Everyone can contribute to more equality between genders and people in general, regardless of one’s gender, age, skin tone, social class and other aspects. Everyone can do that from their current place in society. But people who are near the top of social hierarchies often know very little about all the big & small trouble & pain experienced by people closer to the bottom. An example: Most of the time, people don’t stare at men’s breasts – they stare at women’s breasts. Therefore, few men know what everyday sexual harrassment feels like.
Do people with privilege need to be shaken up to perceive inequality, or do they need to be taken by their hand? I wonder. An illustration follows.
Participation was a hotly debated topic at a recent conference on feminist evaluation. Several contributors stressed the importance of involving intended beneficiaries in all stages of an evaluation. For example, they should have a say in developing the evaluation questions. At that point of the discussion, the tall man next to me asked, „won’t it be a too random if local women decided about the evaluation questions?“ A blonde woman standing at the opposite end of the room immediately shouted across, „as a white old man, you have nothing to say on that subject!“
The man’s face reddened. He shut up. He had been a rather quiet participant before. But in the subsequent workshop, he started talking more. Also, he observed everyone’s behaviour very closely, rebuking a woman who spoke before her turn. His tone was rougher than before.
Still, I don’t know what the labelling as a ‚white old man‘ has done to his thinking about participation of ‚local women‘. I’ll have to ask when I meet him again.