Missionaries and Mandarins: Feminist Engagement with Development Institutions

Women working to change unfair treatment in bureaucracies can be either "missionaries" or "mandarins," and must often be a combination of the two. "Missionaries" work from within the organization in their pursuit of gender equity. "Mandarins" work to adapt to the techniques and practices of the bureaucracy.

This book examines two kinds of strategies for making the bureaucratic structures of organizations, multilateral institutions and non-governmental organizations more gender-equitable. The contributors examine gender struggles not only at the discursive level, where women’s needs are constructed and contested, but also at the institutional level of bureaucratic rules, procedures and resource allocation. Studies from many different countries, including Vietnam, Australia, the US and Morocco illustrate the variety of strategies for change adopted by feminists in different political and cultural settings, and show the highly diverse forms of feminist politics. From their different perspectives the contributors acknowledge the gendered nature of institutions, but argue against the view that these organizations are monolithic and impermeable.

The contributors have much to say to all feminists working within bureaucracies -- whether state or civil society institutions -- with the aim of promoting women’s concerns; this book is also a significant contribution to recent developments in the anthropological study of organizations.