Gender and Power Analysis for Oxfam CALP 3 participants

1. Gender, Power and Campaigns
GENDER, POWER and
CAMPAIGNS
CALP Webinar
February 5, 2014
Shawna Wakefield
Oxfam CALP Webinar
February 5, 2014

2. From Oxfam national
influencing guidelines
• “Addressing unequal gender and power relations is
foundational to Oxfam’s theory of change and must
be addressed as an organisation that puts women’ s
rights at the heart of all we do.”
• “Women and girls represent the majority of poor
people Oxfam is trying to reach through its work. This
means that our influencing propositions, and the
strategies to achieve them, must recognise and
respond to the specific needs and capacities of
women and girls.”

3. Why Gender Power Analysis?
• Gender analysis has been required in Oxfam
projects, programs and campaigns, given
gender is a key determinant of poverty and
suffering.
• Gender power analysis is needed given power
inequality undermines gender equality and
developments goals.

4. Characteristics of Power
• Women and men hold multiple roles and
relationships. With each, their level of power can
vary.
• Power can be economic, political, social, cultural
and symbolic. People are rarely powerful in (nor
powerless across) all forms.
• Power is not a zero-sum game.
• Power is socially constructed.
• A person’s experience of power can depend on
their gender, race, class, age, etc.

5. Considerations for Gender
Power Analysis
• What are the gender dimensions and impacts of
power relations?
• Who holds power? How does their gender
reinforce it? Which women want to be leaders in
transformative change that we could engage?
• Where are decisions made? Are they closed
spaces to which women?
• How can we address the barriers (social norms,
attitudes/beliefs, legislation) to change? What
strategies will we use to transform power?

6. A framework for looking at
gender and power
Individual Change
Informal
Formal
Women’ s access
to resources
Women’ s and men’ s
consciousness
Household
Community
Cultural norms,
values, practices
National
Formal institutions,
laws, practices
Global
Systemic Change
Adapted from Gender at Work

7. Forms of Power
(with Gender Dimensions)
• Personal power (Power Within, Power To): The power
within and power to know, pursue and achieve one’s
interests.
• Cooperative power (Power With): The power with others
to work together to pursue one’s collective interests.
• Controlling power (Power Over): The power over others
through rules and governing processes (visible), through
determining who has the right to participate in decisionmaking and the settings in which people interact (invisible),
as well as through the power to define what is possible,
reasonable or logical within a given context through
shaping ideologies of kinship, capitalism, religion, science
and education (hidden).

8. Principles of Power Transformation
• Transformative power
• is rights based
• aims to transform gender power relations and norms based on a gendered
power analysis
• incorporates an understanding of how multiple identities intersect to
create and sustain discrimination and violence
• facilitates and supports individual and collective capacity for sustainable
change
• supports women’s articulation of their own political voice and agendas
• supports partner organisations to identify their own needs and implement
their own agenda
• creates an enabling environment for women’s leadership at all levels and
in all domains (family, economic, political and social).

9. Lessons on Influencing on Women’s
Rights and Gender Justice
• Strong alliances with WROs ensure women’s
perspectives, interests and demands are reflected
• We can use our influence to convene, foster linkages
between and build broad-based alliances
• Legal advances are necessary, but transformation
requires change in social and cultural norms
• Engaging men and boys is necessary to build a broad
constituency against gender discrimination
• We need to allocate resources to do gender power
analysis and integrate in our advocacy, campaigns,
and influencing strategies

10. Examples
• Solidarity for African Women’s Rights
presented by: Shukri Gesod, Gender Justice LeadPan- Africa Programme
• Violence against Women and the Arms Trade
Treaty
presented by: Caroline Green, Gender Policy
Advisor

11. Food for Thought
• Did anything surprise you about how gender
power analysis was incorporated?
• What have you learned that you could apply to
your work?
• What did you notice about what worked and
didn’t?

12. Some inspiring examples
CLOSETHEGAP
www.closethegap.in
WE Can Campaign
www.wecanendvaw.org
Female Food Heroes
www.oxfam.ca/grow/female-food-heroes

13. There is no magic bullet but..