Gender equity is now more or less a fixture on the development agenda.
More women may be in development organisations than before. Eradicating hidden gender agendas will mean investigating each institution's credentials, including when, why and by whom it was set up originally, as well as how it is run at present. A new collection of research by gender specialists from around the world shows that failures to implement gender equitable policy are often rooted in the organisations themselves. The ways in which organisations are structured and located, their work patterns and culture, and the gender ideologies that prevail within them are arranged around and by men. Government organisations are often thought to be most hierarchical and least concerned with gender equity, but non-governmental organisations may be as much at fault as officialdom.