Gender equality in a time of change: Gender mainstreaming after Egypt's Arab Spring

Women's Studies International Forum 56 (2016) 74–82

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Gender equality in a time of change: Gender mainstreaming after Egypt's Arab Spring☆ Farah Gamal Shash 1, Carie L. Forden ⁎,2 American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

a r t i c l e

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Available online 30 March 2016

s y n o p s i s In this article, we examine the implementation of gender mainstreaming in post-revolutionary Egypt. In-depth interviews with gender mainstreaming implementers found contested views of how to achieve gender equality using gender mainstreaming, tensions between “gender equality” and “mainstream” agendas, and challenges with implementing a global strategy in an Egyptian context. We conclude that there is a need to rethink the implementation of gender mainstreaming and to increase commitment to it on both the governmental and organizational levels. Including men and taking culture into account are key to success, and building consensus around the issue of equality among women's groups should be helpful. Although progress is likely to be slow, we argue that gender mainstreaming has the potential to move equality forward in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction Women played a vital role across the Arab Spring movements, but women's rights have suffered in the aftermath (Johansson-Nogues, 2013). This is especially evident in Egypt where although the post-revolution constitution states that all Egyptians are equal before the law and equal in rights and duties, many gender inequalities persist. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report's (2013), out of 136 countries, Egypt ranked 125 overall with a score of 59.4%, and at 10 out of 15 on the regional list. A large body of research shows that gender inequality in Egypt is widespread and occurs in all aspects of life (Abu Amara, Ambrosetti, & Condon, 2009; United Nations Development Program Egypt, 2013). One way that gender inequality in Egypt has been addressed both before and after the revolution is through gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming is a public

☆ The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Amy Carrillo and Nadine Sika. ⁎ Corresponding author.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2015.12.006 0277-5395/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

policy approach to gender inequality that was introduced at the Beijing Conference in 1995 in response to the limitations of earlier gender initiatives (Van Eerdewijk & Davids, 2014). The most widely recognized definition of gender mainstreaming is the one given by UN Economic and Social Council: Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality (United Nations Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 2003). Gender mainstreaming can be seen as an extension of public policies targeted at women but not necessarily focused on women's issues and equality, since it addresses the developmental and equity needs of both women and men. It is a top-down strategy in which gender-specific methods and

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instruments are applied to every stage in the program cycle, from identifying needs to program implementation, monitoring, and evaluation (Moser & Moser, 2005), and it requires that gender issues be addressed at both the micro- and macrosystem levels (Van Eerdewijk & Davids, 2014). While gender mainstreaming has been extensively researched and debated, especially in Europe, there is little research on it in Egypt, despite having been implemented in a variety of programs for a number of years. In order to assess the use of gender mainstreaming in Egypt post-revolution, we interviewed gender focal points, gender unit staff, and gender consultants who held primary responsibility for its implementation across international, national, and nonprofit organizations. This paper reports on what we learned from these interviews. First, we describe the context of gender mainstreaming in Egypt, offering an overview of the status of women and a short history of Egyptian gender mainstreaming initiatives. Next, using data from our interviews, we show how three critical gender mainstreaming issues play out in an Egyptian context: 1) contested views of how to achieve gender equality using gender mainstreaming, 2) tensions between “gender equality” and “mainstream” agendas, and 3) challenges with implementing a global strategy in a local context. We describe how gender mainstreaming has been implemented in Egypt, explore the challenges and opportunities experienced in implementing gender mainstreaming, and discuss recommendations for change. Finally, we examine what this research tells us about gender mainstreaming's potential as a strategy for achieving gender equality after the Arab Spring.

The status of gender equality in Egypt Egypt's 2011 revolution seemed to offer a good opportunity to call for gender equality because it demanded social justice, and because women were a vital force in the push for change (Boughelaf, 2012), but events that have taken place since the revolution show otherwise (Johansson-Nogues, 2013; Tadros, 2014). Many women's rights programs were associated with the Mubarak regime, and this led to a backlash and increase in social conservativism immediately after the revolution (Al-Ali, 2013). There have been sexual and gender-based violence and torture incidents, calls for segregation between men and women in public spheres, and other occurrences that show that the gender gap might actually increase post-revolution and that the situation of women specifically is in a critical position (De Alwis, 2011; Human Rights Watch, 2012; Pratt, 2011; United Nations Development Program Egypt, 2013). Particularly in the areas of family law, physical integrity, economic status, and political participation, gender inequality continues. While Egypt signed onto the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), it refused articles related to family laws and the equal status of spouses (Abu Amara et al., 2009). Early marriage is still practiced in less developed areas (OECD, 2009), and premarital virginity and marital fertility are linked to family honor (Yount, Dijkerman, Zureick-Brown, & VanderEnde, 2014). Although the Khul' law allows women to divorce without their husband's consent, it also requires that they give up all financial rights when doing so. Family pressures, economic constraints, and social

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disapproval can also make women reluctant to instigate divorce (Ambrosetti, Abu Amara, & Condon, 2013). Physical, sexual, and psychological violence against women is a widespread problem in Egypt, and 63% of married women report they have experienced some form of violence (National Council of Women, 2009). Rape is a crime, but marital rape is not (UNICEF, 2011). Sexual harassment is also prevalent with 99% of women reporting an experience of harassment (UN Women, 2013). State institutions provide few solutions for women who are victims of violence, and only a few NGOs provide legal and social support (Ambrosetti et al., 2013). Despite the fact that female genital mutilation (FGM) is illegal, 85–95% of the female population has been cut (OECD, 2009), and a recent landmark case regarding the death of a girl after FGM is the first time there has been a conviction for violation of the law. Although Egypt has been able to improve on development indicators such as education for women and child health, these improvements have not impacted women's employment (World Bank, 2010). According to the World Bank (2010) and USAID (2010), Egyptian women's participation in the labor force is low even by the standards of the Arab and Middle East region. In 2007, women accounted for 23.8% of the labor force, (USAID, 2010) and according to the Egyptian Labor Market Panel Survey (Assaad, 2007), their economic activity rate was about 27%, compared to a rate of about 79% for men. This survey also showed that women's unemployment rate was about 11.5%, which is twice the unemployment rate for men (Abu Amara et al., 2009; Assaad, 2007). Overall, women earn less than men, especially in the private sector, and are less likely to receive training and promotions (USAID, 2010), while occupational segregation plays a significant role in creating a wage gap, particularly for blue collar and professional women (ElHamidi & Said, 2014). Egyptian law provides women with ownership rights, but they are often perceived as unable to deal with financial matters (El-Safty, 2004). A study by Nasr (2011) found that Egyptian women usually had less productive assets and had little control in managing these assets, as they were usually managed by a male relative such as a father, brother, husband, or son. When women apply for loans from the banks, they may be prevented from using their possessions as collateral for loans, restricting their ability to participate as self-sufficient agents in private-sector activity (El-Safty, 2004; Nasr, 2011; OECD, 2009). Women won the right to vote and to run for office in 1956, but women's participation in government has been limited. In 2007, for example, women held only 2% of the seats in the Egyptian national assembly (UNICEF, 2011). Women are also extremely underrepresented among the judiciary and have not been allowed seats on Egypt's high court (UNICEF, 2011). And while the 2014 constitution for the first time expressed a commitment to appointing women to the judiciary and to public office, with a quarter of seats in local government to be held by women, it remains to be seen whether this will lead to a greater voice for women in political life. The gender mainstreaming approach to gender equality Gender mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy that has been rapidly and widely implemented (Hankivisky, 2013).

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It involves the integration of gender concerns into the analysis and formulation of policies, projects, and programs, as well as the creation of initiatives to make it possible for both men and women to participate in all levels of decision making (Mukhopadhyay, 2007). While feminist scholars have reported that gender mainstreaming has led to significant changes in national, international, and non-governmental organizations, they have also been critical of its ability to impact gender equality (Caglar, 2013). In an overview of the critiques of gender mainstreaming theory and practice, Walby (2005) discusses a number of key issues, including 1) tensions between “gender equality” and “mainstream” agendas, 2) contested views of how to achieve gender equality using gender mainstreaming, 3) the relationship of gender mainstreaming to other inequalities such as class and ethnicity, 4) conflicting roles of expertise and democratic participation in gender mainstreaming, and 5) the complexities of implementing a transnational approach in local contexts. These issues make it challenging to assess whether or not gender mainstreaming has actually contributed to creating positive change, particularly in a country such as Egypt where there has been inconsistent implementation and a lack of research on its impact. History of gender mainstreaming in Egypt Both before and after the revolution in Egypt, gender mainstreaming has been seen as a way to move toward greater gender equality and has been incorporated in some projects and policies by some government ministries, international agencies, and Egyptian civil society organizations. However, gender mainstreaming has never been implemented in any comprehensive or unified way, and this lack of systemic implementation has meant that the focus has mainly been on creating isolated pockets of organizational change. At the governmental level, the National Council for Women (NCW) drafted a plan to mainstream gender in the National Plan for Economic and Social Development of Egypt from 2002 to 2007 that was approved by the parliament (UN Women, 2004). One of the NCW's initiatives was to establish Equal Opportunity Units in various ministries, but few of these have been recognized as effective (Lambert, Guenena, & Radwan, 2010). Other initiatives included a collaboration by the Equal Opportunity Unit in the Ministry of Finance with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in the area of gender responsive budgeting (Ministry of Finance, n/d), a project started by the Ministry of Trade and Industry to build a gender-sensitive trade capacity agri-business (Unifem, 2010), and efforts by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation to mainstream gender throughout all its policy frameworks and programs since 1997 (National Water Research Center, 2010). At the international level, the United Nations Development Project (UNDP) in Egypt has created a number of policies and programs to mainstream gender. For example, the UNDP developed a gender equality strategy that incorporated gender mainstreaming into human resources and management policies and procedures, and also advocated that gender be considered in the design and implementation of programs (UNDP, 2013). In 1995, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) identified gender mainstreaming as its main method for attaining gender equality. However, an evaluation of their

gender mainstreaming programs in five countries, including Egypt, found that due to inconsistent implementation and low prioritization, it had not played a significant role in shaping practice in country-level practice (Ocampo & Reddy, 2007). USAID has been required to consider across all of its projects in Egypt, but an overall assessment of these projects reported that in general, the organizations implementing the projects had not taken gender into account (Lambert et al., 2010). A few Egyptian civil society organizations have introduced initiatives to mainstream gender. For example, Nazra for Feminist Studies developed projects to promote gender mainstreaming in human rights organizations and student unions in universities, and produced a manual to integrate gender mainstreaming in the electoral process (Nazra, 2010). And the New Woman Foundation worked to increase awareness of gender issues in state institutions, such as ministries of justice and interior, and pushed for restructuring according to gender needs. Overall, implementation of gender mainstreaming in Egypt has been spotty and inconsistent, and because there has been a lack of research, it is difficult to know if it has been implemented successfully or impacted gender inequality. In order to better understand how gender mainstreaming has been implemented in Egypt, to learn why it has not been employed more broadly, and to assess its potential for contributing to gender equality post-revolution, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with those who had primary responsibility for its implementation. We asked them about their views of gender mainstreaming and gender equality, how they had been implementing gender mainstreaming in Egypt, what they saw as the strengths and challenges of gender mainstreaming in Egypt, and their recommendations for future implementation. Methods Interviewees Although our interviewees worked in a variety of settings, they all held similarly high levels of responsibility for gender mainstreaming. They were either gender focal points who bore the responsibility of being the contact person for genderrelated activities in a field site (UNESCO, 2005), staff in a gender unit that was responsible for implementing gendermainstreaming projects, or gender mainstreaming consultants. All of them were Egyptian and either currently involved or recently involved with gender mainstreaming projects in Egypt. Interviewees were recruited using snowball sampling. Twenty-two people responded to e-mail and phone requests for an interview, and of those, six were either unavailable or were not specialized in gender mainstreaming, resulting in a total of 16 interviewees: 14 women and 2 men. The interviewees were currently employed at four human rights organizations, four international organizations that funded local initiatives, two governmental organizations, and a local NGO. Five consultants, who mainly worked for international and national organizations, and who were trained on gender mainstreaming in foreign countries were also included. Many of the interviewees had experience with implementing gender mainstreaming across a variety of settings, including international agencies, governmental ministries, the National Council

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of Women, human rights organizations, economic empowerment initiatives, political groups, unions, NGOs, and community-based organizations. Procedure Because of the lack of previous literature, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted, lasting from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. There were nine main questions and six follow-up questions, allowing interviewees to answer at length through probes, rephrasing, and follow-up questions. Questions covered three main areas: 1) their understanding of gender mainstreaming and gender equality in Egypt, 2) how their gender mainstreaming projects were implemented and their recommendations for future implementation, and 3) the challenges and opportunities they saw for gender mainstreaming in Egypt after the revolution. All interviews were held in Cairo. Ten interviews were held in English and six were held in Arabic. All interviewees signed a consent form saying that their names and information were confidential and that their title of their organizations would not be mentioned. Fourteen of the interviews were audio recorded, one interviewee refused the audio recording and one interview was conducted on the phone, so it was not possible to record. At the end of the interview, interviewees were given the option to receive results and recommendations and all of them expressed interest. After the interview, they were asked to recommend contacts who had worked on gender mainstreaming and who might be willing to participate in an interview. All the interviews were transcribed, and if in Arabic, fronttranslated into English; themes were extracted for each question and a codebook was created. The coding was done using inductive content analysis (Elçigil & Sarı, 2011). In this approach, themes and codes are not created in advance; this enables the researcher to find information and themes that were not anticipated. The analysis started with transcribing all of the interviews and reading the transcripts several times. Answers to the questions were highlighted, coded, and put under themes in the margin. These themes were then grouped in a code book which was divided according to the questions, and then each question was divided according to type of organization. To test for inter-rated reliability, another researcher was given several questions and an example of the codebook and was asked to code the answers for these questions. The inter-rater reliability score was 0.89. Results and discussion The results of our interviews illuminate many of the issues surrounding gender mainstreaming described by Walby (2005). Specifically, we found contested views of how to achieve gender equality using gender mainstreaming, tensions between “gender equality” and “mainstream” agendas, and challenges with implementing a global strategy in an Egyptian context. Contested views of gender mainstreaming and gender equality A key critique of gender mainstreaming has been that there is confusion about the definition of gender mainstreaming and

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that this lack of clarity has made it difficult to apply in practice (Carney, 2004; Hankivisky, 2013; Lombardo, 2005). This critique was supported by our research. When interviewees were asked how they or their organizations defined gender mainstreaming, the most common definition was having “gender within everything.” For example, one said that “you include it [gender] throughout all the stages of planning, monitoring, implementation of the project. It's a cross-cutting topic that should be considered throughout all initiatives.” Others focused more on equality, saying that gender mainstreaming meant that both genders should have the same rights or chances to contribute. As one interviewee described, gender mainstreaming “means being against gender inequity and for equal opportunities and choices . . . each [gender] should know their rights and responsibilities, and both should contribute to building up the community.” Only two interviewees said it involved policy work, describing gender mainstreaming as “policies, programs, and legislation that take into consideration gender issues.” These differing responses demonstrate that while the basic goal of gender mainstreaming, gender equality, was understood, there was no common definition. Further, no interviewees mentioned the need for assessing and understanding the implications of gender, something is fundamental to the gender mainstreaming process. Thus, the people responsible for implementing gender mainstreaming in Egypt do not share a similar view of what it involves, and have definitions of it which differ from official definitions. These diverse understandings of gender mainstreaming reflect longstanding debates about the nature of gender equality and the extent to which we accept and value gender differences (Squires, 2005; Walby, 2005). While the majority of interviewees agreed that gender equality was represented by equal opportunities and equal chances for both genders, including employment opportunities and skills development, equal rights and responsibilities, and freedom of choice, there was disagreement about what this would involve. Some interviewees emphasized the need for minimizing gender differences, for treating men and women in the same way. For example, one interviewee stated: Gender equality to me means that people don't deal with, or institutions basically don't deal with people based on their sex. It might not sound right, but I want a gender blind lens when institutions are dealing with people, I don't want to be looked at as a woman, I want to be looked at as a person. In contrast, other interviewees emphasized the need for need for recognizing gender differences and being sensitive to gender-based needs, saying that gender equality requires recognition of differing gender roles. As one interviewee said, “I believe that we are different in terms of gender but also equal. In my personal opinion, we complement each other because we are different, and this variation and diversity makes us need each other.” And, while no one specifically addressed intersectionality, many mentioned the importance of considering gender in cultural context. For example, one interviewee felt that gender mainstreaming was more likely to be a successful strategy for achieving gender equality in Egypt because it was a slow, step-by-step process, in contrast to European feminism which she described as employing “a

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shocking approach,” claiming “if you keep shouting, no one will listen to you.” While the lack of agreement about what gender mainstreaming and gender equality entails is not unique to Egypt, if gender mainstreaming is to be effective here, there may be an especially strong need for the development of a shared understanding. In Egypt, gender mainstreaming is often seen as cultural imperialism, there is a lack of political will to tackle gender issues, and political polarization has hampered collaboration between women's organizations. Under these conditions, unity among those trying to implement change is especially important. A process of “inclusive deliberation” that involves diverse social groups in a dialog on gender equality as suggested by Squires (2005) may be helpful in developing a more unified vision of gender equality and gender mainstreaming that fits the Egyptian cultural context. Such a dialog could create a bridge between policy experts, academics, civil society, and governmental organizations; supporting the integration of expertise and democratic participation (Walby, 2005). Tensions between “gender equality” and “mainstreaming” agendas Gender mainstreaming is an attempt to transform the mainstream through the incorporation of gender equality, and so inevitably evokes resistance and requires negotiation (Walby, 2005). While gender mainstreaming was established with an agenda-setting focus on women's empowerment, promotion of women's rights, and the transformation of development, in many cases, it has been integrationist, marginalizing gender so that it is seen as serving in a supporting role for larger issues such as economic growth or other development goals, such as population control (Caglar, 2013; Jahan, 1996). In addition, while a loose definition of the goals of gender equality has helped make gender mainstreaming more palatable to institutions and governments (Caglar, 2013), it has limited its transformative possibilities. Concern over these limitations was apparent in our interviews, while the majority of interviewees felt positively about gender mainstreaming's potential for moving gender equality forward, they also believed that so far it had not been very successful in doing so because it did not work in a transformative way. As one interviewee stated, “gender mainstreaming only makes sure that you are taking the right steps, you are not hurting anyone, and not forgetting anyone, it does not work on gender equality or women's empowerment.” A number of interviewees felt that gender mainstreaming could not work alone; it would only work if it was implemented along with women-specific activities and a rights-based approach. As one contended, gender mainstreaming “could be a step that we could move forward with now, but in the long run we have to have a feminist perspective.”. These comments by our interviewees support O’Neill (2004) argument that organizations need to re-adopt the women's rights approach to equality because although gender mainstreaming has provided a better analysis of the situation of both genders and the power relations between them, it has not provided much in the way of practical approaches. Similarly, the United Nations Development Program Egypt (2013) proposed that their gender equality strategy incorporate

women-specific interventions because experience had shown that a mainstreaming-only approach could lead to women's rights being marginalized. A “twin-track” approach of both gender mainstreaming and women's empowerment may be needed to ensure that structural gender inequalities are addressed and that gender remains in the forefront of social and economic change initiatives (Woodroffe & Smee, 2013). Other studies have found that the focus of gender mainstreaming efforts is more often technical rather than truly transformative (Daly, 2005; Lee-Gosselin, Briere, & Ann, 2013). Governments and agencies have added programs, supported some research, offered training, and developed tools, but they have not made the necessary legal and institutional reforms required for comprehensive change (Jahan, 1996). This was confirmed by our interviewees who reported that the most common way they implemented gender mainstreaming was through capacity building. The most common capacity building activity they engaged in was offering training and workshops on gender mainstreaming, and the next most common was conducting awareness-raising activities and seminars, and producing gender mainstreaming manuals. The heavy use of consultants to implement gender mainstreaming in Egypt is also problematic because they are unlikely to stay around long enough to sustain initiatives (Das Pradhan, 2004), and because employees are less like to be committed to change and more likely to respond passively when they see outside experts as in charge of the mainstreaming process (Lee-Gosselin et al., 2013). Public policy can only cause a change in behavior or culture if people believe it is for the greater good (Nyborg, 2003), and our study provides support for the idea that it is vital to establish political will and local buy-in for gender mainstreaming. Without a strong political will to create a consensus on, and a culture of, gender equality, the policy of gender mainstreaming will not be successful (South Africa Public Service Commission, 2006). Interviewees felt that Egypt had an advantage in having already taken steps in gender mainstreaming, having good gender experts, and support from national and international organizations. On the other hand, interviewees felt that across government, policy makers, and nonprofit organizations, gender issues were a low priority. As one stated, “There is constant political resistance, it starts from the educational system to the media and so on, it makes the process of GM harder.” Worldwide, resistance to gender mainstreaming is common, deep-seated, and entrenched in many organizations (Caglar, 2013; Lombardo & Mergaert, 2013; Parpart, 2013). Our study confirmed this, with interviewees saying that there was a lack of enforcement and management support which led to reduced effectiveness. For example, one interviewee pointed out that “the acceptance of change is very hard; the idea of looking at everything from a gender perspective is hard. [A manager] would say ‘yes, I am already employing women and that's enough.” Our interviewees felt that in order to be effective, gender mainstreaming had to be implemented appropriately with the right requirements in place, cooperation between staff, administration, and other stakeholders, and the belief that it will work; as one interviewee stated, “its 200% effective if you do it right.” Das Pradhan (2004), however, argues that gender mainstreaming is unlikely to be

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implemented appropriately in part because the team members who are responsible for it are likely to be resistant, and also because existing organizational structures and biases cause people to view gender mainstreaming a “mere add-on.”. She points out that gender mainstreaming projects are often constructed as a way for donors and recipients alike to add “a tick to the gender box,” rather than to make real change. For example, when one of the interviewees in this study was asked whether gender mainstreaming is achieving gender equality, she answered, “Not as it should be, no, but that's my personal opinion, but the people, they don't believe in what we do or what they are asked to do, so gender mainstreaming ended up actually being an activity on the side because donors or head offices wanted it.” To create real movement toward gender equality, it is vital for organizations to move beyond short-term activities and technical changes, to developing long-term gender mainstreaming plans which target resistance and sexist organizational culture (Lee-Gosselin et al., 2013). This is especially true in Egypt and other Arab Spring nations where efforts to create gender equality will have to be sustained in an uncertain political environment and a conservative culture (United Nations Development Program Egypt, 2013).

Implementation of a global strategy in an Egyptian context Although gender mainstreaming has been implemented internationally, strategies may need to be adapted to specific country contexts and even within a country, gender mainstreaming strategies may need to adapt to changing historical and political circumstances (Hankivisky, 2013). This was apparent in our interviews, as when interviewees were asked about the opportunities and challenges presented by gender mainstreaming in Egypt, two-thirds of the interviewees mentioned opportunities related to the political mobilization which accompanied the 2011 revolution. For example, one interviewee felt that political groups and parties could now be “blackmailed” into adopting a gender agenda, stating that “in the phase of political mobilization we are living in . . . you can easily blackmail people into adopting a progressive agenda toward gender (laugh), especially the groups that label themselves progressive or civic-minded.” On the other hand, over half of the interviewees also saw the political changes as challenges. There were concerns about the influence of Islamists and other conservative groups, political instability, and government resistance. As one interviewee argued, the government “is set up to deal with women as if they are complementary members of society, not a main part and contributors. The worst part is that the state is not willing to change this mind set . . . it is simply not willing to put policies forward that will help elevate the society.” While interviewees saw opportunities in the fact that, normally, taboo gender issues were now on the table and that Egypt had a strong civil society that cared about gender equality and worked even under harsh conditions and government resistance, they also felt that difficulties in the legislative process and a lack of political participation were challenges. They saw limits as to what civil society could do, as one interviewee put it, “in my long experience, civil society is unable to implement gender mainstreaming, it has to be a governmental body that is in a higher position; you have to be able to order people to do it.”

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Interviewees in our study made the point that the participation of women in the revolution created an opportunity for women's greater involvement in Egypt's political life. This involvement is crucial, as achieving political will for gender mainstreaming is difficult if women are not fully engaged in political and public decision-making process (Council of Europe, 2004). However, most approaches to peacebuilding after or during times of conflict or revolutions have either ignored or marginalized issues of gender and women (Mehra & Gupta, 2006). And as Kfir (2012) points out, national security concerns are often used as an excuse to ignore demands for gender equality and to reassert the traditional model of men protecting women. Tension between increased activism by women and reassertion of traditional gender roles can be seen in how the issue of sexual harassment has been dealt with post-revolution. When women went Tahrir Square to participate in political activism, they experienced sexual harassment and assault. Both women and men mobilized around this issue, but men's mobilization has often taken the form of protecting women rather than trying to change men's behavior or seeing it as symptomatic of a patriarchal culture (Johansson-Nogues, 2013). There has been enough of an outcry for the state to enact a law against harassment and for more police presence on the subway (again, a model of men protecting women), but it remains to be seen if this is the start of real change (Kingsley, 2014). On the other hand, this is also a rare circumstance where the state has collaborated with feminist groups to create change, and so perhaps it is an opportunity to build more political will for gender equality. In this case, gender mainstreaming may be an especially effective tactic as it includes men, does not alienate those who are resistant to a rights-based approach, and incorporates government involvement. While the revolution may prove to be an opportunity for gender equality, two-thirds of the interviewees also expressed concern about the current political instability and the negative impact it might have on gender issues. For example, during the year after the revolution, the rise of Islamists and other conservative movements called for the cancelation of policies and laws that preserved women's rights. This was reinforced by the association of previous achievements toward gender equality with the overthrown Mubarak regime. The overthrow of the Islamist regime brought a constitution more friendly to gender equality, but concerns about economic and social stability may well override concerns about gender (Hankivisky, 2013). And in either case, as one interviewee pointed out, “no one knows where we are going, because if this system comes, or this system comes, they both have bad history with civil society organizations”. It will be important in moving forward with gender mainstreaming to emphasize the connection between gender inequality and economic development (Woodroffe & Smee, 2013), and to build alliances across wider social and democratic movements (Mukhopadhyay, 2014). The challenge though will be to ensure that the fight for women's rights and gender equality does not get lost in the push for economic progress and social change. While many interviewees felt that the level of gender awareness had increased in Egypt, and saw this as an opportunity, interviewees also described challenges related to cultural traditions that made people resistant to discussing gender. Three interviewees said that because of this resistance,

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they don't use the term gender in their gender mainstreaming activities and projects; instead, they use words like youth participation or community participation. For example, one said: We had the partners training, but we didn't call it gender training because the partners won't swallow it, they become defensive . . . it was all coated with trying to enhance development efforts through the participation of men and women. [We were] trying not to make it offensive to people so they all won't be on edge from the beginning. Interviewees also felt that Egyptian women were resistant to gender equality, and lacked the necessary capacities for success. They also saw a challenge in the competition between organizations working on gender issues, and the lack of a shared vision for gender equality. In Egypt, activities of secular feminists tend to represent the worldview of the educated, upper middle class (Al-Ali, 2002; Moghadam, 2004), and gender mainstreaming is often considered cultural imperialism. Some interviewees felt that feminists working in Egypt had taken a wrong approach. As one stated: I myself am freezing all my activities and all the projects with for example [a rights organization that has a feminist background], because I disagree with them in the practice, because as I told you they work on forcing ideas on the people. I see when I go down to the people . . . I have to take it step by step with them so I can get somewhere. Interviewees also reported that what they saw as a misinterpretation of religion was a barrier to achieving change. It is important therefore, for Islamic feminists and reformists to take the lead in showing that gender equality is compatible with Islam, and for secular and Islamic feminists to continue to collaborate. For example, Islamic and secular feminists worked together to introduce a new Islamic marriage contract, to campaign against female genital mutilation, and to oppose a law which exonerated rapists who married their victims (Moghadam, 2004). There is a need to start establishing, through coalitions and women's networks, a shared vision of gender equality and gender mainstreaming that fits the Egyptian culture. The challenge of such a project will be to balance conservative cultural traditions with real movement toward gender equality. One way to strike this balance between cultural traditions and movement toward gender equity in Egypt may be to involve men. Men have largely been missing from discussions of gender in development and gender mainstreaming, but their inclusion has the potential to contribute to the creation of real change (Chant, 2000; Cornwall, 2000). Many of the interviewees in our study made the point that it was important to include men in gender mainstreaming. For example, one said, You can't just work with women, men are crucial to be able to change the whole community and prepare it for women's empowerment. Let me give you an example, in an education project we were working on, an accessible school for girls, we were working in an area where there are few schools and they are far away. Boys go to school but because they don't have enough capacity, not everyone goes to school. When we built these schools and there was enough capacity for girls, families realized that now the girls get to go to

schools and their sons won't, so they refused to send the girls to school, so we had to make the schools, instead of 100% girls, 80% girls and 20% boys. So you see here, if we didn't work with the men, we wouldn't have empowered the girls; you have to empower their “superiors” to be able to empower them. To empower women you have to prepare the community because empowerment means you're taking power from someone, you have to let them know how this de-powerment [sic] will benefit them. This example illustrates a number of reasons for including men and boys in gender mainstreaming initiatives. First, gender development can be jeopardized by the exclusion of men (Chant, 2000). In this case, families refused to send their daughters to school because boys were being excluded from this education project. Second, gender is complicated by other aspects of difference, such as class (Cornwall, 2000). The problem here was not only that girls were not being allowed to attend school; it was also that there were not enough schools to meet the community's needs. Third, issues of human rights should include men as well as women (Chant, 2000). Here, providing education for girls while not ensuring boys also had access is unjust. And fourth, it is vital to engage men as allies in gender mainstreaming (Cornwall, 2000). As our interviewee pointed out, you have to empower men in order to empower women. The inclusion of men may be especially important in Egypt as a way to lower resistance to gender mainstreaming, but Caglar (2013) argues that such an approach may limit its potential to transform gender relations as it contributes to a tendency to integrate women into current oppressive systems rather than create real change. It may make sense, however, to see gender mainstreaming as a process which sometimes reproduces inequality and sometimes contributes to equality, in what Davids, Van Driel, and Parren (2013) call a “slow revolution.” As Parpart (2013, 392) reminds us, “gender transformation requires flexibility, patience and determination.” Under the current conditions of political and economic instability, traditional culture, and resistance to changing gender roles, this may be a more realistic approach to assessing the potential for gender mainstreaming to create gender equality in Egypt. Conclusion The results of this study provide support for the idea that gender mainstreaming has a role to play in the national reconstruction process in post-revolutionary Egypt and other Arab Spring nations. However, it will not be effective without the appropriate environment. As Jahan (1996) points out, a shift to an agenda-setting approach in gender mainstreaming will require building a wide base of support, clearly articulating objectives, prioritizing strategies, and focusing institutional attention on gender equality and women's empowerment. Political will, cultural support, and accountability are essential. Advocacy with the new Egyptian government must take place to build political buy-in and to ensure comprehensive implementation. Awareness-raising and training should be continued, but it should not stop there; long-term implementation plans which actively involve all stakeholders must be developed. While gender mainstreaming helps fill a gap that has

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been ignored by previous approaches, it cannot work alone. Feminist and women's rights approaches are needed to complement gender mainstreaming, as they focus on areas that gender mainstreaming might ignore. In addition, there is a need to reach consensus on the definition and the goal of gender mainstreaming, adopt a culturally sensitive model, and involve men in the process. Progress toward gender equality in Egypt and in the region is likely to be slow and painful, and gender mainstreaming has not yet realized its promise, but we remain hopeful about its potential for contributing to positive, transformative change. Endnotes 1 2

Farah Gamal Shash is currently at El Nadeem Center. Carie L. Forden is on leave from Clarion University.

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