Beyond Policy: How Gendered Interactions on the Ground Shape Development

By Laura Doering and Sarah Kaplan

National governments and international bodies often implement policies to promote more gender-equitable social and economic development. For example, initiatives like the UN’s Gender Equality Sustainable Development Goal highlight gender inequities across the globe and set benchmarks for progress towards equality. Similarly, USAID highlights gender equality and women’s empowerment as one of its main areas of focus, aiming to “unlock human potential on a transformational scale” by investing in women’s skills and advancement. These ambitious, large-scale policies and goals function as powerful tools for orienting global attention, and channeling funds toward initiatives that promote gender equality.

In our own research and in observations of practice, we found that although such policies and goals provide an important starting point for women’s economic development, the deeper impact of the policies come through more mundane, day-to-day practices. Indeed, the actual changes associated with gendered policies occur through interpersonal interactions. Women’s economic and social development happens through on-the-ground exchanges among ordinary citizens, low-level government officials, NGO workers, and others. As individuals meet, converse, argue, teach, establish relationships, and exchange resources, the real outcomes associated with development policies come to life.

Full article in Stanford Social Innovation Review: Beyond Policy: How Gendered Interactions on the Ground Shape Development