Gender, Power and Aidwork - Doing and Undoing Gender in Aid Organizations

Studies on gender and development, peace-keeping and humanitarianism tend to focus on the beneficiaries and less attention has been paid to gender dynamics within aid organisations. This paper focuses on aid workers and addresses how aid work challenges and perpetuates gender differences. Aid organisations involved in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work are gendered organisations which is reflected in the representation of men and women in leadership positions, the gendered division of labour as well as the impact of aid work on the life courses of men and women. However, aid organisations might offer women more career opportunities than other expatriate or domestic work sectors. Thus gender is both ‘done’ and ‘undone’ in Aidland. This paper is based on biographical interviews with men and women working for a range of different organisations involved humanitarian assistances in a broad sense (i.e. including development cooperation and human rights work in post-conflict or post-disaster settings). Overall, women tended to downplay gender and highlighted nationality, age and marital status, while men highlighted gender differences. Generational and regional differences as well as the field and type of organisation need to be taken into consideration when assessing careers and the ability to combine them with a family for men and women. Overall, women and men from the Global North more often stated that it was difficult to reconcile aid work with starting or maintaining a relationship and family, while women and men from the Global South described the support they received from partners and family members. Gender interacts with other factors of inequality which shape aid worker’s careers. I argue that in order to account for power and privilege in the Aidworld an intersectional perspective is needed.