Gender at Work Framework
The Gender at Work framework is a powerful tool that combines best practices in organizational development with feminist thought to help organizations see their work from new perspectives; i.e. we help them look at/uncover the “deep structure” of culture – the largely unexamined (invisible) values and mindsets that underpin "informal" (everyday) culture – at play in their organizations and in the communities they serve. The analysis that emerges through applying our framework helps organizations undertake more effective gender-equality planning and implementation. Our CSO Strengthening Program participants have said the following about the framework:
"The framework helped me at two levels - one, it helped me assess where I stand vis-à-vis gender equality, and two, it helped me assess whether my organisation is prepared to work on gender issues.” (India Program Participant)
"This tool builds an analytical skill for people who have not had positions of structural power." (South Africa Program Participant)
"The framework is very interesting, it is useful to map and see our strengths and weaknesses up there; one can learn a lot and share it further on a larger forum.” (India Program Participant)
"The Gender at Work analytical framework as well as this engagement helped to push and stretch participants beyond their initial horizons. One of the most outstanding differences with the outcomes in this region, was the extent to which partners worked overtly with traditional cultural and religious leaders such as chiefs, headmen and imams." (Horn Program Participant)
To have a significant impact on gender inequity, we must change institutions. While the terms "institution" and "organization" are often used synonymously, the two are not the same.
Institutions are the rules – both stated and implicit – for achieving social or economic ends; the rules that determine who gets what, what counts, who does what and who decides. These are the rules that maintain women’s unequal position in society. They include values that perpetuate the gendered division of labour, devalue women’s lives, restrict women’s access to land and other key economic resources, restrict women’s mobility and, perhaps most fundamentally, devalue reproductive work.
Organizations are the social structures created to accomplish particular ends but which embody the institutions (rules) prevalent in a society.
Although much has been accomplished toward gender equality, nowhere in the world are women and men truly equal in political, social or economic rights. We believe that this is because the bulk of the efforts toward gender inequality ignore the role of the institutions, or “rules” that maintain women’s unequal position. Our framework helps organizations uncover those inequities and creates a pathway to developing and implementing projects that engender real change.
To download a comprehensive overview of Gender at Work’s framework, click here.
