Maendeleo ya Wanawake: The Politicization and Co-Optation of a Women's Development Organization
Abstract
On December 31, 1994, I arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, to begin a
three month internship with Kenya's largest women's development
agency, Maendeleo ya Wanawake. I sought to view first-hand the power of women's mobilization to create structures for their benefit.
My goals for the internship included gaining an understanding of the
ideology of women's progress from the viewpoint of women involved
in the process, noting the actualization of such ideology within
organizational structures, and seeing the implementation of programs
and policies aimed . at furthering women's aspirations.
The most powerful understanding I gained during my time
with Maendeleo was an awareness of the numerous difficulties
involved in balancing ideology and reality and the complexities
surrounding women and their work for greater recognition. On the
one hand, women have had to fight against the collapse of their
specific needs within a rhetoric of "the good of society." On the other
hand, women have seen themselves partnered to almost every
"relevant" issue from "women and children" and "women and energy"
to "women and the environment", as if the discussion of one is
inherent to the other, and as if they had a greater responsibility to
these issues which involve everyone, women and men. Women's
efforts to improve personal and community environments, in
connection with the corresponding increase in their visibility, have
led to the politicization of women's issues and the co-optation of
women's establishments. The history and present struggles within
Maendeleo ya Wanawake provide examples of outside intrusion into
an organization created for and by women, and the ramifications of
such intrusion.