Aruna Rao - Gender at Work: Theory and Practice for 21st Century Organizations

GENDER AT WORK

At a time when some corporate women leaders are advocating for their aspiring sisters to lean in for a bigger piece of the existing pie, this book puts the spotlight on the deep structures of organizational culture that hold gender inequality in place. Gender at Work: Theory and Practice for 21st Century Organizations makes a compelling case that transforming the unspoken, informal institutional norms that perpetuate gender inequality in organizations is key to achieving gender-equitable outcomes for all.

The book is based on the authors interviews with thirty leaders who broke new ground on gender equality in organizations, international case studies crafted from consultations and organizational evaluations, and lessons from nearly fifteen years of experience of Gender at Work, a learning collaborative of thirty gender equality experts. From the Dalit womens groups in India who fought structural discrimination in the largest right to work programme in the world, to the intrepid activists who challenged the powerful members of the UN Security Council to define mass rape as a tactic of war, the trajectories and analysis in this book will inspire readers to understand and chip away at the deep structures of gender discrimination in organizational policies, practices and outcomes.

Designed for practitioners, policy makers, donors, students and researchers looking at gender, development and organizational change, this book offers readers a widely tested tool of analysis the Gender at Work Analytical Framework to assess the often invisible structures of gender bias in organizations and to map desired strategies and change processes.

Aruna Rao is Executive Director and co-founder of Gender at Work, Washington, DC.

Joanne Sandler is a Senior Associate at Gender at Work, New York.

David Kelleher is a Senior Associate and co-founder of Gender at Work, Ottawa, Canada.

Carol Miller is a Knowledge Strategist at Gender at Work, Ottawa, Canada.

This is a must read for feminists. The authors provide an excellent conceptual framework, clear analysis and detailed case studies, illuminated by amazing and moving stories from those working inside organizations to successfully make change happen.

Rosalind Eyben, Emeritus Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK

Promoting gender equality is not just a complex social engineering project; it also requires difficult internal changes in the institutions ostensibly committed to this project. This volume assembles case histories of feminist institutional change and stories of feminist warriors struggles that project in vivid, accessible detail the triumphs and traumas of institutional change processes. It cannot fail to inspire.

Anne Marie Goetz, Professor, Center for Global Affairs, School of Professional Studies, New York University, USA

As a long-term advocate and user of the Gender at Work Analytical Framework, I celebrate the arrival of this volume, and hope it will reach the widest possible audience of scholars, activists, social justice organisations, donors and evaluators concerned with analysing and advancing gender equality and womens rights around the world. I have used and adapted the Framework with multiple groups with great success, but have found it particularly effective as a tool for helping young women activists unpack the different dimensions of gender power, for evaluating gender equality interventions and their impacts, and in sensitising donors to why uni-dimensional magic bullet interventions do not address root causes or create lasting, sustainable change in gender regimes or ideologies.

Apart from the Framework, the notion of organisational deep structures has been a powerfully transformative concept offered by Gender at Works scholars and organisational change facilitators. When I first encountered this concept, its impact was electrifying. And every time I present it in a pedagogical context, its effect is equally so an AHA moment like few others. It makes a very complex set of dynamics that anyone in organisationalsettings has experienced often painfully suddenly clear, and allows them to name it and place it with startling certainty. They are excited, liberated, and almost immediately begin to grapple with what to do with it.

By offering us a clear exposition of this compelling Framework and concept, as well as deep insights into their operation in both large and small organisations, governmental and non-governmental, grassroots and global, this volume can be a potent force for change in both thinking and practice and hence, hopefully, in the lives of women and other oppressed genders around the world.

Srilatha Batliwala, Scholar Associate, Association for Womens Rights in Development (AWID)

Gender equality is a challenge to all men and women who want to create a just world. We are all products of intense gender socialization and men in particular have been socialised in a predominantly sexist world. Men must understand the impact of gender inequality andworking together with women leading the struggle to address this within their families,communities, organizations and movements. This book is about how to challenge and change social norms and values that perpetuate exclusion and inequality. It draws on real experiences in important institutions. It is critical reading for men and women engaged in the struggle for social justice and gender equality.

Kumi Naidoo, International Executive Director, Greenpeace International

First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 Aruna Rao, Joanne Sandler, David Kelleher and Carol Miller

The right of Aruna Rao, Joanne Sandler, David Kelleher and Carol Miller to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders for their permission to reprint material in this book. The publishers would be grateful to hear from any copyright holder who is not here acknowledged and will undertake to rectify any errors or omissions in future editions of this book.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rao, Aruna.
Gender at work : theory and practice for 21st century organizations / Aruna Rao, Joanne Sandler, David Kelleher and Carol Miller.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Sex role in the work environment. 2. WomenEmployment. 3. WomenEmploymentDeveloping countries. 4. Sex discrimination against women. 5. Sex discrimination against womenDeveloping countries. 6. Organizational change. I. Title.