What Does ‘Transformative Change’ Mean in

Feminist Research and

How might it be Achieved?

A Presentation is based on Ph.D Research

Clíonadh O’ KeeffeThe School of Political Science and Sociology, NUIG.

DSAI Conference 2015

GENDER EQUALITY AND THE POST 2015 AGENDA

• Post 2015 Development Agenda has the potential to bring about lasting change in the power and choices women

• We know that the concept of gender equality informing the targets now moved beyond a focus on the public sphere and now includes the household and the community.

• Critically the gender goal and its targets consider a range of important factors that shape women's daily lives and their ability to realise their rights. These include:

the conditions and type of work in paid employment the burden of unpaid caring labour,

the impact of violence and conflict and

whether women have control over their own resources and incomes.

Presentation Focus and Overview

• Focus: ‘Transformative' aspect of the research questions and the methodology used

in the analysis of gender relations and women's experiences of gender, poverty and violence in post independent Timor-Leste.

• Presentation Overview

i) Critiquing Gender Mainstreamingii) A Transformative Methodologyiii) Theorising for Transformation: Connell's Theory of Gender and Power

PROMOTING GENDER EQUALITY IN POST CONFLICT CONTEXTS

• Global strategies such as gender mainstreaming have been unable to successfully address gender inequality;

• Failure of to recognise and address gender and power dynamics embedded within unequal social and economic structures that give rise to women's everyday hardships;

• Understanding what a gender actually means has to be clarified if development and peacebuilding interventions are to successfully implement 'transformative' gender mainstreaming policies (True, 2013).

Gender Mainstreaming A Transformative Strategy?

Empirically: Unable to challenge structures and practices

that reproduce gender inequality.

Theoretical deficits: lack of understanding of genderprocesses leading to gender inequality, context and specifically

Research Questions

• What are the various dimensions of women's experiences of structural inequality?

• How are gender, poverty and violence interacting in ways that shape the lives of women and reproduce gender inequality?

• How might post-conflict dynamics be breaking up or exacerbating this mutually constitutive relationship?

Research Methodology and Methods

• Qualitative, Feminist Standpoint:

• Intersectional approach - FGD and Unstructured interviews

• Four villages: two urban and two rural

• Grounded Approach: focus on the private domain.

• Iterative theorising: thematic analysis is followed by theoretical analysis

3 themes from within the data namely:

Gendered Poverty and Standards of Living (motherhood)

Gender-based Violence in the Family (Marriage)

Gendered Politics in the village council

Gender AnalysisTheorising Gender, Poverty and Violence

Connell and Beyond

Connell’s Theory of Gender and Power:Understanding the meaning of gender in post-conflict context;Labour, Power, Cathexis

Substantive theoriesGBV: substantive theory of violence in post-conflict context

Poverty: Multiple dimensions of poverty: Chant and Kabeer, Lynch

Conflict dimension: The back-lash: Being sensitive to the post-conflict context: Militarised and violent masculinities, maternal femininities

Conclusion

• What does ‘transformative change’ mean and how might it be achieved?

Gender relations: unpacking gender and poverty and violence (back to the research question);

What have the women’s told me: The complex dynamics and role of power and

norms in their everyday lives;