The Challenges of Interdisciplinary Projects Finding our way into the blackbox: unpacking systemic gender inequality across institutional landscapes

session code Wed 2.1

Even though feminist researchers have long pointed out the scalar nature of gender inequalities, and how they are reproduced and reiterated in organisations, CGIAR gender research has rarely looked beyond households and communities. What happens inside organisations we work and collaborate with, remain the proverbial “black box”, even though this is precisely where policy intent to address gender gets diluted and re-/misinterpreted. At best, we have talked about the masculinity in agri-food system organisations, but rarely explored how gender norms, values and perspectives determine how institutional stakeholders understand, practice and value gender equality. Adopting the research methodology of ‘studying-up’ institutional structures, cultures and actors who perform in these spaces, we examined how gender is understood, interpreted and practiced by diverse group of organisational stakeholders through in-depth semi-structured interviews. We noted that, as junior women researchers, accessing institutional stakeholders and getting agreement to talk about gender was a key challenge, an indicator of masculine bureaucratic structure. We also observed that official stakeholders focus and prioritize restoration and ecological gains in watershed programs, relegating social, including gender goals as peripheral. Gender is equated with women, with little thought about it’s application in projects. This explains why “gender work” is sublet to grassroots actors. Those who “do gender” also tend to equate gender with women and simplistically equate increased participation in projects, monetary gains - with women’s empowerment. Gender is rarely addressed as a complex set of power relations along the axes of caste, class, education, and age that operate at different scales.

 

Moderators
Deepa Joshi, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Padmaja Ravula, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

Organizers
Padmaja Ravula, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Arunima Hakhu
Deepa Joshi, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

 

Introduction
Deepa Joshi, IWMI, and Padmaja Ravula, ICRISAT

Breakout 1
Finding our way into the blackbox: unpacking systemic gender inequality across institutional landscapes

Moderator
Ananya Chakraborty, ICRISAT

 

Case study and panel discussion on drylands

Introduction
Padjama Ravula, ICRISAT

Panelists:

  • Stephanie Leder, Agriculural University Uppsala, Sweden
  • Ramesh Singh, ICRISAT
  • Archana Singh, PRADAN, India

 

Breakout 2
When bio-physical and feminist researchers come together: critiquing claims of the “wise use” of wetlands

Moderator
Arunima Hakhu, IWMI

 

Case study and panel discussion on wetlands

Introduction
Deepa Joshi and Arunima Hakhu, IWMI

Panelists:

  • Sanjiv De Silva, IWMI
  • Ritesh Kumar, Wetlands International – South Asia

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