Respectful and open hearted relating
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The Advantages Of The Integral Framework
As we work with organizations and discuss the Integral Framework, we hear four recurring ideas
about how it helps them:
1. The framework allows people to see “the whole picture” and to locate their efforts
within it. This holistic view enables them to think strategically about where their work is
enough by itself, where it can be expanded to other quadrants, and whether their
partners can work in quadrants where other efforts are required.
2. Insufficient attention has been given to underlying factors holding inequality in place.10
The framework offers a tool for organizations to explore their beliefs about how efforts
in the formal or explicit quadrants (providing resources and working on policy and other
formal arrangements) can be undermined or limited by unexamined cultural practices
and individual mindsets. For example, the framework encourages people to explicitly
see how cultural norms and beliefs keep the best-intentioned programs and efforts
from realizing lasting change in the lives of women. As one participant from Kenya
wrote: “… on the surface, the organization has a policy where gender is recognised as a cross
cutting value … Imagine my shock when I figured out that our programmes did not specifically
make considerations for Gender. I thought all development agencies did this as a rule.”
3. There has been little work on changing the consciousness of men and women beyond a
generation of gender training. (With gender training there is always the hope that
consciousness will change.) The framework challenges people to test their own biases
and theories about the natural order of things between women and men, and women
and society. Using storytelling, collage making, and movement can help people discover
their mindsets in ways that bypass normal defensive reasoning that tends to keeps
things as they are. Such practices surface for discussion unexamined assumptions
embedded in how people speak about what women and men should do or how they
should be.
4. Through examining how the different quadrants influence each other, the Integral
Framework offers a process to open up possibilities for action where there was little
more than anger and helplessness.
The Organization Strengthening Program helps participants integrate previous and new
practices (such as the use of the Integral Framework) into untried areas of inquiry and action.
This is done through the used of Action Learning.
ACTION LEARNING FOR INQUIRY AND ACTION
Gender at Work provides a series of reflective spaces that allow individuals and organizations to
inquire deeply into their work for gender equality, explore how they are framing the way they
think about gender equality (triple loop learning), and plan and implement high-leverage action.
Using an Action Learning approach enables organizations to discover their own trajectory of
change and to work with change on their own terms. The sense of ownership this creates is
10 Friedman, Michel and Shamim Meer (nd). Change is a Slow Dance. Gender at Work.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 9
particularly important for work on gender equality because of how mired it is in complex
debates around tradition, culture, and externally driven (often Western) agendas.
The essential idea in an Action Learning program is: learning through work and reflection on real
projects. It goes way beyond participants coming up with a feasible, elegant solution on paper.
Action Learning has been implemented in a number of different ways over the many years since
first conceived by Reg Revans11
. Consequently, there is a great deal of variety in how it is used.
At its heart, however, Action Learning is a process that links collaborative learning closely with
work and action. It also draws on the power of learning with and from others to create insight
and new action.
An Action Learning process is a laboratory where participants:
• Collaboratively explore, through questions, ways of conceiving an issue or task;
• Learn about how they work together in groups to solve problems;
• Learn about themselves as learners and as problem-solvers;
• Become conscious of themselves as women and men, and what it means in their
cultural context.
Action Learning assumes that learning is social. What this means is that understanding of
content is negotiated through conversations about that content; and through interactions with
others around challenges, goals or actions. The focus is balanced between what people are
learning, and on how they are learning. As a learning group’s work evolves, members develop
skills of collective and individual reflection, as well as peer coaching. The more the group
balances individual and collective learning with seeking pragmatic answers and solutions to the
issues they face, the more members develop a greater understanding of their problem-solving
processes.
As participants spend more time together in learning exchanges, they inevitably assume
leadership roles, acquire conflict-management skills, discuss and clarify concepts, and grapple
with the questions and complexities of the areas being investigated.
Gender at Work uses Action Learning and the Integral Framework, not prescriptively, but to
enable participants to look at their organizations and communities in new ways.
11 Revans, Reg. 1980. Action Learning: New techniques for management. London: Blond & Briggs, Ltd.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 10
For more information about what Action Learning is and how it works, refer to publications
below12
.
Our hypothesis is that the Action Learning process creates four conditions for change:
� Willingness – Willingness is the mindset and energy to make things happen in the face
of long-standing biases and emerging obstacles. Willingness is required to help
overcome generations of prejudice, systems that provide incentives for staying the
same, and lack of power on the part of women and their allies who would change these
arrangements. The Action Learning process builds willingness through collective
reflection, visualization and action undertaken to advance desired changes.
� Understanding – Participants build understanding as they work through the Integral
Framework in Action Learning groups. They embody this understanding as they plan and
implement projects to address gender inequality. A visceral understanding develops of
how women have been systematically deprived of power and resources for equal
citizenship and how these have blocked community and cultural development. As one
Gender at Work participant told us, “We can’t build our country with one arm.”
� Capacity – Capacity is more than knowing about something or knowing how to do
something. It is an embodied form of knowing, like the knowing hands of a woman
weaving a basket out of grass. Organizations that work for gender equality require
resources, tools, skilled people, and systems to support their work. Through Action
Learning participants acquire resources; their confidence grows, as does their
competence in their work towards greater gender equality.
12 Kelleher, David. op. cit.; Revens, Reg. op. cit.; Marquardt, M.J., Leonard, S., Freedman, A., and Hill, C. (2009). Action
Learning For Developing Leaders And Organizations. American Psychological Press; O’Neil, Judy and Marsick J. (2007).
Understanding Action Learning. American Management Association.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 11
� Embodiment – Embodiment takes place through the experience of planning,
implementing and evaluating change projects; and then more deeply while reflecting
with peers in Action Learning groups. Embodiment develops in groups as participants
share their feelings and thoughts, and experience trust and connection that grow from
the non-judgmental setting.
To bring about these conditions, facilitators strive to:
� Create a safe, open environment that allows participants to build a community of
learners;
� Use self-reflection and meditation to help participants find the “still point” and create
coherence among participants;13
� Bring clear intentions to work that challenges personal and cultural beliefs; 14
� Provide support for learning over eighteen, or so, months.
Willingness and capacity without understanding leads to wrong actions; understanding and
capacity without willingness leads to cosmetic action; willingness and understanding without
capacity leads to failure and potential disillusionment15
. Action without embodiment leads to
unsustainable change.
Over time, we have also been experimenting with methods to deepen the experience of
willingness, understanding and capacity. One approach that has proven surprisingly effective is
Capacitar16
.
CAPACITAR PRACTICES
At the beginning of this paper we suggested that one of the reasons for lack of progress in
overcoming women’s unequal position in society is the failure to engage the spirit and body. Our
hypothesis is that given the high incidence of violence against women, not addressing the
trauma, historical and current, and how it is carried in the body, perpetuates helplessness and
fear of taking action. A body grown numb from trauma demobilizes the person, withers her
spirit. Integrating more holistic mind-body practices such as Capacitar’s adapted Tai Chi exercise
frees up energy for action and reintegrates the mind and body. These simple and powerful
practices enhance individuals' capacity for personal transformation, which in turn assists
broader organizational and social transformations17
.
Capacitar practices interweave a mixture of ancient traditions, including Tai Chi, meditation,
13 Cane, Patricia. (2005). Living in Wellness: A Capacitar Trauma Manual, Capacitar International. www. capacitar.org. 14
Wordsworth, Chloe Faith. (2007) Quantum Change Made Easy. Resonance Publishing. 15 Gallopin, G., Scenarios, “Surprises and Branch Points,” in L. Gunderson and C.S. Holling (2002). Panarchy,
Understanding and Transforming Human and Natural Systems. Island Press. 16 www. capacitar.org. 17
Cane, op. cit. See also, Friedman, Michel. (2010) Becoming the Change You Wish to See in the World, Gender at
Work. www.genderatwork.org.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 12
fingerholds, singing, and dancing to work with the physical energy of the group. Capacitar was
developed by Patricia Cane as part of a popular education framework initially intended for use
with resource poor communities needing to heal from various traumas (political, economic,
environmental, wars, and so on)18
. The practices harmonize and balance one’s sense of self
through movement and build personal strength to help women and men address years of
powerlessness and exclusion from shifting oppressive practices and norms.
Cane’s research on Capacitar develops a compelling case for how seemingly simple body
movements and physical touching awaken people to the power and capacity to heal in body,
mind, and spirit.19
She outlines some typical post-traumatic stress symptoms that are
particularly important for projects concerned with transforming power and gender equality:
detachment or estrangement from others, loss of the capacity for love or intimacy, inability to
nurture or bond with others, feelings of hopelessness for the future; living with a sense of
meaninglessness. Other symptoms include: anxiety, chronic fatigue, depression, immune
system problems, feelings of detachment, alienation and isolation, feelings of helplessness, and
a diminished interest in life.
After doing a set of Capacitar exercises, participants describe their feeling state as “lighter” and
more connected with others. In a sense, these practices contribute to a softening of rigid ways
of being and thinking that have been supported by cultural norms and traditions, creating a
greater spaciousness and openness for participants to receive from others.
Capacitar's practices are used at the start of each day during the Organization Strengthening
Program. While these exercises follow a few set forms, they are easily adapted to local
traditions. For instance, a facilitator from KwaZulu/Natal, an area where water is scarce, told
one of the authors she converts the Tai Chi exercise using the image of the ‘shower of light’ to a
huge bucket of pouring water over members of the group, seeping deep within their body,
swirling softly around places that are feeling pain and gently easing them.
Our hypothesis is that the Capacitar practices not only help individuals reconnect with
themselves, their bodies, mind and spirit; they also help awaken people to their capacity for
taking greater control over their own energy and moods, revealing a capacity for choice, agency,
and forward movement. One participant described her insight that arose from the Capacitar
practices: “It’s possible to make a choice not to be frustrated all the time – it is possible to let go,
this is a choice we make”.
At first, people report feeling strange about doing the exercises. With experience, this feeling
diminishes. As one participant said:
I was confused at the beginning and I thought ‘we are like crazy
people’. But when I was stressed at home I tried to do it on my own.
And it's where I found it working because I was relaxed and I was
peaceful inside. So I am saying when a person is doing Tai Chi fully
focused on it, one will get the meaning of it.
18 Freire, Paulo. (1970). Pedagogy Of The Oppressed. Continuum. 19
Cane, op. cit.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 13
In summary, Capacitar exercises go beyond something that makes people feel good, a set of
activities intended to break the ice. They integrate the body, mind, and heart as people address
long-standing issues of gender inequality. New ways of relating are nourished and taken forward
into the participants' own lives and organizational cultures.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SCALE UP AND SUSTAIN PROGRESS ON GENDER
EQUALITY
In many of the contexts where Gender at Work is invited to facilitate this work, participants are
deeply embedded in cultural norms and assumptions that perpetuate practices of exclusion and
social inequalities, including that of gender inequality. The Organization Strengthening Program
challenges the meanings of gender equality, that are limited to gender audits and quantitative
measures. The Integral Framework helps to disrupt existing discriminatory practices by asking
participants to explore the interior and exterior personal, social, political and cultural domains.
In doing so, they experiment with new possibilities, possibilities they could not even imagine
with any hope of change. Through Action Learning, participants become more open to co-
creation of new cultural norms and traditions that value difference, inclusivity, equality,
connection and respect. As partners in learning and action, participants surface into awareness
the unconscious perceptions and habits that support unequal prejudicial behaviour at personal,
organizational and community levels. Finally, integrating the mind, body, and spirit with
playfulness and creative expression enables more inclusive ways of seeing and being.
This is a far from straightforward process, and a key question for us is: how sustainable and
scalable are the gains participating organization have made? Anxiety is inevitable when the
stakes are high, issues are emotionally charged and complex, and perceptions divisive such as in
communities where Gender at Work’s partner’s work. Our suspicion is that it is critical to create
supportive structures under which those involved in address gender equality can meet, share
learning and develop new approaches to societal change.
In a number of areas in our world we have witnessed expert practitioners connect and
collaborate on a global scale to solve complex problems. For example, we have survived global
threats such as SARS (Acute Respiratory Syndrome) through the collaborative efforts of
specialists world wide. Many complex issues have had only partial or limited success. Efforts to
combat global warming is one such area. Similarly, efforts at eliminating gender inequality have
seen some success, and much inertia. However, the kinds of collaboration that does exist, even
on a limited basis, suggest a metaphor inviting the consideration of global stewardship for
gender equality20
.
While we have not yet begun to discover the mechanisms for creating this kind of stewardship
at a global level. Such stewardship would put to the test the often-quoted idea to “think
globally and act locally.” There are numerous questions, among them: Does this kind of
stewardship imply building international organizations that address gender issues to
counterweigh for the emphasis on economic growth? Is such a broad stewardship effort
20 These ideas draw inspiration from personal communication with William M. Snyder, a leader in the field of creating
global communities of practice.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 14
sufficient to address gender issues that are essentially local? How can we connect the power
and accessibility of local civil society organizations and faith-based organization with
stewardship at national and/or international levels? What are the design criteria for such a
system and what might such a system look like?
Based on our experience, there are at least three design criteria to consider for building a global
learning system capable of successfully addressing in a sustainable manner the complexity of
gender inequality.
Action Learning: As we’ve seen at the local level, Action Learning assists organizations
to reflect on what approaches are working and why; then using the insights gained to
guide future action. The same could happen at a global level connecting those
organizations already working on gender equality.
Bridge-Spanning Capability: This suggests a system capable of bridging between civil
society, government and for-profit organizations and across sufficiently diverse
constituencies, jurisdictions and disciplines to equal the complexity of factors and
stakeholders keeping the current situation in place.
Global Learning Platform: This suggests a learning system capable of connecting actors
and activities at the local, national and international levels.
It is an open question whether or not organizations involved in addressing women’s rights,
donor’s who can support this work, governments with their policy making and enforcement
mechanisms, and businesses that generate opportunity and economic power have the collective
will, capability and understanding to make such global stewardship for gender equality a reality.
Our work suggests there’s reason to hope.
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 15
ADMAS CASE STUDY21
History and purpose
ADMAS is a network of seven founding organizations in Dire Dawa, a town in Eastern Ethiopia.
The network’s inception grew out of the intervention, in the mid-90’s, of ACCORD, an
international organization providing development assistance. ACCORD’S strategy focused on
supporting the development of community based organizations (CBOs) capable of running
micro-credit facilities in poor neighborhoods. To this end, it facilitated the transformation of
selected traditional burial associations (Idirs) into credit and saving associations. The
membership base of the Idirs was carried through into the CBOs and the CBOs formed the
network, ADMAS.
As of early 2007, the network had about 3000 members, two-thirds of whom were women. All
their members are poor and represent the most disadvantaged segments of the local
community. Their membership is diverse, including people from different ethnic and religious
groupings. The network employs about 25 finance officers, with a large portion of its activities
undertaken by volunteers. Since its’ founding, ADMAS had expanded beyond the core activity of
providing access to income (through savings and credit) to include access to legal and emotional
support, information and vocational training.
When Gender at Work began working with ADMAS, the network was already involved in
building relationships between affiliated CBOs to facilitate sharing of experience and learning
among their membership. The network would raise awareness among members to help them
better understand their roles and responsibilities in changing their circumstances of poverty.
Gender
Before the Organization Strengthening Program started, ADMAS members were already aware
of problematic gender injustice related issues in the Dire Dawe area - for example, some of the
association members were paying visits to families to encourage them to provide education
their daughters. (Daughters are regularly prevented from attending school.) The ADMAS
member organizations had learned that women’s membership does not always lead to a
meaningful contribution due to lack of self-confidence. The network had developed ways of
growing such confidence by encouraging exposure and experience with active women role
models. This succeeded in attracting more women to become active participants in the CBOs.
The Association was working on addressing the consequences of social injustice, but had not
been unable to challenge the root causes that underpin the injustice. The Association hoped the
action-learning program would assist ADMAS to break through cycles of injustice, and address
other factors that contribute to the cycles of HIV, Poverty and Violence.
21
Admas is one of the six organizations from Ethiopia, Sudan and Somaliland, that participated in a Gender at Work
led action-learning process, facilitated by Oxfam Canada, from early 2007 to end 2009. For full details of this
experience see Friedman, Michel and David Kelleher. In Their Own Idiom: reflections on the Oxfam Canada PACE
Gender Action Learning (GAL) program. 2009. http://www.genderatwork.org/learning-centre
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 16
Project
Each of the seven CBO’s was represented at the initial meeting – what we call Hearing the
Stories meeting. At the end of that meeting the group nominated three people to represent the
Association during the Action Learning Program. Two of these representatives remained
constant; the third person rotated. They participated in three peer-learning sessions.
At the Hearing the Stories meeting, the team said they would like to focus on addressing
gender-based violence. Their initial thinking with respect to their internal membership was to
build a greater awareness of gender equality between women and men in the broader
community, and to expand existing membership to better access credit and saving. Externally,
their initial thinking was to use a paralegal model with an advocacy focus targeting policy
makers and government to implement existing laws and policies with respect to women’s
property rights.
At the first peer-learning event, the ADMAS team showed a shift in awareness by articulating
their goal as follows: to create a core group of change agents and a critical mass of people who
believe in the need for and take part in raising awareness about gender equality. Their vision for
of their work after 5 years was that in parts of Dire Dawe there would be gender equality. Their
vision for 18 months was - seeing the core change agents change themselves, their families,
CBOs, and their neighbors.
The core of the ADMAS strategy included face-to-face dialogue, employing great respect and
understanding of diverse cultural factors. Initially they started with 'gender equality' but
changed their strategy to identifying the misconceptions and root causes of gender inequality.
“We did this, said a change team member, because Dire Dawa is a big city and is exposed to a
number of media influences. People are already exposed to the issue of gender equality and it
didn't work much in terms of changing the behavior of the people. So we shifted our strategy
towards identifying the root causes and decided [to work] with people in changing their hearts
and minds”.
Their activities included:
• providing an educational forum in the seven Association offices
• facilitating learning forums for 245 members (35 members from each of the seven
Associations)
• collecting and discussing traditional proverbs, folklores, stories and songs that influence
gender relations - classified into cultural, religious and social norms
Ultimately, ADMAS trained 140 change agents (60 women, 40 men) and chose to give them
freedom to confce facilitate 'change conversations' in whatever way made sense to them. The
network supported the change agents by facilitating regular monthly meetings and dialogue
where the change agents could discuss their experiences.
There were no formal guidelines to direct the change agent led conversations. Rather, they
drew upon their initial in-depth and detailed reflections where they examined myths, proverbs
and misconceptions. They also used personal stories and inputs from religious leaders. It was
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 17
assumed that after this depth of discussion the change agents would feel able to facilitate
similar kinds of conversations in their communities. This assumption seems to have been born
out. The important point is that they were not obliged to 'run' formal training sessions. They
could have conversations anywhere and in whatever way would engage the people they were
talking to. Some started with 'real-life' problems - a husband beating a wife; others started with
reflecting on stories that had been written about in a newspaper, a sister complaining she was
unhappy with her husband and so on.
Changes
At the end of the program, the ADMAS change team reflected on the following changes they
identified. Changes are organized in the four quadrants of the Integral Framework. Ideas in one
quadrant are entangled in other quadrant; what's important is the conversation that gets
generated by exploring the holistic nature of the change.
Individual – Experience and Behaviour Quadrants
At the individual level, change team members shifted in their awareness of themselves and
their own capacity to achieve a desired goal. In particular, they shifted their goal from an
expansive plan using external resources, books, women lawyers, and expert facilitators, to
using their own skills and resources. In the process they cultivated a much greater sense of
independence and confidence, including the capacity to develop their own policies based
on their lessons and experiences. The 140 \ change agents experienced changes at an
individual level: externally – in gaining access to new facilitation and leadership roles;
internally, in their newfound confidence, competence and ability to take initiative. Finally,
change team members reported the role of Capacitar practices was striking. From the first
meeting, ADMAS members were enthusiastic about what they called the “sports.” Some of
their members have integrated into their daily lives regular use of various Capacitar
practices. They maintain that these practices have helped them keep alive high levels of
hope and well being, as well as an ability to let go of difficult and traumatic emotional
experiences.
Systems Quadrants – In the Organization
The change team’s shift from focusing on the Association lobbying external paralegal
services (courts, law, justice) to developing a critical mass of change agents signifies a
broadening in collective consciousness about what actions are possible, and their collective
confidence in their ability to take successful action. Other organizational changes have
included increased capacity to work with diversity and dialogic facilitation; building
relationships in the broader community; and organizational leadership of ADMAS itself.
Although ADMAS always worked with difference and diversity (e.g. Christian and Muslim,
Ethiopian, and Somali members.), they reported they were now working very consciously
with gender differences and diversity. For example, they use group norms to ensure that
their change teams contain both women and men (teams started off with a majority of
women, and now have more or less equal numbers of women and men). Both women and
men are present when discussing gender difficulties, or misconceptions. Because different
change agents work in the monthly action-learning spaces, they are building relationships
and learning across different parts of the city and breaking down fragmentation and
isolation between members from different CBOs. As one individual said:
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Gordezky and Friedman IODA 2010 18
We learned to be true to ourselves – when challenges appear
we are able to open them up to dialogue and not always say
‘we know’ and ‘must do it this way.’ There is openness to
listen to different opinions – if our [political] leaders were like
this we would live in a different country. Both men and
women are taking responsibility in leadership.
Most importantly, the nature of power and the relationship between the ADMAS board
and its members in the various CBOs has been changed by the role of the change agents in
the process. Previously the network struggled to sustain an active membership; now the
change agents have become much more committed, responsible and active network
members. ADMAS is currently working on a gender policy, which will include guidance for
their work with members, as well as a workplace policy that would outline women's and
men's rights, organizational values and a vision with respect to gender equality. It is worth
noting here that the confidence gained from the process (upper left quadrant) strongly
influenced ADMAS’ desire and capacity to develop their own gender policy without
requiring external help or needing to copy other organizations’ policy examples.
Cultural Quadrant– In the Community
ADMAS is now recognized as a valuable player in the development sector; they are
engaging more as an 'actor' rather than 'receiver' or 'beneficiary' of other actors, such as
the Government Women’s Bureau. For example, this Bureau invited ADMAS to facilitate
educational sessions for young people and citizens in the city. There’s a sense that organic
growth has been unleashed and is unlikely to stop. The ADMAS team shared examples of
norms being challenged and new norms created amongst the larger community
membership. For example, entrenched practices were giving way – husbands are sharing
domestic responsibilities, men are being less violent with their wives, women starting to
acquire property and other rights when divorcing, and more parents sending their
daughters to school. Members are challenging and holding each other to account when
they use derogatory terms and proverbs. They are encouraging each other to use more
positive expressions and to engage with religious scripture more critically. There is
collective support for women members when men are abusive. We heard about a
community boycott of a man who took his wife’s money that she had received from the
credit program. Finally, women are increasingly being recognized and valued as leaders –
both as facilitators of dialogic conversations as well as network leaders in their own right.
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