When gender is not enough - Intersectional perspectives on hierarchies in aid relationships

Roth, Silke (2025) When gender is not enough - Intersectional perspectives on hierarchies in aid relationships. In, Egger, Clara (ed.) Hierarchies and exclusion in humanitarianism. Manchester. Manchester University Press, p. 168.

Abstract

For a long time, research on gender and development, peacekeeping, and humanitarianism focused on beneficiaries and less attention has been paid to gender dynamics within aid organisations. This chapter examines international Western humanitarian organisations as gendered organisations which is reflected in the representation of men and women in leadership positions, gendered leadership styles, a gendered division of labour, and the performance of gender. Furthermore, international Western aid organisations are racialised organisations in which not only male dominance, but also whiteness stays unmarked. Moreover, aid work tends to be a middle-class profession. Therefore, an intersectional perspective is needed to account for power and privilege in Aidland. Like third sector organisations in the Global North, international Western aid organisations offer (white) women more career opportunities than other sectors of the labour market. In addition, both men and women involved in aid work are based in masculinised settings and perform feminised care work. This means that Aidland is a context in which gender is “done”, “undone” and “redone”. This chapter draws on biographical interviews with men and women who worked for a range of different international Western organisations involved humanitarian assistances in a broad sense (i.e., including development cooperation and human rights work in post-conflict or post-disaster settings).

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Author: Silke Roth

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