November 15, 2018
3.00pm Central European Summer Time
Background information
There is an increasing recognition within applied agriculture and natural resource management research that gender equality is a goal in its own right; and accordingly, considerable efforts and resources are now being devoted to ‘mainstreaming gender’ in research and in demonstrating how research contributes to gender transformative change. While these are positive developments, ‘gender’ is still interpreted in simplistic and binary ways. This has prevented:
- A deeper and more meaningful analyses of how power relations operate to differentiate ‘women and girls’ based on multiple and intersecting dimensions of social identities (such as race, income, ethnicity, age, disability) in any given rural landscape;
- Why certain individuals and groups are, or remain, marginalized and how they fare in key markers of wellbeing in comparison to other advantaged groups; and
- What role research can play in promoting gender and social justice.
One of the major reason behind these shortfalls is the gulf between applied research and gender/feminist theories. Gender research in agriculture and natural resource management has yet to engage consistently with the concept of ‘intersectionality,’ or intersecting and interacting identities, even as the term is viewed as a gold standard in gender and feminist studies.
Purpose of the webinar
This webinar aims to introduce ‘intersectionality’ to researchers working on applied agriculture and natural resource management research who are unfamiliar with the term and/or unsure about how to apply them in their research. Practitioners and policymakers who are concerned with using data, evidence and analyses to ensure that ‘no one is left behind’ – one of the core promises of the Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development – would also find this webinar to be useful.
The webinar will:
- Provide a brief and accessible overview of the major approaches and debates surrounding the term in gender and feminist studies;
- Propose a five-lens approach (cognitive, emotional, social, economic and political) in applying the term to applied agriculture and natural resource management research;
- Discuss the value of being attentive to questions of ‘positionality’ and ‘reflexivity’ in our research; and
- Suggest ways in which a wide range of research methods – from national level household surveys to participatory action research – can be leveraged to support marginalized individuals and communities to bring about socially inclusive change.
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