A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice

The authors of this paper describe the key elements of Gender at Work’s Organisation Strengthening Program: the Integral Framework, Action Learning and Capacitar practices. These represent ideas woven together from a variety of fields (concerned with the individuals’ psychology and consciousness, access to resources, and the social structures in which they live and work) to address the lack of progress toward gender equality. This paper builds on over 15 years of Gender at Work’s engagement with civil society organisations on women’s rights, gender equality and social justice issues in Bangladesh, South Africa, India, Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and Zanzibar, as well as previous papers written for the organisation (especially by Friedman and Kelleher, 2009). It concludes with a case study of work in Ethiopia, and poses questions for those undertaking social innovation and societal change initiatives regarding scaling up impact.