Theme 2. Increasing The Number And Status Of Women Working In Development NGOs

DISCUSSION POINTS

  1. Staffing Policy
    • What efforts have been made by development NGOs to increase the number and status of women? (Case studies)
    • What problems are faced by those pressing for changes in staffing policy?
    • How can initiatives for change be supported? From within an organisation? From outside the organisation?
  2. Working conditions
    • What changes in working conditions of development NGOs would help increase the number and status of women employees?
    • What efforts have been made to bring about such changes?
    • What problems are faced by those pressing for changes in working conditions? How can they be overcome?
    • How can initiatives for change be supported? From within an organisation? From outside the organisation?
  3. Changing Attitudes
    • What initiatives have been taken within development NGOs to change the attitudes of men and women colleagues in relation to women's role in the organisation?
    • How successful have such initiatives been? What problems have they encountered?
    • How can initiatives for change be supported? From within the organisation? From outside the organisation?

 

LINKS WITH OTHER WORKSHOPS

  • networking between women in development organisations (5)
  • networking between women's groups and development groups (5)

 

INTRODUCTION TO WORKSHOP 2

INCREASING THE ROLE AND STATUS OF WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT NGOs

Anne Clarke

One of the first priorities of ICDA's women in development programme has been to increase the status of women in the organisation. A small beginning has been made by changing the structure of the Coordinating Group, ICDA's decision-making body, and of the staff of the ICDA Secretariat. We hope that eventually these changes at ICDA's centre will lead to changes in the role and status of women in our member organisations.

WHY WAS THIS GIVEN HIGH PRIORITY?

ICDA's women in development programme was first developed because a number of women involved in the organisation were concerned about the lack of a women's perspective in ICDA's programmes.

However, we soon realised that any efforts to bring the issues centrally into the work of the organisation would be thwarted unless there were stronger representation of women on the staff and Coordinating Group. This was highlighted when, at the Annual General Meeting in November 1983, the new women in development programme was enthusiastically welcomed and then the meeting proceeded to elect an all-male Coordinating Group.

The reasons for this were complex but I think they included two important factors:

  • that the women's programme was seen as a programme apart and not as an integral part of the organisation's work;
  • that there were very few potential candidates for the Coordinating Group because very few women represent development NGOs at international meetings, probably in part at least due to their status in their own organisations.

HOW DID WE GO ABOUT OUR TASK?

There were two angles to our work:

  • to confirm our suspicions about the role and status of women in development NGOs by carrying out a survey;
  • to work towards a change in the staffing policy and composition of the decision-making bodies in ICDA itself.

SURVEY ON THE ROLE AND STATUS OF WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT NGOs

The questionnaires were distributed through contact points in 20 countries (all industrialised). The contact points sent the questionnaires to non-governmental organisations involved in development education, development projects or both.

Questions were phrased so as to establish the priority given to women in development as a programme area apart and also to the women's perspective in the overall work of the organisations.

Questions were also asked about the numbers of women on the staff and decision-making bodies of the organisation, the staffing policy of the organisation in relation to women and the working conditions (part time work, flexible hours, crèche facilities etc.)

In analysing the responses efforts were made to correlate the women's perspective in the organisation's work with the number of women on the staff and decision-making bodies.

A first look at the analysis of 127 replies from 14 countries demonstrates, as we suspected, that the proportion of women on the staff (discounting clerical positions) and on the decision-making bodies is still low. Only 56% have a staff consisting of more than half women. Only 40% have a good proportion of women on the decision-making body.

We then wanted to know if in those organisations with a good representation of women on the staff and/or decision-making body this is reflected in a good women's perspective educational and project work of the organisation.

The indication is that this does have a positive influence but perhaps not as much as one would have hoped. As one might expect the impact is greatest when there is good representation of women on the decision-making body.

With a good representation of women on the staff, 41.1% had a good women's perspective in their programmes and projects. With good representation of women on the decision-making body, 50% had a good women's perspective in development education programmes and projects. These figures should be compared with an overall figure of 31.7%, irrespective of women's representation.

So it is by no means the case that good women's representation on the staff or decision-making body in itself ensures a good women's perspective in the work of development NGOs. No doubt there are many explanations for this but I would like to put forward just two:

  • that women working in development NGOs are not pushing to ensure that this is the case;
  • that they are pushing but that their efforts are being blocked because they do not have the power to change the organisation's policies and practices.

These possible explanations lead to two strategies that might be developed:

  • making more effort to ensure that women working in development agencies become more aware and more concerned to emphasize the central role of women in development;
  • that support mechanisms be built up for those trying to push for change and perhaps finding themselves isolated or their efforts blocked.

CHANGING ICDA's POLICY

After the election of an all-male Coordinating Group at the 1983 Annual General Meeting determination grew to ensure that women's representation on both the staff and the Coordinating Group would be improved in the future. The concern was how to persuade an all-male Coordinating Group to recommend this to the Annual General Meeting.

It is difficult to explain exactly how this was brought about but perhaps a few factors might be mentioned:

  • a proposal was drafted for the consideration of the Coordinating Group by a meeting of eight women from the ICDA network. It was important that in this way the pressure from staff members was backed up by pressure from representatives of national coalitions;
  • personal persuasion and conscientisation was an important aspect, especially emphasizing the gains in terms of quality of the organisation's work if more women are involved.

This is just one story and it ended successfully with this year's Coordinating Group being made up of three women and three men. Of course it now remains to be seen whether these women will have the power within that structure to radically change the approach of the organisation.

In the report of the ICDA Survey we will give a series of case studies of how women have tried to change the structures of their organisations. We hope that through sharing these experiences others will become motivated and strengthened to continue pressing for change.

I am certain that in the long term efforts to make women in development a central concern of development NGOs means changing not only policies but structures and working methodology.

 

REPORT OF WORKSHOP 2

INCREASING THE NUMBER AND STATUS OF WOMEN WORKING IN DEVELOPMENT NGOs

Rapporteur: Bindi Shah

The group was unfortunately very small and few of the members actually had experience of working in development NGOs with a mixed staff. The group felt that this was regrettable because many of the strategies being called for by other working groups relied upon changing the attitudes of development NGOs and to do this effectively it is important to have good representation of women on the staff of these organisations.

The group began its discussions by analysing why there are so few women in executive positions in mixed NGOs. A number of factors were suggested:

  • The role of executive officer often involves dealing with finances and with long term planning - areas in which women have traditionally not been strong. However the group saw no reason why more women should not develop competence and confidence in these areas.
  • Most chairpeople tend to be men because men seem to derive greater pleasure than women from being in 'exposed' positions. Perhaps women need more training in public speaking, addressing assemblies etc.
  • The group felt that there was also a large element of cultural conditioning involved which tended to make women reticent to take power positions.

Strategies

  • The need was stressed to create networks of women working in development organisations in order to give them support in their efforts to bring about change and also a forum in which to discuss ideas. Examples were mentioned of existing networks in Chile, the UK, Holland.
  • The group felt there was a need to analyse the structure of individual organisation more thoroughly in relation to staff structure, decision-making power and also pay and working conditions. Pressure could then be brought to bare by the staff of the organisation to ensure greater attention to the role of women in the organisation.

Proposed Actions

  • Seminars at local, national and regional level to discuss the role of women in development NGOs. Discussion should include for example the motivation to bring about change and the concrete strategies for doing so.
  • Increased opportunities for women from development NGOs to meet and discuss specific issues. In this way solidarity can be built and the women's perspective of different aspects of development can be discussed prior to pressing for change within mixed organisations.
  • It is proposed that seminars and meetings are held throughout 1985 and that a review and appraisal meeting is called in early 1986.
  • The opportunity of the NGO Forum in Nairobi should be used to bring together women from development NGOs and also to discover from women on the receiving end of NGO development projects their views about how the organisations could better take account of the needs of women.