Gender Analysis and Social Change: Testing the Water

This paper uses preliminary findings from an ARC-funded Linkage grant to speculateon the requirements for producing gender analysis as a change process. Genderanalysis, commonly associated with gender mainstreaming, is a methodology aimedat ensuring that all projects, programs and policies are gender-inclusive and gendersensitive.In the Linkage study existing models of gender analysis taken from Canadaand The Netherlands are being tested for their usefulness in selected agencies inSouth Australia and Western Australia. The goal is to design gender analysis processesappropriate to specific Australian contexts. This paper reflects on the challenges andobstacles encountered in the project to date. It focuses in particular on the importanceof creating space for extended debate and discussion of the concepts andissues relevant to gender equality and social change. The authors describe this spaceas "somewhere in the middle".