Walking the Talk

Sarah Ireland, Head of Organisation Effectiveness

October 2016

OISP Expected Impact by 2019

Women’s rights have been claimed and advanced through the engagement and leadership of women and their organizations and there has been a significant reduction in the social acceptance and incidence of violence against women.

Page 3

Gender Justice Theory of Change

Individualchange

FormalInformal

Systemic change

Women’s access to resources (voice, access to health, budget etc.)

Women’s and men’s consciousness (knowledge, skills, commitment, attitudes and beliefs).

Informal cultural norms and exclusionary practices (that maintain inequality in everyday practices).

Formal institutions: policies, laws. etc.

The arrows represent potential relationships between areas of change.

1

4

2

3

Page 4

Areas of our Work

Putting women’s rights at the heart of all we do

Matching external impact with internal values

Page 6

What do we need to do?

Enablewomentolead.

Inspireanduniteourstaff.

Recruit,induct,andtrainstaffinlinewithourgenderjusticestandards.

Monitorandholdmanagersaccountabletogendermarkers

Page 7

Supporting leaders Leadership at Oxfam

• Aspiration or intent?• Social justice model• Starting with self• What do we value?• Developing leaders

of the future -pipeline

THE SELF

LEADERSHIP IDENTITY

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT

TEAMS – COALITIONS - ALLIANCES

The context

Page 8

Creating safe spaces Women leading in a thinking environment

• “Everything begins with our thinking. If our thinking is good, our decisions are good, our actions are good and our outcomes are good.”Nancy Kline

• Women supporting women to address their own wicked problems

Page 9

Creating a movement –Gender Leadership Programme

• Honest conversations• Engagement• Spheres of influence• Creating networks• Facebook at work• The power of the mug• Creating new

artefacts

Page 10

Creating a NetworkWomen’s Leadership Network

• Self developed and organising

• Challenges of being a network (tight/loose)

• Recognition by the organisation

Page 11

• Backed up by policy but not necessarily by process

• The culture we promote – macho culture?

• Gender pay gap• Flexible working

Great policies, better practice

Page 12

What did we do?

Enablewomentolead .

Inspireanduniteourstaff.

Recruit,induct,andtrainstaffinlinewithourgenderjusticestandards.

Monitorandholdmanagersaccountabletogendermarkers

Page 13

What have we learnt?• Involve women and

men• But focus on women • Visibility and profile

does matter• What's perception

and what's reality?• Expectations• Structures need to be

in place (meetings/nursery)

• Leadership• Openness to

implementation• Values• Don't rely on

HR/obvious advocates

• Get below the water line

Page 14

What else?

• Are we focusing on the right things?• How to we use our learning and develop a

spectrum of thinking for gender?• More work to be done – support to managers,

induction and onboarding• Need better and more positive metrics and

better storytelling• And don't stop...

QUESTIONS?