2 steps to promote gender equality in public service

This article is written by Ana Patricia Diaz Flores, Head of the Human Rights and Gender Equality Unit, Poder Judicial del Estado de Coahuila, Mexico.

• The problem: There is not a solid base for gender equality within institutions to make a sustainable change.
• Why it matters: Gender equality is a social demand that commands a cultural change and the public sector needs to help with this change by being an example.
• The solution: Start from within and with steps that have a solid base to make an actual change.

Currently one of the biggest social demands we have in the world is to ensure that gender equality is being tackled from all fronts and in all the government spheres. Sometimes, as public servants, this looks like an impossible task to achieve, or too big to know where to start. In my experience, I would tell you that any starting point is a good step towards gender equality.

We need to remember that gender equality is a social and cultural change we are trying to create, so patience is key to seeing the results.

To begin on the journey of implementing gender equality projects I believe it is important to understand what gender equality is. For this I will utilise the concept used by UN Women:

Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.

A lot of the time, we think that there needs to be a big statement, project, or policy to make an impact on the matter, and most of the time these big steps make it harder to keep up or continue the work. Therefore, I would like to propose two things my team is implementing to make a sustainable impact on gender equality within the public service.

1. Take real steps that complement each other

The first step towards your efforts doesn’t need to be the biggest step towards your goal, because a big step without it being sustainable is something doomed to disappear. Instead, start with a solid base that you can build with several actions until it becomes as impactful as you want. We need to remember that gender equality is a social and cultural change we are trying to create, so patience is key to seeing the results.

For example, we can see that a lot of public servants have received theoretical training about gender violence and gender equality but it all stops at the theory. If that is the case with your institution, you can evaluate if the training was enough or if there is a need to reinforce the information. If it was enough but you still do not see a difference, try practical activities so they see how it looks on a day-to-day basis to apply that knowledge. Start from the basics without assuming they already know the same information you do about the topic.

Other ideas to advance gender equality can look like:

• Social media campaigns where you share the work you are doing on the subject;
• Creating infographics, documents and procedures to address a specific topic like gender perspectives, where to receive suggestions, etc;
• Identify the areas of growth by applying a survey.

Another action is to work with NGOs and local organisations that can give you feedback on your approach, or you can collaborate with them to create new goals, or maybe just work with other governments or academic institutions to create a project that impacts more than one aspect of society. It is of great importance to be open to working with others to achieve gender equality, so it spreads further and impacts more people.

Make sure you know what resources you need to make your project sustainable from implementation to the evaluation period. This will help build the solid base you need and make it stronger by adding specialised actions. For example, I work in the justice system where we created a specialised court in domestic violence that attends women in both criminal law and family law in one place to avoid revictimising the women who suffer violence from their partners. This is one of the biggest steps we took for gender equality, making sure women have the same opportunity and rights when they access the justice system. This was the base we started from to which we added the following specialised actions;

• We created an app that women can download and create alerts when they feel endangered. Then the app alerts the authorities and their support network to attend to her.
• A registry of people punished for committing violence against women as a prevention for other women.
• We created a network with different NGOs to hear their feedback, amongst other actions.

With these examples, you can see how we created actions that complement each other to advance the eradication of gender violence and in doing this, a more equitable society.

2. Generate impact inside

The second step, and maybe one of the most forgotten steps, is to consider applying your plans inside the institution you work in. If you make all these efforts towards gender equality but people inside are not subject to it as well, they are not going to implement those efforts and it will not last. For example, you can have a protocol to address harassment claims in the workplace so everyone feels safe, or internal campaigns where you teach employees about ending gender violence, so they know how to spot it and where to go if they experience it. If possible, a dedicated unit or committee that helps to implement gender equality in different areas of the institution is ideal. With this in place everyone knows they can reach out to that unit/committee if they need help. Or you can ensure that applications for upper-level roles have a gender perspective of participation, or even better, adopt gender parity not only for the sake of it but also to have different perspectives and ways of solving problems.

If you transmit safety and equity with your co-workers, they are going to transmit the same to the people they interact with. In our case, we created a network of support by identifying people interested in advancing gender equality in different areas, and now they are helping by spreading information about new projects and providing feedback about the work and any new problems.

Take a step and start by creating a change in perspective from within, and get all the helping hands you can get to achieve your journey to a more equitable society.

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