Fighting Gender-Based Violence in India: Analysing gender mainstreaming policies and arguing for Transformation

Bernatavicius, Katya Alyte

4. term

Development and International Relations, Master

2016

2016-07-29

Dette speciale undersøger effektiviteten af kønsmainstreaming som strategi mod kønsbaseret vold i Indien. Med Carol Lee Bacchis metode 'What’s the Problem Represented to be?' som analytisk ramme belyser det, hvordan politikker fremstiller problemet, hvilke antagelser og kontekster der former denne problematisering, og hvilke samfundsmæssige effekter den har. Analysen peger på, at mange mainstreaming-tilgange bygger på en fast binær forståelse af køn, hvor kvinder fremstilles som ofre og mænd som gerningsmænd. Dette står i kontrast til målet om ligestilling og udelukker personer uden for kønsbinæret, herunder transkønnede fællesskaber som Hijra. Med afsæt i teorier om hegemonisk maskulinitet (Connell), normadoption og social håndhævelse (Posner og Rasmusen) samt 'doing gender' (West og Zimmerman) argumenterer specialet for, at sådanne antagelser kan komme til at reproducere kønshierarkier og styrke restriktive normer, hvilket gør politikkerne paradoksalt medskyldige i de strukturer, de vil nedbryde. Specialet foreslår at omlægge kønsmainstreaming i retning af en intersektionel og inkluderende forståelse af køn for bedre at støtte alle berørte grupper og svække de strukturer, der muliggør vold. Uddraget rapporterer analyser og argumenter frem for empiriske programresultater.

This thesis examines the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming as a strategy to address gender-based violence in India. Using Carol Lee Bacchi’s 'What’s the Problem Represented to be?' policy analysis framework, it explores how policies construct the problem, the assumptions and contexts that shape this representation, and the societal effects that follow. The analysis indicates that many mainstreaming approaches rely on a fixed binary of women as victims and men as perpetrators, which conflicts with the goal of gender equality and sidelines people outside the gender binary, including transgender communities such as Hijra. Drawing on theories of hegemonic masculinity (Connell), norm adoption and social enforcement (Posner and Rasmusen), and 'doing gender' (West and Zimmerman), the thesis argues that these assumptions can reproduce gender hierarchies and reinforce restrictive norms, rendering policies paradoxically complicit in the structures they seek to dismantle. It proposes reorienting gender mainstreaming toward an intersectional, inclusive understanding of gender to better support all affected groups and disrupt the conditions that enable violence. The excerpt presents analysis and argument rather than empirical program evaluations.

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Bernatavicius, Katya Alyte:

• Fighting Gender-Based Violence in India: Analysing gender mainstreaming policies and arguing for Transformation (2016)