CHAIRPERSON
Assoc Prof Jamie S. Davidson, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore
ABSTRACT
Gender experts are increasingly employed across governments, multilateral donors, companies and NGOs where they are defining a new profession and a new field of study, driving calls for research into the relationship between feminism and expertise. At the same time, the instrumentalisation of the women’s empowerment approach—captured in its conceptual and programmatic focus on individual women’s market inclusion—has prompted analysis of whether the approach can be reharnessed to its radical roots. This article draws into dialogue studies of gender expertise with studies of women’s empowerment. By interviewing 25 gender experts working in Southeast Asia, it investigates their political practices in constructing gender expertise and conceptualising women’s empowerment. The article underscores the profound contradictions generated by the privatisation of development, finding that despite unprecedented global support and resources for gender equality, most gender experts operate in a hostile environment and devote substantial labour to gender-capacity build employers, partners and donors to resolve subsequent tensions.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Kelly Gerard is Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Her research focuses on the political economy of development policymaking in Southeast Asia.
REGISTRATION
Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid event has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the talk.
