Gender...really?

As I was waiting for my ride home, I started chatting with one of the UN security guards. The following is somewhat how are our conversation went:

Guard: What agency do you work for?

Me: UNIFEM

Guard: The women’s one.

Me: Yep

Guard: You gender people always women, women, women. What about us men? There is a reason why men are up here and women down here. (he shows me where men and women are with his hands)

Me: Really? What is that reason?

Guard: Men are supposed to work and make money. These jobs can only be done my men. (I assumed he meant any paid work that doesn't involving selling goods in the market. He obviously ignores those signs pictured above).

Me: And women can’t do these jobs that men do?

Guard: Of course not. There is a reason why women always do worse than men in school. They are just not capable of doing well in school.

Me: Maybe the women you have seen do badly in school have not been given a fair chance. Or perhaps they weren’t given the same support and encouragement that men are given.

Guard: No they are just not able to do the same things we men do. Now everyone is giving them chances. Everything is reserved for women. Soon they will move past us and that is not right. There is an order to things, that’s how it is.

Me: So you are working in the UN, but not believing in what the UN is working towards?

He had no answer and my ride came. Grant it this isn’t word for word, but it is pretty much what he told me.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised by what he was saying. I get he’s simply guarding the compound in exchange for the hefty paycheck he receives. What surprises me is hearing these beliefs coming from the staff working within the buildings, writing the reports, pushing the money through the system. I attended a human rights working group meeting. Though the meeting I went to was rather dull, I was told that the previous month's meeting, which I obviously missed, was much more exciting. During this meeting, one of the UN staff members claimed that gender had nothing to do with human rights. Can you believe that?!?! I quickly have learned that within the UN system, at least in Tanzania, though I've been told it happens in many country offices, gender is not taken seriously. UNIFEM staff members are thought of as those 'crazy radical feminists'.

I've quickly learned that UNIFEM is the underdog here, which makes working for them more bearable because they don't have such big egos. They get far less funding compared to the other agencies and are frequently crushed by the elephant sized hooves of UNDP and UNFPA (whom thinks of gender only from a reproductive lens, as if all women do is make babies). UNIFEM is supposed to be the gender group within the UN system working on gender violence, women's economic activity in non-agricultural sectors, and women in the political arena. They are the 'gender experts'. Except in Tanzania, they seem to be constantly fighting within the system to mainstream gender and to be credited as the gender agency. UNIFEM is frequently left out of the dialogues because the lack of or extremely limited number of funds they can bring to the table. Grant it each agency has a gender specialist, but as my field advisor has told me, they aren't taken seriously by their agencies either. So what is to be done? It is hard enough to fight the battle on the ground, in the fields, but to have to fight the battle within the system too is even harder. To me it makes perfect logical sense, hello GENDER is not rocket science! Grrr...to the staff here. Let's see what else unfolds on this journey.