Rethinking organisations: a feminist perspective

Aruna Rao and Rieky Stuart

In April 1996,24 women and men from Asia, Africa, Latin and North America, and Europe met for five days in Canada, to share their experience of helping organisations, especially development organisations, to include women in their programmes, and ensure equitable power relations between women and men. This article gives an account of some of the ideas and observations about organisational transformation which emerged at this conference.

In the past few years, those of us who work in development organisations have seen a number of brilliant and extremely useful efforts by individuals, both women and men, which have made a difference for women. Each of us could identify programmes, projects, and initiatives that have been quite stunning in their impact. But our impression is that these successes, important as they are, have mainly been accomplished by individuals who are often swimming against the flow in their own organisation. They succeed in spite of, and not because of, the way their organisations work.

The writers of this article chose organisational transformation as a focus for the Canada conference, and for our wider work, because organisations are such important arenas of human engagement. Whether they are small NGOs, government departments, universities, or for-profit companies, organisations are fundamental features of our societies, and very important ways of mobilising social energy. We need to think more deeply about organisations themselves. Trying to 'add gender' into their structure and work is not enough; we need to understand and re-conceptualise what an organisation is, and then we need to reinvent organisations and institutions of all kinds in all our societies.

It became clear at the conference that what we are aiming at is organisational transformation. We are not talking about organisational development, nor about organisational change. In the case of development organisations, we mean including women as architects and designers of programmes, and as agents, managers, and beneficiaries; and reshaping social institutions and organisations to include men and women's varied perspectives. We want to move organisations in a direction that can accommodate, cherish, and foster the creativity and the productivity of women, men, young, old, people of colour, people of differing ability. We want organisations to incorporate goals and values that are life-affirming, human-centred, and justice -oriented. We need to challenge and change the 'deep structures' of the organisations in which we work.

Theory and methodology

There are two conceptual 'lenses' that we have found very useful in our work, both theoretically and practically. One is organisational theory. There is a body of knowledge about what organisations are, how they work, and how they change, that has not been generally incorporated by development practitioners, including gender and development practitioners.

The second conceptual lens is more familiar: the learning from feminist theory and practice, from Women in Development (WID) initiatives, and the learning from attempts to apply a gender perspective to development. Using these two lenses together is very helpful in identifying promising approaches to organisational transformation.

Images of organisations

At the Canada conference, we began by asking people to share with us their images of and metaphors for organisations. We wanted them to think holistically about what an organisation is.

Organisations as onions

We ourselves have worked with a very wide range of development and other organisations, including Northern and Southern NGOs, bilateral and multilateral organisations, and for-profit organisations. The image that captures our experience of introducing a gender perspective in organisations is the peeling of an onion. An onion must be peeled to release its flavour, yet the process brings tears; and as you peel, you encounter layer after layer. Recognising that organisations, too, have many 'layers', helps to explain why strategies and activities focused on a single layer of the organisation may be necessary but may not be sufficient.

For example, one of the approaches to change in organisations is by developing gender policies. Sometimes the policies look marvellous, and are very useful for public relations purposes. But often they don't have many plans or resources attached to them; they sit and gather dust on the shelves. A policy on affirmative action is necessary, but not sufficient. The actual number of women, or old people, or young people, or people of colour in an organisation is important but more important is how they think and what they do. Gender parity and meeting diversity quotas may not change power relations which are structured by gender, race or class.

Similarly, initiatives which address a single aspect of the ways in which the organisation fails to consider women are necessary but not sufficient. Simply performing a gender analysis is not enough. We can know how women in general or specific groups of women are disadvantaged, in the organisation itself and in its work, but if we lack the capacity to change the situation, organisational transformation will not occur.

A third example is the use of performance indicators. These, too, are necessary but not sufficient, if performance is measured solely in terms of counting inputs, and does not focus on outcomes or impact. One of the famous jokes at Canadian CIDA is the response of some engineers when asked about the differential impact of their highway construction project on women and men: 'well, women walk on roads too' (personal communication). Even gender training and sensitisation are necessary but not sufficient, if participants are unable or unwilling to apply their learning.

Organisations as icebergs

Another participant thought of organisations as icebergs: when you study an organisation, you may not see all that exists. Each organisation has unconscious or submerged values in its culture, and a history which influences its way of working. These unseen dimensions may move an organisation in a direction which you may not anticipate, if all you consider is what can be seen on the surface. In our...