GOV 1: Gender training for Government

Dr June Kane AMNational President, BPW

Australia

It’s all about ownership

• Gender cannot be a ‘second thought’ – an awareness of gender must be embedded in all policies and programmes and in everyday actions of government

• This means looking beyond individual outputs of government and changing approaches and processes

• This is what “mainstreaming” really means: ensuring that gender is taken into account from A to Z

Ownership and Leadership

• Internationally, there have been two main obstacles to this:

• “Ownership” – a reluctance to take up the effort to mainstream gender, in favour of one-off, piecemeal and token “gender-friendly” statements or actions

• “Leadership” – clear signals from someone who leads government that gender is not an optional consideration but fundamental to good governance

What does this mean for BPW?

• It is not enough just to “help” governments to understand gender and take it into account – we have to get to the stage where we can step back, knowing that gender is now fully embedded and government has taken ownership

• We must identify potential leaders within government/authorities and, give them technical support – this is not as easy as it might seem!

Some important considerations

• Remember that “government” exists at many levels – national, municipal, district, county, village – ideally BPW work to promote gender mainstreaming needs to take place at every level

• Gender doesn’t “belong” to any particular portfolio – there may be a Minister for Women, for example, but gender is also relevant to Finance, Justice, Labour, Youth, Employment...

Crucial first steps

For each level of government:

• Identify where change begins

• Which is more likely to give results – working with decision-makers or those who influence them?

• Are there any obvious “champions”?

• Don’t forget players outside government who have influence

In Australia

• Our Prime Minister has taken on the role of Minister for Women!

• Who “whispers in his ear”? (Chief Advisor Peta Credlin)

• Do we have other options to influence policy? (Opposition parties, individual MPs, others?)

• Champions? (Some individual political figures – Elizabeth Broderick, Natasha Scott-Despoja)

• However, women are disappearing from high office

Australia’s gender ranking

• We rank 43rd in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report for Political Empowerment

• Two years ago we had a female Governor-General and a female Prime Minister – now there is only one woman in Cabinet

• This makes it difficult to identify obvious women who might be suitable targets for training in gender; we need to work at lower levels (party ranks, local authorities etc)

Giving something back

When we do identify potential champions, or at the very least government representatives/officials who are open to improving gender equity, what can we offer them?

• Technical support

• Information

• Profile

• “Nurturing” rather than “training”

Ultimately, gender equality is not something you “do”, it’s something you

“feel” – it’s a belief that is so embedded in your being that everything you say, think

or do takes gender into account.Helping governments to get to this point

is not an easy or a quick process – it takes time and sustained effort.

But it can be done!