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No / Men appear to be missing from much gender and development policy, but many emerging critiques suggest the need to pay more attention to understanding men and masculinities, and to analyzing the social relationships between men and women. This book considers the case for a focus on men in gender and development, which requires us to reconsider some of the theories and concepts which underlie policies. It includes arguments based on equality and social justice, the specific gendered vulnerabilities of men, the emergence of a crisis of masculinity and the need to include men in development as partners for strategic change.

‘Gender and Development’ (GAD) is currently seen as the dominant theoretical model within international development for promoting social justice and equality for women. As a consequence, many development organisations are undertaking gender mainstreaming. The most interesting fact about the vast number of analyses about gender mainstreaming is the consistency with which they tell of GAD influenced policies failing to implement GAD approaches in practice. This should raise suspicion rather than simple condemnation. It is time to ask: ‘How are, often very progressive, gender policies and strategies consistently silenced across the range of organisational contexts?’ This thesis focuses upon the contemporary process of gender mainstreaming in development organisations – a term that specifically refers to a ‘process of organisational change’ that aims to explicitly develop the ‘use of GAD approaches within all projects and programmes’ of development institutions in order to achieve ‘a vision of development that creates gender equitable social change’ in society. Moreover, it takes an approach that specifically details the ‘organisational process’ element of change inferred in the term. As such, this thesis uses the literature of organisational culture as a lens to make previously unnoticed and submerged sites of conflict and acts of resistance visible, allowing an understanding to be gained of how gender mainstreaming has so consistently faced a policy-practice impasse. It develops this analysis using an in-depth case study of Oxfam GB and demonstrates that the process of gender mainstreaming in the organisation has resulted in the removal of ‘responsibility for’ implementing GAD approaches among staff in the organisation. It goes on to highlight that the unwillingness of development organisations and practitioners to recognise gender mainstreaming as an explicitly feminist and political process of change directly couched at the level of the organisation and not just at the level of the actual development project (or society more widely) has resulted in the ‘process of organisational change’ becoming rationalised and technical rather than personal and politically charged. In reaching this understanding of gender mainstreaming, the thesis develops an awareness of organisational change processes and highlights that ‘norms’ and ‘values’ in organisations are often confused. This confusion has led to an ineffective process of change in institutions as well as a poor conceptualisation and practice of gender mainstreaming in international development.

This research examined the role of men within the gender and development paradigm and male students’ perceptions of gender-related work in the professional practice of IDEV. The study addressed men’s experiences with both formal and non-formal gender training in IDS within Canadian and US graduate programs. The study asked questions about influential theory, skills and tools relevant to the GAD paradigm. The methods included an online survey of males in IDS graduate programs from five North American universities. Key informants were also interviewed, including faculty members from four universities and two senior level gender advisors working for large non-profit organizations. The findings were presented as four emerging themes: 1) Despite exposure to some gender training opportunities, many male graduate students are not engaged with theory and practise on GAD; 2) The relevance of men in GAD continues to be questioned by the field and men themselves; 3) There is little “buy in” to gender in IDEV by men studying IDS at the graduate level; 4) The field of GAD is primarily operating without the active engagement of men and therefore, is better associated with WID’s “women’s focused” policy and programming, an approach the UN acknowledges to have failed in the past. The study recommends adjustments within IDS graduate studies as well as further research on men and masculinity to strengthen the role of men in achieving GAD’s stated goal of gender equality.

This PhD takes a social constructionist approach (see Burr, 2003) to explore how professional women in Sri Lanka make sense of and enact their careers. By explaining career through the recursive relationship between social context and individual agency, this study adds new insights into existing understandings of women s careers which are dominated by psychological models of women s development over their lifespans (see Maneiro and Sullivan, 2005; O Neil and Bilimoria, 2005; Pringle and Dixon, 2003). Most importantly this study which addresses women s experiences in Sri Lanka fulfils a significant gap in the extant literature which has paid only little attention to careers in South Asian nations. This study is based on qualitative interviews (see King, 2004) conducted with 24 professional Sri Lankan women: eight in early career, eight in mid-career and eight in late career (see O Neil and Bilimoria, 2005). All respondents aspired to reach the highest possible level in their organisations hierarchies and therefore continuously engaged with work organisations, home and family and wider contextual structures in Sri Lanka in pursuit of achieving their career goals, contributing towards maintaining and/or transforming these social structures in the process. Based on these findings I developed a theoretical framework to understand women s careers in a dynamic and contextually significant manner. This framework highlights eight different strategies women use to develop their careers which has four possible social outcomes. In illuminating specifically what women do to advance their careers within their social contexts and with what implications this framework makes a significant contribution to the careers literature which gives only little attention to individuals career strategies. Moreover by appreciating both social context and individual agency as explanations of women s careers this model refrains from taking an overly deterministic (see McRae, 2003; Crompton, 2011) or voluntaristic (see Maneiro and Sullivan, 2005; O Neil and Bilimoria, 2005) stance to conceptualising women s career development. Second, I outline a South Asian model of women s career development highlighting family, moral notions, religious philosophies and wider belief systems such as astrology and horoscopes as central constituents of women s careers. I highlight how these understandings could be used to identify blind spots in existing literature and further develop prevailing ideas of women s careers in the West. Specifically I argue that traditional notions do not altogether disappear as societies develop (see Gerth and Mills, 1991), but rather individuals use these notions to walk towards modernity. Finally I conclude the thesis by outlining how scholars could develop my work further, calling upon authors to bring moral character, traditional notions and enchantment back to the careers field. Key words: Gender, Career development, Social constructionism, Sri Lanka.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

The exclusion of girls is an issue of great concern when studying the impact of war on individuals in any country affected by armed conflicts. Colombia, for instance, is currently facing an armed conflict and dealing with the issue of child soldiers’ recruitment. This country was the research site of the present study whose main focus was the experiences that girls lived before, during and after their lives as soldiers. Drawing on the Human Security and Gender and Development theoretical frameworks, the main goal of this research was to explore how girl soldiers’ experiences shaped their agency. As it will be demonstrated, girls are not passive individuals, but agents of their own development. They want to participate in the healing of their past, as well as in the transformation of their present and their future; therefore their voices should be heard.

Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / This research project looks at components of gender socialization for cisgender college students. Expanding on pre-existing research, I consider traditional agents of socialization and argue that social media should be newly considered as a primary agent of socialization. To do this, I interviewed 12 cisgender college students (aged 19-23). The traditional routes of socialization and social media were both found to be important gender socialization factors. Interestingly, social media was found to have two contradicting functions. It served to counter traditional ideas of gender through its role providing education and exposure to diverse identities. At the same time, though, participants also reported normative ideas on the types of posts that different genders were expected to publish, feeling pressure to meet these standards. As social media only continues to become more pervasive, this provides an important avenue for research on the role that it has played in a population that has been on these websites for nearly a decade. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2001. / In the context of social development, the developmental perspective on Social Welfare, and gender equality (gender theory and gender analysis), an extensive literature and empirical study was undertaken, to explore the contribution of Social Work to the social and economic development of women as a special population of the poor in rural communities. Exploratory and descriptive research, using documents, interviews and direct observation, was used to study the rural neighbourhood, the demographic profiles of the general public and decision making participation of a sample of household heads and community leaders. From both the theoretical and empirical studies, it was evident that women's contribution to development was being systematically undervalued in the rural communities, and within households. Essential to this analysis was that there was an overall socio-cultural framework for stereotyping women's roles in rural communities. Not only were they overburdened by the multiple roles, their practical and strategic gender needs were marginalised, leading to their further subordination. In addition, as an institution of society, the way both the department of social welfare and population or department of social development and the social service system functioned, was influenced by institutionalized gender in equality actually many considerations of gender in relation to welfare and health tended to remain focussed on women as users or service providers (volunteers), rather than assessing how health and welfare or social services, reinforced gender in equalities and, in doing so undermined social justice while also at times undermining women's and family welfare. k At the local level, it was very apparent that all important decisions were made by men, especially those determining access and allocation of productive resources needed to survive. This study also revealed that local government and other service providers in rural areas often developed projects in a top-down fashion, where local people were informed or consulted, but were not expected to make decisions that would be acted upon. Local economic development (large scale government or heavily funded public works projects) were often treated as technical and administrative issues, with very marginal, if any, political and socio-economic considerations from the viewpoint of the disadvantaged majority, the women and the poor, in particular. In the latter even the tribal leaders were essentially marginalized. Based on the findings of the study, the thesis proposes a model, which provides a framework that is inclusive enough to serve both the clinical and community - work orientated social workers and generalist social workers. The polarization, where either the personal (individual) or the social (institutional) are emphasized at the expense of a holistic integrated consideration, is rejected. Instead, the feminist perspectives involving the reconceptualization of power, viewing the 'personal' as 'social' and the validation of people's experiences, interalia, are emphasized. Project planners should ensure the inclusion of multi-disciplinary teams with both males and females at all stages of the research process, that is, the problem identification, the design, the implementation and evaluation. Data must be disaggregated by socio-economic strata and gender, and there must be an examination of inter-household and intra-household processes, particularly in the spheres of decision making, responsibility and labour input. This is important because of the importance of empowerment of the individuals and groups to access resources they need, and to have a role in the production of personal and public services in order to improve the quality of their lives and that of their communities.

This thesis focuses on the intersection of gender, households, and the non-timber forest product market. Based around the concept of commodity chain analysis, this research examines each stage in two non-timber forest products', straw brooms and coco baskets, life cycles from extraction to final sale. The first objective of this research is to contribute to the literature on NTFPs, and in general gender roles in Latin America, by examining the gendered division of labor within and among the stages of two specific NTFP commodity chains, and the ways in which this division influences how important these products are to household income and conservation. The second objective is look at how commodity chain analysis can be used to examine the above issues, thereby contributing to both NTFP and commodity chain analysis literature. The research shows that the construction of gender in Nicaragua underlies the different roles that men and women perform throughout the two non-timber forest product chains. The two chains represent varying degrees of participation by women and men, and this difference is explained by the prevalence of certain tasks. In the basket commodity chain there were more tasks that are labeled feminine, and in the broom commodity chain there are more tasks labeled male. In addition, the varying participation of men and women influence how income from these products are viewed within the households as well as where men and women stand as conservation stakeholders. Commodity chain analysis served as a useful tool to examine more closely the relationship of gender and households in non-timber forest products, and could be of great assistance to the various development projects using these products as a tool for sustainable development. / Master of Science