SummaryThis paper explores the challenges and opportunities for feminists working as women's rights and gender equality specialists in the United Nations as analysed from a practitioner perspective. Part 1 by Joanne Sandler analyses the experience of feminists struggling with the institutional sexism of the UN bureaucratic machine and shows how this played out in the difficult but ultimately successful negotiations around the creation of UN Women. In Part 2, Aruna Rao describes how cross-agency UN Gender Theme Groups worked together through a process of reflexive inquiry to strengthen the gender equality programming of three UN Country Teams, respectively in Morocco, Albania and Nepal.
The ominous vision of elephants and dragons in the title of this article represents the perplexing equation of progress and backlash that characterises work on gender equality and women's rights. This article advocates a move away from the ongoing debates about gender mainstreaming, towards re-framing strategies for ending gender discrimination. Synthesising the analysis and priorities for action shared by 40 gender and development activists and practitioners participating in an eight-day electronic discussion on gender and organisational change sponsored by Gender at Work, the article identifies three strategies for social transformation that are central to enabling feminists to seize emerging opportunities and avert emerging threats. We argue that the current debates on whether to hold a Fifth World Conference on Women in 2015 present an important opportunity to catalyse a global reflection on which strategies are no longer relevant and which approaches will infuse women's networks and movements with the vitality and vibrancy required to meet the challenges of the 21st century.La vision de monstres et de molosses e´voque´e par le titre de cet article repre´sente l'e´quation complique´e des progre`s et des re´actions brutales qui caracte´rise les activite´s en matie`re d'e´galite´entre les sexes et de droits de la femme. Cet article pre´conise un e´loignement des de´bats en cours sur l'inte´gration du genre pour se rapprocher d'une reformulation des strate´gies afin de faire cesser la discrimination base´e sur le genre. En synthe´tisant les analyses et les priorite´s de l'action partage´es par 40 activistes et praticiens du genre et du de´veloppement ayant pris part a`une discussion e´lectronique de huit jours sur le genre et le changement organisationnel, sous les auspices de Gender at Work, cet article identifie trois strate´gies pour la transformation sociale qui sont essentielles pour permettre aux fe´ministes de saisir les nouvelles opportunite´s et d'e´viter les menaces e´mergentes. Nous soutenons que les de´bats actuels sur la question de savoir si une Cinquie`me Confe´rence mondiale sur les femmes en 2015 doit avoir lieu pre´sentent une importante occasion de catalyser une re´flexion mondiale sur les strate´gies qui n'ont plus lieu d'eˆtre et sur les approches qui insuffleront aux re´seaux et mouvements de femmes la vitalite´et le dynamisme requis pour relever les de´fis du XXI e sie`cle. La meta´fora ominosa de elefantes y dragones en el título de este artículo representa la compleja realidad de avances y retrocesos que caracteriza el trabajo en equidad de ge´nero y en derechos de las mujeres. Este artículo propone dejar al margen los constantes debates sobre la integracio´n de la perspectiva de ge´nero y centrarse en reconceptualizar aquellas estrategias que permitan poner fin a la discriminacio´n por motivos de ge´nero. Del mismo modo, sintetiza los ana´lisis y las prioridades para la accio´n que se intercambiaron entre 40 activistas y actores que trabajan en ge´nero y desarrollo, en el marco de un di...
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