Achievements have been significant. Today women are a central force in this movement. Women’s participation and representation has increased, they have taken up positions of leadership and significant strides have been made to achieve parity in women’s representation in decision-making bodies. In its Latin American section, for example, parity was established in 1997. Training schools have been set up to show the links between gender and class inequalities, which have helped women to challenge male-dominated structures and sexist behaviour within their respective organizations. Women’s specific concerns have also gained greater visibility on the movement’s agenda. When Via Campesina developed its political position on food sovereignty in the late 1990s, for example, women argued that because women are primarily responsible for the well-being of their families, food sovereignty must include a drastic reduction in the use of healthendangering agrochemicals. Furthermore, they argued that because of women’s unequal access to productive resources, food sovereignty could only be achieved by increasing their participation in agricultural policy-making. Most recently, in 2008, Via Campesina launched a high-profile campaign to end violence against women, which it sees as a structural issue supported by both capitalism and patriarchy, including such violence within the movement itself.
This positive example of women advancing their own agenda within a broad-based social movement highlights the kinds of strategies and alliances that women’s movements need to adopt in order to advance the social and economic rights of women and girls. Yet, one of the greatest obstacles that confront gender equality agendas is the difficulty of working within gender-biased political and governance institutions—all the way from political parties to justice systems and state bureaucracies—that remain resistant to women’s equality claims and require deep institutional reform.
TRANSFORMING STRUCTURES AND INSTITUTIONS FOR WOMEN’S SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY Change in women’s lives happens when increases in their resources, respect and agency reinforce each other in a synergistic way: when resources and life chances enable an adequate standard of living for all women, as well as the time and resources for greater agency and voice; when
women can live their lives with dignity and respect; and when they are able to voice their interests and participate on equal terms with men in all decisions that affect their lives. This is the long-term goal and vision towards which public action has to move. Long-term change is enabled by both small and big initiatives that transform structures and institutions, to disrupt discriminatory norms and gender stereotypes, redistribute resources and create spaces and mechanisms for women to articulate their grievances and act collectively to claim their rights. The groundbreaking government initiative in Brazil, Chapéu de Palha Mulher (see story: Making rights real), captures the key elements necessary for such transformations. This anti-poverty initiative goes much further than conventional conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) directed at poor women by setting out to change the structures that keep gender hierarchies in place and constrain women’s enjoyment of their rights. It provides: a three month course on citizenship and public
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