Group 209.png — Gender Strategy

The articulation of the organization's gender goals and the formula for achieving those goals, including checks and balances for accountability

Hard Problems

Problem 1

There is pressure to elevate the gender strategy to become more intersectional, which increases complexity and demand on the gender team.

Consequences

An already understaffed and under resourced gender team will become further strained.
Intersectional work requires specialized capabilities teams may not have.

Problem 2

When the gender strategy is peripheral to the organization's core strategy, or lacks clarity, it's difficult to implement and get traction.

Consequences

Gender is seen as an ‘add-on’ or an optional afterthought.

What we heard

“Gender takes into consideration all these issues at the same time, encouraging us to get out of the binary to the more accurate and fairly representative analysis.”

“What are the gender gaps? Before, we saw gender more in a binary sense. But now, with more open sexual identity: how do we create equality without diluting the fact that women are lagging behind? We should be able to address all these issues as true feminists. How do we do intersectional analysis without leaving women and girls behind?”

Opportunities

for Problem 1

How might we invite an intersectional
perspective into our gender work

This might look like…

A braintrust gathering on intersectionality.
A network of diverse external collaborators to call in at key moments.

for Problem 2

How might we integrate gender into the core organizational strategy in a way that translates into action?