The Practice of GAD. IMHO.

Let me introduce you to two women: Manal al-Sharif and Elizabeth Nyamayaro. They have a few things in common: they come from the countries that could be identified as Third World, they are both in the avant-garde of feminist action, and they are TED speakers. The major difference between these two women is that they struggle for gender equality from different sides: Manal al-Sharif is a grassroots activist in the heart of @Women2Drive movement in Saudi Arabia and Elizabeth Nyamayaro is a UN Women’s HeForShe initiative.

How do these two women and their ideas fit into existing development framework? Here’s Manal al-Sharif’s talk on TED. If you don’t have time to watch it (while I strongly recommend to do that) here’s the synopsis. She describes how she got involved in the struggle for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, the last country in the world where women aren’t allowed to drive. Well, Manal admits herself they are not forbidden as there’s no law officially prohibiting female driving. But the image of woman behind the wheel is strongly condemned by Saudi society, which is governed at large by Muslim conservatism (hope I sound politically correct enough – I don’t mean to offend anyone with this statement).  Here’s the video of her driving that she posted on YouTube and got in jail for.

At first glance this movement fits into WID approach that strives for equity between two genders. But it has nothing to do with providing economic opportunities for women – let’s face it, Manal is probably from one of the great many of well-to-do families in Saudi Arabia.  @Women2Drive is about empowering women, making them equal members of society, ensuring their “greater self-reliance” as Caroline Moser would put it. This movement tackles at core the relations between women and men in an extremely patriarchal society, it is a part of complex development process that enhances women’s emancipation process, and obviously women are the active agents of this development process – these are characteristics of GAD approach according to Kate Young. Moreover, this is a clear shift from a needs to a rights based approach that McIlwaine & Datta are talking about.

Elizabeth Nyamayaro’s talk is describing HeForShe initiative and its achievements after 7 months past it launch. The stories she shares show that HeForShe reached the minds of men from small villages to big successful governments – exactly the way GAD see the way to resolving gender issues (see Kate Young). The way Elizabeth Nyamayaro’s describes the initiative and how exactly it was put into practice, makes HeForShe a holistic implementation of GAD as a theory. It suggests revisiting gender relations, it covers WID’s economic equity as well as looks into political, social, and cultural aspects of development, seeks support from state and non-state actors, relies on local communities... See Kate Young for more. The idea of involving women as agents of development is not new (see Moser, equity aka WID approach). HeForShe goes beyond GAD ideas by putting emphasis on all men’s role in promoting gender equality, which seems kind of obvious but appears to be new. This is according to McIlwaine & Datta is a sign of reconceptualization of GAD.

These two talks for me are very representation of what GAD/empowerment approach stands for. They depict the "shift towards empowerment and participation approach"  (McIlwaine & Datta).