Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the need for collective approaches to addressing power and patriarchy, moving beyond current gender paradigms mainly focused on individuals. We revisit feminist debates and explore new ones to identify alternative ways to promote equality and women’s rights

Paper long abstract:

Many who work on women's and girls' rights and gender equality within the field of international development in the UK, and with partners in other countries, are concerned about the current siloed and often instrumentalised approaches to gender and development, and feel deeper and more political analyses and approaches are required to bring about real, lasting change for poor women and girls. This paper sets out some challenges facing current work on women's and girls' rights and gender equality within international development. We argue that gender equality has become separated from a feminist analysis and propose that a feminist approach be reintroduced into areas where this has been neglected. Looking across the sector there is a concern that much gender and development work is carried out within NGOs that are often competing with each other for funding, and where the terms and conditions for acquiring funding are determined more by current development paradigms, systems and processes than by the needs and rights of women themselves. This has resulted in the muting of calls for solidarity with the wider women's movements, for support for a collective commitment to really challenging the balance of power, and for a challenge to the institutions that recreate unequal power relations. Our paper introduces the challenges of the current context, and sets out some ideas on how it would be possible to reconnect with a feminist agenda in gender and development. This will contribute to a participatory session, where these ideas can be discussed and explored.

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