Title: Gender and power: six links and one big opportunity
Headings: Gender and power: six links and one big opportunity
21st May 2015
Gender and power: six links and one big opportunity
Diana Koester
'... development work could be more politically smart and more effective if it addressed this blind spot'
'... gender and power are intrinsically linked; understanding this can help us understand both concepts better'
Share
Copy this link
Authors
Diana Koester
Documents
Tags

Content: Gender shapes institutions and how they affect the distribution of power. Most political and economic institutions, historically dominated by men, are tailored to (elite) men’s experience. They idealise ‘masculine’ forms of behaviour and rely on men’s power over women. Therefore these institutions tend to ‘lock in’ two types of power - men’s power over women, and the power of the most ‘masculine’ men over everyone. Take political parties. They are key gatekeepers for women’s political participation, but their male-dominated cultures often make them inaccessible to women. In Burundi and Kosovo, for example, female politicians have complained that important party decisions were taken in bars – spaces women often can’t access. Gender shapes how we understand what ‘power’ is in the first place. The widely accepted definition of power is getting someone else to do what you want them to do. Arguably this reflects a specifically male experience of the world: