This important book demonstrates that advances in gender equality are possible within organizations and communities. It also demonstrates that change takes time, the willingness of organizations and communities to learn and adapt, and a dedicated team to promote change. The approach of the Gender Quality Action Learning team was both practical (learning from problems) and strategic (aiming for structural change): reflecting and embodying Maxine Molyneuxs framework of practical and strategic interests of women. The results of the Gender Quality Action Learning project are impressive, as well documented in this book. The challenge for BRAC is to sustain the gains made in gender equality while also tackling other inequalities: as the lives and work of women in poor households in Bangladesh are shaped not only by patriarchal gender norms but also by class interests, corporate practices and economic policies.
Marty Chen, International Coordinator of the WIEGO Network and Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, USA who helped start BRACs Womens Program in the 1970s
This book is about one of BRACs transformational projects in advancing a gender equality and womens empowerment agenda in Bangladesh. It shows that significant headway is possible to change poor womens condition and position and in mainstreaming gender equality in a large organization within a patriarchal society.
Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Vice Chairperson on the BRAC Board of Governors, Bangladesh
Advancing Gender Equality in Bangladesh: Twenty Years of BRACs Gender Quality Action Learning Program by Rieky Stuart, Aruna Rao, David Kelleher, Sheepa Hafiza, Hasne Ara Begum and Carol Miller (Routledge 2017, forthcoming) provides an in-depth analysis of the history and impact of an extraordinary twenty-year experiment in mainstreaming gender in one of the worlds largest NGOs, while also offering readers a practical, tested methodology for building cultures of gender-sensitive change applicable to other organizations. The approach facilitates locally-led problem solving and adaptation to addressing discriminatory gender norms. It starts with problems or issues rather than ready-made solutions, lending itself well to contemporary calls for approaches to development that prioritize learning and adaptation. The authors provide evidence of the link between investments in internal organizational change efforts and changes in program quality and program outcomes for women and communities which have sometimes been illusive in work on gender mainstreaming. The book will be extremely valuable for those researching gender and institutions as well as those working inside organizations to make change happen.
Professor Naila Kabeer, London School of Economics, UK
Advancing Gender Equality in Bangladesh
In 1994, BRAC, the worlds largest NGO, made headlines by putting womens rights centre stage in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world. The Gender Quality Action Learning (GQAL) Programme was one of the very first large-scale efforts to mainstream gender equality and aimed to weave objectives of gender equality throughout its own microfinance, education and health services.
Advancing Gender Equality in Bangladesh describes the history, implementation and outcome of this major 20-year initiative and discusses the lessons learned throughout the fight to achieve gender equality outcomes in an effort to provide a tangible framework for future organizations interested in promoting gender equality and social inclusion. At a time when many gender equality programs are still relatively young, this book offers a unique opportunity to track 20 years of intervention within a theoretical and cultural context and provides a platform for ongoing discussion about the roles of empowerment and gender transformation as agents for social change.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of how strategies for change have operated in practice and will be of considerable interest to students, researchers and practitioners of international development, gender studies and social justice theory as well as those interested in a new practical methodology of the Gender at Work Analytical Framework.
Rieky Stuart is an associate of Gender at Work and a consultant in international development and was a member of the original GQAL team.
Aruna Rao is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Gender at Work, an international feminist network committed to ending discrimination against women and advancing cultures of equality. Aruna was the team leader of the GQAL programme.
David Kelleher is an Associate of Gender at Work and was a member of the original GQAL team at BRAC.
Sheepa Hafiza was the one of the founders of GQAL and was the lead for the programme.
Carol Miller is Knowledge Strategist at Gender at Work, a global network focused on institutional change for gender equality.
Hasne Ara Begum works as Programme Manager for the Gender Justice and Diversity Programme of BRAC in Bangladesh and has 19 years experience working with government, non-government and international organizations in research, monitoring and evaluation.
Routledge ISS Gender, Sexuality and Development Studies
The Routledge ISS Gender, Sexuality and Development Studies series explores the diverse ways in which topics of gender and sexuality relate to international development, both in theory and in practice. The book series aims to publish classical gender, sexuality and development themes such as the sexual and reproductive rights policy debates on population and sustainable development, adolescence and sex education, and policy on abortion together with cutting edge work on embodiment, queer theory and innovative strategies of resistance to hegemonic discourses of sexuality and gender. The book series will pay special attention to the role of intergenerational power relations and how they interact with different gendered understandings of sexuality at diverse stages in the life cycle.
Wendy Harcourt leads the international editorial board with her colleagues from the renowned International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, The Netherlands. The Board welcomes book proposals from researchers working in all geographic areas with special interest in research undertaken from feminist grounded theory and with marginalized groups in the global South and North.
To find out more about how to submit a book proposal, please contact the Development Studies Editor, Helena Hurd (Helena.Hurd@tandf.co.uk) or Wendy Harcourt (harcourt@iss.nl).
Global Trends in Land Tenure Reform
Gender Impacts
Edited by Caroline S. Archambault and Annelies Zoomers
Gender, Power and Knowledge for Development
Lata Narayanaswamy
Gender Responsive Budgeting in Fragile States
The Case of Timor-Leste
Monica Costa
First published 2017
by Routledge
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