3.3. Maxine Molyneux’s organizational theory
3.3.2. Women’s strategic gender interest
Strategic gender interests or needs are those considered as women’s real interests, and aim to address the problem of women’s subordinate positions in society (Molyneux 1985:233).
Ensuring the realization of strategic interests and needs entail undertaking programmes that are informed by Gender and Development (GAD) approach. This approach necessitates measures that challenge extant inequalities that directly affect women or that exist between women and men in development and decision-making processes (Reeves and Baden 2000:33).
As such, it prompts for transformation in the domains of power sharing and gender division of labour. Accordingly, Molyneux (1985:233) asserts that such transformation may include developments that incorporate women in public decision-making processes and allows them access, control and ownership of resources or credits. Likewise, it accords women equal
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political rights and social liberty over matters of procreation and puts in place measures to end domestic and sexual violence against women (Molyneux 1985:233). Through the lens of GAD approach, this transformation also entails integrating gender concerns into development agendas, empowering and promoting women’s efforts/roles as important agents of development (United Nations Development Programme 2001:78 & 79). Intrinsically, strategic gender interests center on political and specific transformative strategies that aim to change social relations, advance and maintain women’s overall positions within the gender sequence and society.
While the strategic gender interest obviously builds on the policies of gender redistribution,40 distinguishing such interests is often a challenge for women (United Nations Development Programme 2001:44 & 62). But, once these strategic interests are pinpointed, addressing them creates that needed platform for Women (or men) to attain equality that is far-reaching and alter prevailing gender roles and typecasts (CEDPA 2000). As noted by Reeves and Baden (2000:14) the first step to achieving strategic gender interests begins with collective coordination by NGOs and women’s organizations around the practical gender interests.
The table below provides a summarized demarcation of women’s practical and strategic gender interests, and outlines indicators of positive changes that are likely to occur in women’s situations and positions once their interests are addressed.
Table 3.1: Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Interests & Indicators of Positive Changes in Women’s Conditions and Positions
Practical Needs Strategic Needs
- Tend to be immediate and short-term - Unique to particular women
- Relate to daily needs food, housing, income, health, children, etc.
- Tend to be immediate and long-term - Common to almost all women
- Relate to the disadvantaged position;
subordination, lack of resources and
40 Gender redistributive policies are mostly concerned with strategic gender interests. These policies seek the transformation of gender discriminative policies and institutions in a bit to create and advance equal relationship between women and men (United Nations Development Programme 2001: 62).
85 - Easily identifiable by women.
- Can be addressed by the provision of specific inputs, food, hand pumps, clinic, etc.
education, vulnerability to poverty and violence, etc.
- Basis of disadvantage and potential for change not always identifiable by women
- Can be addressed by; consciousness- raising, increasing self-confidence, education, strengthening women' organizations, political mobilization, etc.
Addressing Practical Needs Addressing Strategic Interests - Tends to involve women as
beneficiaries and participants
- Can improve or benefit the condition of women’s lives
- Generally does not alter traditional roles and relationships
- Involves women as active agents or enables women to become agents - Can improve the position of women in
society
- Can empower women and transform relationships
Indicators of Positive Changes in Women’s Condition
- Increased acceptance by women and men of women as community decision-makers - Greater personal and economic independence and self-confidence for women
- Increased women’s involvement in personal, family or community development, more visible, and more effective women’s organizations
- More women in education and training programmes - Improved health of women and children
Indicators of Positive Changes and Improvements in Women’s Position - Improvements in women’s legal status
- A decline in violence against women
- Increased women’s control over their fertility
- Reduced institutional discrimination and bias against women - Increased public awareness of women’s issues
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- Improved women’s empowerment - Improved social position for women - Greater access and control
- Increased autonomy for women
Source: United Nations Development Programme (2001). Gender in Development Programme - Learning & Information Pack. Gender Analysis. Available at: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/
undp/library/gender/Institutional%20Development/TLGEN1.6%20UNDP%20GenderAnalysis%2 0toolkit.pdf pp. 73 – 77.
According to Molyneux (1985:233), these interests are best promoted and achieved with progress under organizational umbrellas, whose role in society remains key for theory and practice. Within the context of the organizational theory, Moser (1991:109) draws attention to the fact that the nature of women’s strategic interests or needs are challenging at all levels of the society. She further maintains that women organizing to address and realize these interests at the grassroots level are seldom readily assisted nationally by their governments or internationally by development aid organizations (Moser 1991:110). In light of this assertion, it becomes important to note that there have been enormous and transformative shifts twenty- five years down the line. This is in the sense that both governments and development support bodies are increasingly engaging strategies to assist efforts aimed to consolidate peace and promote security and development at most, and if not, at all levels of the grassroots engagements. Scholar-practitioners’ response to this include expressions for limited international intervention in political dealings in the short-term and for greater participation, coordination and orientation of peace processes to be grounded on local (bottom-up approach) and national (top-down approach) context in the long-term (Lederach 1997).
Speaking of grassroots, Suarez (1995:190) underscores the importance of organizations at this levels as indispensable elements of women organizing internationally, regionally and nationally especially in the framework of the organizational theory. Given that women are the majority population at the grassroots level, Lederach (1997 and 2005) as does the United Nations (2009:9) accentuate that the effectiveness of peacebuilding largely depends on actively involving this group in the processes of post-conflict. More so, Eyben (2011:6) avers that the role grassroots organizations play (especially through empowerment and
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participatory activism) to ensure that women’s interests are addressed is quite important in revolutionizing historical and patriarchal relations of inequality and marginalization.
It is perhaps important to underscore that Molyneux’s organizational theory supports the context of women’s leadership and development. According to Ely, Ibarra and Kold (2011:5), the framework of women’s leadership and development is distinctively focused on how women’s leading roles in society are shaped by gender, and humanized to foster a sense of agency and organization without either oppressing or silencing their views. Central to this perspective is the objective of ‘transformation’ which delineates both concepts of leadership and development. Bass (1999:9-10) draws attention to the fact that this framework promotes collaborative organizational culture and obliges a high level of moral development, which is predominantly ingrained in women since they are apt in being more transformational than men are. However, not all women or women groupings embrace the collaborative elegance.
Appelbaum et.al (2003:45) also remark that the engagement of women in transformational approaches, which straddles participation in decision-making and implementation processes (among others) have often moved both genders in arriving at successful shared resolutions.
Assaying the orientation of women’s organizations and the diversity of interests that propel them as highlighted in Molyneux’s organizational theory, it can be resolved that they are strategically and discursively well-thought-out. Reading from the above discussions therefore, one may well reckon that the centrality of women organizations in the equation of post- conflict agendas builds on the understanding that:
“Women’s organizing and organizations supports an enabling environment for women empowerment and is key to securing government policies and private sector practices that make a difference to women’s lives” (Eyben 2011:6) and to society’s oriented objectives of short- mid- and long-term goals for peace, reconstruction and development.
This assertion is a reality for women’s organizations as elaborated in chapter five, which specifically build on the experiences, approaches and relations of women organizing in the framework of Liberia’s peacebuilding architecture. Therefore, adopting Molyneux’s organizational theory for this study is central towards ensuring that the role of women’s organizations in peacebuilding is appraised on purpose of their distinctiveness of strategies and approaches in attaining the agenda of peace in Liberia. The organizational theory further
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informs this study in that the strategies employed by women’s organizing for peace generally builds from both identified practical and strategic interests, which considerably influence the organizations’ set goals and objectives for attaining peace. It also provides the basis for which the study assesses how diversified women’s practical and strategic interests have been consolidated by their different networks of organizations in Liberia, and its consequent outcomes on post-conflict activities. Thus, a point of convergence with the organizational theory, which this study also builds on, is the understanding that the practical consideration of women’s interests is likely to minimize the challenges of exclusion and gender-linked discrimination.
Taking cognizance of the question that formed the thematic focus of this chapter, the theoretical (peacebuilding, reconstruction and development theory; and Maxine Molynuex’s organizational theory) underpinnings to address it are quite plausible. Alongside these theoretic resolves, abound another inquiry that seeks to understand what approach(es) facilitate sustainable progress and best advance the inclusiveness of women and women’s organizations as equal stakeholders in post-conflict processes. Noting that both theories communicate the importance of human rights by emphasizing women’s gender equality, mainstreaming, and gender-responsive processes, makes it easy for the study to relate to the rights based approach to peacebuilding. This approach, grounded within the framework of international human rights principles, contextualizes and practically identifies human rights to be at the foundation of post-conflict and human development processes.