Gender Equality and Collective Wellbeing: The Power of Changing Mindsets

This paper proposes a framework for the World Bank Group’s approach to gender equality. Women’s achievements in such fields as education, health, and economic and political participation have not changed the unequal power relations with men. The author makes three main proposals for changing this inequality in power relations. First, shift the focus from the individual to changing collective mindsets, by mobilizing collective agency within organizations and changing the gender norms that prop up inequality. Second, since power is relational, don’t bypass men in programs and discussions to bring about change. And third, since gender training in early life is traumatic for all genders, power and love have to be re-examined and re-braided, so that approaches to change are caring and compassionate. Only then will there be a shift in mental and moral maps about the nature of right relations between men and women and with people of all Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) across social divides, without further violence. In summary, this paper addresses the following question: How do we bring about collective mindset shifts about unequal power relations among women, men, and SOGI groups