The Gender Justice Working Group is a growing community of feminist scholars, practitioners, and researchers committed to advancing intersectional and transformative understandings of gender in Development Studies. A shift from gender mainstreaming to gender justice in international development theory, policy and practice contexts is a worthwhile point of departure for discussion, research and focus. 

Gender and women’s studies are not only meant to understand persistent inequalities, but to transform that understanding into action, and academia facilitates an active space for gender justice and social change. The scope of the working group topics ranges from how gendered power dynamics intersect with class, race, colonial legacies, economic systems, culture, art, private sector, to how these intersections shape agency, vulnerability, resistance, and much more. This group is built to create space for critical dialogue and action that is rooted in feminist solidarity, accountability, and care.

TOPICS

This working group welcomes scholars at all stages—especially early-career researchers and practitioners—who are exploring topics such as (but not limited to):

• Gender-based violence (GBV) and systemic responses
• Economic empowerment, precarity and progress in development frameworks
• Migration, displacement, and transnational feminisms
• Reproductive justice and health sovereignty
• The politics of care, community, and grassroots mobilization
• Critiques of gender mainstreaming and institutional feminism
• Decolonial feminist methodologies and ethics

OBJECTIVE

The working group’s goal is to move beyond "inclusion" towards transformation, providing a collaborative space to share research, interrogate our positionalities, and facilitate gendered knowledge using decolonial perspectives.

Future Projects & Collaborations:

• Regular research exchanges, co-learning sessions, and dialogues (online and in-person: coworking sessions, panels, conferences, etc)
• Joint publications, collaborative writing opportunities, and mentorship
• Space for conference panel development and cross-institutional partnerships
• A feminist ethic of reciprocity, inclusion, and critical friendship

Early and experienced researchers, practitioners and scholars interested in joining this working group, contact the co-conveners to join and propose activities that builds on knowledge and brings together this community.