HIC-GS, 7 August 2009 / 1
The Gender Dimension within HIC
This document, prepared by HIC-GS[1], is an abstract of a report written by Cornelia Marschall, Gender Advisor commissioned by Misereor, whichassesses the gender dimension within HIC. It also compiles the results of ten participants[2]interviewed during the international seminar on women and housing rights, held in Barcelona in February 2008. The objective of the interviews was to gather the views about how gender is represented within HIC.
The gender perspective within HIC
One of the topics at the HIC meeting in Barcelona from 9 to 12 February, 2008 was addressing the strategic reorientation of the Women and Habitat Network, HIC-WAH. The network assumes responsibility of the formal link between HIC and efforts in support of women and the struggle for land, housing, resources and services. However, the findings of the 2007 HIC evaluation revealed the need to rethink the HIC-WAH function as it stands within HIC. The observations ranged from HIC’s conceptual orientation (definition of ‘gender’), to doubts about its effectiveness in representing women’s issues, and to questions regarding whether or not HIC-WAH is an effective tool to incorporate a gender approach within the Coalition as a whole.
HIC includes gender equality as a central perspective in its work as a Coalition, as embodied in HIC-WAH since 1989. This perspective takes on various forms in different regions depending upon the different concepts of gender and the function that HIC-WAH has taken in specific socio-political spheres. HIC must take into consideration the expressions of HIC-WAH in different continents: in Africa, coordination of HIC-WAH rests on women and men with complementary traditional gender roles, whereas HIC-WAH in Latin America is directly linked with the women’s movement, dedicated to advancing pro-women strategies but hardly noticing women’s emerging impulses from social movements to includegender in the centre of debate. Unfortunately, the particular profile of HIC-WAH in Asiawas not captured during the seminar in Barcelona.
The gender profile within HIC
There is a consensus that HIC-WAH is currently in a state of crisis and needs a conceptual and strategic re-orientation, although there are different reasons put forward to support this approach. There are conceptual contradictions within the network, from the conception of feminism as being too radical, to problems with organizational development (limited finances, leadership approaches, etc.), and questions about the relevance of HIC-WAH as the ideal instrument to address gender issues in the Coalition. HIC-WAH acts as a defender of women’s housing rights instead of promoting a gender focus within HIC.
The common agreement was that in its 20-year history, HIC-WAH has not managed to establish itself as a global network, active in all continents. Only in Latin America, with the Red Mujer y Hábitat, has HIC-WAH managed to establish itself as a real network, but its strong feminist orientation has been the cause of much internal friction within HIC. One of the hottest debates is whether HIC-WAH should consider itself as part of the women’s movement or if it is better to align itself with social movements. This debate has contributed to a crisis within HIC-WAH and the gap between continents (along with the reality of incompatible ideological positions), leading to ruptures in the network.
HIC-WAH is under a state of re-vitalization through the re-orientation of the Coalition as a whole. This means generating a consensus of a HIC-WAH ideological profile and the most relevant organizational means of approaching gender aspects in the network or within the coalition itself. This may be, perhaps, through the adoption of a practice of gender mainstreaming and abandoning the separation of women/gender issues into separate organizational structures. This does not necessarily mean the dissolution of HIC-WAH, as it maintains its thematic role, but rather an important shift in the Coalition in terms of assuming responsibility for the incorporation of a gender perspective, rather than delegating it to one of the organizational structures. The actual added value of having a thematic network - apart from other HIC bodies - dedicated to gender equality must be identified.
There is an affirmative discourse within the Coalition about the relevance of including a gender perspective in HIC initiatives and work; however there is a gap when it comes to implementation. One of the main reasons why the Coalition has not progressed further in its proposal to transform gender relations may be attributed to the absence of a complete conceptual and methodological approach to gender equality.
Current strategies undertaken by HIC-WAH
HIC has a position on gender and defined ways it promotes gender equality within the structures of the coalition (for example, for every Board member there must be a corresponding member of the opposite gender). However despite efforts to institutionalize gender sensitivity, it is incorporated more through individual initiative and not as an organizational policy, mandated and obligatory; rather than a rejection there is an indifference to gender issues.
A number of those interviewed held a perception that the “exaggerated feminism” upheld in HIC-WAH in Latin America presents an obstacle for others to address gender relations themselves. Some of those interviewed described this “exaggerated feminism” as being the link with the Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres(Autonomous Women’s Movement), an expression of the highly militant feminism in Latin America, which does not consider the inclusion of men in the generation of female leadership.
Gender-relation transformations should be rooted in the socio-cultural sphere and not in individuals. This needs to be considered when trying to attribute “political correctness” in ideological positions which are incompatible with various socio-cultural contexts. Some cultures value a complementaryand inclusive social development between women and men over individual development and some value the development of women as separate from men.
Promoting the gender dimension within HIC in the future
A major challenge facing HIC and HIC-WAH is to form a new consensus about the theoretical and conceptual bases that will sustain a gender focus. The following points need to be considered:
- To construct and legitimate processes it is necessary to secure resources (technical and financial) and human will
- The accommodation of traditional/conventional positions and discourses which hamper an institutional consensus of a gender vision within HIC
- The fact that gender is confined in HIC-WAH and is an obstacle to incorporate a gender focus at the level of the coalition. The current conflict in the relationship between HIC and HIC-WAH must be overcome and other organizational forms must be reviewed to address gender in the coalition. Also new proposals must be generated that would enable the coalition to better express a sensitivity towards gender.
- The need to overcome the internal divisions in HIC, divisions that have accumulated additional problems for HIC-WAH, those being:
- The territorial gap (continents and languages) that produces different expressions of HIC-WAH; and,
- The gap between ideological views, almost mutually incompatible, regarding a “correct” interpretation of feminism and a gender focus. We must overcome a certain practice of feminism which has the tendency to dilute a gender perspective, responding to particular socio-cultural contexts
Revitalizing the gender dimension in HIC’s daily work
The regional consultations have given HIC a solid analysis of the violations of women’s housing and land rights, however the absence of a revitalized framework developed by consensus within HIC for a gender focus becomes a severe obstacle to work on the findings of these consultations.
HIC faces challenges, as a coalition, primarily in the sphere of organizational development, the resolution of which depends on its future profile and the particularities of its gender focus. The question of how to incorporate a gender dimension within HIC is a question not only for HIC-WAH, but for the Coalition as a whole.
------
Main concerns/questions raised:
- Is HIC-WAH the best structure/tool to promote gender equality within HIC? Should we think about gender mainstreaming instead?
- The socio-cultural sphere which separates geographic contexts and the ways in which HIC-WAH operates needs to be addressed in order to formulate a conceptual ideology on how gender equality is incorporated into the Coalition.
- Once a conceptual focus is agreed to by consensus, could there exist different profiles and strategies for gender within HIC according to particular socio-cultural contexts, or is it necessary that the network commits to a single proposal to be consistent?
- Should HIC-WAH identify itself as part of the women’s movement, offering itself as a specialist in defending the rights of women to housing and land, and acting as intermediary between the women’s movement and the Coalition?
- What would be the common conceptual basis for gender – the shared story – that HIC adopts in its organizational identity?
[1] The points mentioned in this document are those most relevant to HIC’s organizational concerns and priorities. It is not the intention to cover all of the points raised in the original report. HIC-GS has produced this document with the purpose of assisting the revitalization of HIC-WAH global coordination.
[2]Eight women and two men were interviewed, which comprised approximately one third of the seminar’s total participants.