International Women’s Day: Gender and Social Movements

The 8^th March is International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme ‘Equality for women is progress for all’ is something that we firmly believe at Irish Aid.

A lot of Irish Aid supported programmes prioritise women as we know that when women are given greater access to resources they are more likely to share the benefits with their families. This can be seen through our support for programmes which target female headed households; and through our support for projects to improve land and resource rights for women.

In addition to the benefits of supporting gender equality in its own right, there has been some evidence that mainstreaming gender into social movements on the whole has wider benefits in affecting change at levels that changes to policy or law have not managed to achieve.

It has been recognised by BRIDGE, the gender arm of the Institute of Development Studies, that including gender rights in social movements also encourages better outcomes. In a document produced with the support of Irish Aid, academics outline the value of including gender in social movements.

The document outlines the academic theory behind this and also includes case studies and stories of how women’s rights can affect positive change for all.