Walking the Talk
Sarah Ireland, Head of Organisation Effectiveness
October 2016
OISP Expected Impact by 2019
Women’s rights have been claimed and advanced through the engagement and leadership of women and their organizations and there has been a significant reduction in the social acceptance and incidence of violence against women.
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Gender Justice Theory of Change
Individualchange
FormalInformal
Systemic change
Women’s access to resources (voice, access to health, budget etc.)
Women’s and men’s consciousness (knowledge, skills, commitment, attitudes and beliefs).
Informal cultural norms and exclusionary practices (that maintain inequality in everyday practices).
Formal institutions: policies, laws. etc.
The arrows represent potential relationships between areas of change.
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4
2
3
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Areas of our Work
Putting women’s rights at the heart of all we do
Matching external impact with internal values
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What do we need to do?
Enablewomentolead.
Inspireanduniteourstaff.
Recruit,induct,andtrainstaffinlinewithourgenderjusticestandards.
Monitorandholdmanagersaccountabletogendermarkers
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Supporting leaders Leadership at Oxfam
• Aspiration or intent?• Social justice model• Starting with self• What do we value?• Developing leaders
of the future -pipeline
THE SELF
LEADERSHIP IDENTITY
ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
TEAMS – COALITIONS - ALLIANCES
The context
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Creating safe spaces Women leading in a thinking environment
• “Everything begins with our thinking. If our thinking is good, our decisions are good, our actions are good and our outcomes are good.”Nancy Kline
• Women supporting women to address their own wicked problems
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Creating a movement –Gender Leadership Programme
• Honest conversations• Engagement• Spheres of influence• Creating networks• Facebook at work• The power of the mug• Creating new
artefacts
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Creating a NetworkWomen’s Leadership Network
• Self developed and organising
• Challenges of being a network (tight/loose)
• Recognition by the organisation
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• Backed up by policy but not necessarily by process
• The culture we promote – macho culture?
• Gender pay gap• Flexible working
Great policies, better practice
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What did we do?
Enablewomentolead .
Inspireanduniteourstaff.
Recruit,induct,andtrainstaffinlinewithourgenderjusticestandards.
Monitorandholdmanagersaccountabletogendermarkers
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What have we learnt?• Involve women and
men• But focus on women • Visibility and profile
does matter• What's perception
and what's reality?• Expectations• Structures need to be
in place (meetings/nursery)
• Leadership• Openness to
implementation• Values• Don't rely on
HR/obvious advocates
• Get below the water line
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What else?
• Are we focusing on the right things?• How to we use our learning and develop a
spectrum of thinking for gender?• More work to be done – support to managers,
induction and onboarding• Need better and more positive metrics and
better storytelling• And don't stop...
QUESTIONS?