By Leticia Mukurasi (@LettiCornelius)
We are mainstreaming
We are mainstreaming
We are the champions of mainstreaming
Halleluiah!
Abolish a unit with 4 professional staff
Put a minute section of one in its place
Give them lip-service and
Install a token
For this one-woman show
No budget
No administrative support
No research assistance
No career ladder
Low salary
Kiini macho!
We are mainstreaming
We are mainstreaming
We are No.1 at gender MALEstreaming
Make-believe gender is a priority issue
Subsume it under the PRIORITY issue
Environment, poverty, whatever
Render it almost invisible
Smother it under layers
Keep it out of sight
It should not see the light
Certainly, should not be privy
To top level policy discussions,
Budgets and lending decisions
You see Gender is “not technical”
What can these women tell us?
Keeping gender under wraps
Bringing it in as an afterthought
Is a perfect way of keeping it contained
Its functionaries riled and neutralized
Or hopefully rendered mute
These gender activists/feminists
Need a male chaperon
Put them on a short leash
Or matters could get out of hand
Gender mainstreaming?
Great big misunderstanding
Ah, this riddle known as mainstreaming
If management is defined as the art
Of getting things done through or with other people
Then gender mainstreaming is akin to a managerial function
To be achieved through or with other people
But how do you attain that
Operating from under the table
Without power and authority
When your position
Has no coercive power, no political clout?
No quid pro quo, no leverage
No incentives, no penalties
You have been set up
Danganya toto
This mainstreaming business
Is a conundrum
Reviewing documents requires hard work
First, the documents arrive late – with orders
“Your deadline is now”
“Put gender in”
“Validate the gender paragraph”
“Mention the word women at least once
“Mix and stir quick”
Alimradi
Don’t delay disbursement
Donors might be put off
Sukuma twaenda
You read the long document
Hours on end
Then you research, surf the net
For country and sector specific data
You exercise analytical skills
To obliterate the stereotype, the misconceptions
To coin a factual comment, phrase
With all evidence intact
At the end of all this, one sentence appears
“And women will participate”
But no mention of the gender of the beneficiary
How can gender issues get traction?
How can women get a fair deal?
Hadithi, hadithi
Uongo njoo, utamu kolea
Oh, the foibles of gender mainstreaming
It would assist
If someone at least had the sense
To tell you that your input is inadequate
Or that it is off key
Or that they do not want it
But you spend hours
And give your best
Yet your contribution is ignored
The box gets a tick
The feminist was there
The truth is – it really doesn’t matter
Your presence is a ruse
Things just move on
And your contribution-
Is nowhere to be seen
It has evaporated
Puff….! into thin air
Majanga!
Of course you are right
Your concern is legitimate
But you have to accept that
It is not up to you
You are not the ultimate decision maker
You do not have authority to halt or delay projects
That short shrift gender/women issues
You are fixture under the table
You are not “senior” enough to participate
In project approval committees
You are not anywhere near
The decision-making table
They are
Colleagues can do as they please
Bosses do not ask questions
Senior management can get away with it
Accountability is for the birds
It decorates the books
You see you are mainstreaming
Meddling into other people’s work
Your contribution is invisibilized
Your input does not count
It is not your programme/project
There is no joint ownership
Document ina wenyewe!
Hey, this thing called mainstreaming
Is a hit and miss business
Does not always guarantee the result you seek
Puts you in such an awkward position
Makes you tell lies
When confronted with documents
That are pure junk
You have to pay false compliments
In the name of encouragement
Where these are not due
You have to flatter and ingratiate yourself
To get a foothold in the door
This extends to made-up speeches
Making fraudulent claims
Professing commitment, when none exist
Retouching a damning report
Concealing the true state of gender mainstreaming
To make reports palatable for donors
It is all a PR exercise
It is mostly hot air
Nguvu ya soda!
Ah, this animal mainstreaming
So, you want to bring a women’s perspective
In a programme or project
Whose task manager,
His manager, and his director,
Possibly the vice-top dog and the top dog himself
Probably a significant number of board members and governors
Who stand on podiums and exalt gender equality
Are all struggling
With “these equality issues”
In their own minds
In their own homes
They are carrying excess mental baggage
Are prone to patriarchal angst and quibbles
Maybe they do not believe
That a woman
Can have a perspective
Has a right to a perspective
Could be the seemingly sophisticated
task manager/boss/top dog/board member/governor
Who arrive at the office
Well turned out
In expensive Armani suits
And Dior aftershave
Are batterers, oppressors or dictators
In their own homes
Salaale!
So, you urge men to share resources, power and dignity
You ask a male colleague to pass on this message
In his dialogue with officials
In regional member countries
Whose meetings
Are attended by male majorities
Who hold the same convoluted views
Or carry the same baggage
In his mind, the wife is not his equal
She is not even a partner
Actually, he thinks
Sharing power with his wife
Is anathema
After all he paid the dowry
She is financially “dependent” on him
And you expect mainstreaming to happen?
This same colleague has a wife
Who does not even know his salary
He says “my wife does not work”
Despite all the wealth she produces
Children, care, love, companionship
At the household level
Working in gender mainstreaming
Can be an occupational hazard
It has taught me, to tread with care
I do not how, when, and whose sensibility
I have stepped on
I dare not take for granted
That we are all on the same wavelength
Behind my back, I am already labeled
That feminist
Troublemaker
The gender police
Or its French equivalent
A gender “gendarmerie”
We are mainstreaming