[Anthropgrad] Friday Seminars (18 April 08)

[Sin Wen Lau]

Anthropology Student Seminar Series, Semester 1, 2008
Milgate Room, AD Hope
18 April 2008, 3 pm

'The Structuration of Inequality: Gender Mainstreaming Policy and 
Practice in Pakistan' by Khalid Chauhan.

This research project will examine the interface between gender 
inequality in Pakistani bureaucracy and the policy of gender 
mainstreaming. The literature on gender inequality indicates that 
despite sustained long-term international concern and a number of policy 
approaches, it continues to be all-pervasive, cutting across race, 
region, religion, culture, community and country (Khawar Mumtaz and 
Shaheed, 1987, Rostami-Povey, 2007, Shireen J Jejeebhoy and Zeba A 
Sathar, 2001, UN, 1979, UNDP, 2005), and taking many shapes and forms 
with numerous inter linkages (Sen , 2001). It is ubiquitous in Pakistan 
(ADB, 2000, Weiss, 1990, GOP, 2007b) and there is a general academic and 
social consensus that Pakistani women, broadly divided into three 
groups, tribal, rural and urban experience gender inequality both at the 
social and the institutional level. Ironically, the societal injustices 
against women are further compounded due to the lack of remedies for 
women and the ‘systematic failure’ at the institutional level. However, 
while the existing research has focused on social causes of gender 
inequality or at best documented the inadequacy of institutional 
response, the problem of gender inequality in these institutions largely 
remains under researched. Further, relatively little research is 
available on the role of policy in tackling the issue of gender 
inequality in bureaucracy. This research project therefore is concerned 
with the issue of an appropriate policy approach to deal with the 
problem of ‘Professional inequality’ (Amartya Sen, 2001) in the context 
of gender in bureaucracy. It particularly seeks to answer the following 
question: Is Gender Mainstreaming Policy that involves the training of 
bureaucrats and the use of toolkits an appropriate solution to the 
problem of gender inequality in the bureaucracy of Pakistan?

The pre-field work seminar will first suggest that while mainstream 
research has largely focused on the social causes of gender inequality, 
relatively little attention has been paid to the value of gender 
mainstreaming policy and this is particularly true in case of developing 
countries such as Pakistan. It will then trace the initial neglect and 
later evolution and growth of women (or, later gender) related policy in 
Pakistan. It then goes on to deconstruct the definition of gender 
mainstreaming in order to bring forth some of the contradictions and 
conflicts which underpin theories of gender mainstreaming, and suggests 
that in order to be effective, gender mainstreaming needs an adequate 
conceptualization comprising both affirmative action and concern with 
gender as such. Finally, a methodology will be proposed which aims to 
test gender mainstreaming policy as applied in Pakistan through the 
evaluation of the proposed project.

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Lau Sin Wen
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT0200
Australia

Telephone : +61-2-6125-3271
Fax	 : +61-2-6125-4896
Email	 : sinwen.lau at anu.edu.au
Website	 : http://rspas.anu.edu.au/anthropology
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