GSD3DAW Analysis: Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Strategy, focusing on its objectives, implementation, and impact. The paper examines the policy through the lens of Carol Bacchi's "What's the Problem Represented to Be?" (WPR) framework, addressing key questions about problem representation, underlying assumptions, and potential effects. It explores the strategy's effectiveness in promoting gender equality and women's empowerment, considering its impact on various population groups and evaluating its strengths and weaknesses. The analysis delves into the policy's context, including its alignment with international frameworks and the challenges encountered in the Indo-Pacific region. The report also evaluates the policy's feasibility, cost, and ethical considerations, offering recommendations for positive change and improvement. The report is structured to address specific questions from the assignment brief, including the 5-E approach, and provides a detailed assessment of the policy's overall effectiveness and potential for future success.

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Introduction:
This paper focuses on The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Strategy, which
is an Australian policy that applies among all work undertaken by the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (DFAT). This policy has been launched in the year 2014, June, as an
Australian’s Aid Policy establishing the equality of gender and women empowerment as a
progressive developmental priority (Angoro 2018). This strategy outlines the effort of the
Government on strengthening the women of the society as well as providing equality across
genders by concreting the ability of engagement in the field of policy dialogue within the region
and beyond and indorsing the international reputation, and working with foreign policy,
development and economic diplomacy in order to take solid steps promoting equality among
gender and women empowerment as central interest in terms of encouraging sustainable
economic growth and poverty reduction in our region (Holmes 2019). The strategy
acknowledges the structures and systems which can play an important part in exacerbating
discriminatory practices. The government of Australia is committed to pursue gender equality
outcomes amongst the international agenda, which has occurred under the appointment of
Natasha Stott Despoja AM as Australia’s second Women and Girl’s Ambassador to provide all
women a powerful voice. In the year 2015, this policy shed light on the Gender Equality Fund
enlightened the emphasis that Australia is expected to implement on gender equality and
empowerment of women in the aid program (Phillip 2015). According to that the women should
get equal opportunity as men, under this the shifting of the norms will occur along with legal
frameworks and other policies regarding equality of gender. The changes in this field of DFAT
needs a commitment from leaders.

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In the ground of gender equality and women empowerment, Australia has been settled as
an international leader. This particular strategy provides guidance in accordance with the
involvement of gender equality in programming, in policy engagement within the department
(George 2019). Its gives Australia the opportunity to share its approach and gathers international
evidence and experience, which has been informed by feedbacks and approaches from members
of the Parliament of Australia and partners, like, multilateral and regional bodies and other
governments along with leading non-governmental organisations (Patel et al. 2014). This
strategy considers the gender as a relation of power, therefore working on such an account aims
on addressing unequal norms of gender that obliges women and men along with intersexual and
transgender people. This is a global issue which is relevant not just in terms of Australia but to
the economic, welfare, foreign and social policies of all other countries (Kushandajani 2019).
The concept of gender equality is centrally about equal rights, opportunities, responsibilities for
both men and women, boys and girls. The issue of gender inequality is a consequence of the
unequal distribution of power between women and men, which worsened by the discrimination,
laws weakness, institutions social relations and policies which results in normalising the
inequality. The international community has documented the vitality of supporting this policy
through the Convention of the Elimination of All Types of Discrimination Against Women, the
Platform of Beijing for Action, the Sustainable Development of 2030 agenda, the Millennium
Development Goals, and in regional, multilateral, policy fora alongside the Group of Twenty.
Besides all this still the condition of women have not been changed and the traces of equality
among men and women cannot be seen (Harris et al. 2016).
The greatest challenge in the field of gender equality alongside women empowerment are
among the Indo-Pacific region (Masud et al. 2016). Research states that over the past decades of

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experiencing the demonstrations the gender equality is correlated and reinforced with the
economic growth, the developmental factor, and it runs in two directions, firstly, gender equality
and women empowerment contribute to development, growth, and stability:
 If the participation in the employment along with the wage gap have been removed than
the women of the society will be able to increase their income up to 76%, which has been
calculated as an outcome of global value in the form of $17 trillion.
 Women who have greater education have healthier and more qualified children, which
decreases the dependency burdens.
 Violence against women damages a societies core value which will be prevented by the
implementation of this policy or strategy.
Secondly, developmental growth, economic development, and globalisation provides the
opportunities in terms of decreasing the inequality among men and women, however some
factor that matters are the kind of growth, the policy setting of a country, political will and
the nature of the economy.
This policy reflects the concentration on the women empowerment and the gender
equality in DFAT’s Strategic Framework between the years 2015 to 2019 and the
development policy of the government, Australian Aid: reducing poverty, promoting
prosperity, enhancing stability, and framework of performance; Making Performance Count:
effectiveness of the Australian Aid and the encouragement of the accountability (Wallbrecher
et al. 2014).
There are three priority guides that work on gender equality, which are mutual reinforced
and inter-connected and imply among various contexts are:

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 Encouraging women’s economic empowerment
 Encouraging women’s voice in the field of decision making, peace building and
leadership context
 Terminating the inequality and violence against the girls and women of the society
Theoretical Framework for Policy Analysis by Carol Bacchi’s WPR:
Emeritus Professor Carol Bacchi has designed the policy analysis tool WPR, which
concentrates on the disrupting and examining of the construction of problems of policy. This
particular analysis tool provides a substitute tool to the traditional method of problem solving
strategy analysis approach. This tool has enough potential for social science based and
educational research. Bacchi is originally from the country Canada, he researched in the field of
political theory based on feminism for many years in the Adelaide University and got retired in
the year 2009 (Verdurmen et al. 2015). She wrote three books explaining her “What’s the
Problem Represented to Be?” as in WPR approach, Post-structural Policy Analysis and Women,
Policy and Politics and short summary on Engaging with Carol Bacchi. The ideas regarding the
WPR approach are:
 Each strategy or policy pursues the ability to solve a specific problem or issue.
 The policy shows the issue that need to be solved in a particular manner.
 The choice this demonstration advantages some groups and does the opposite to other
groups.
The approaches to WPR settles within an acute paradigm, as it refuses to endorse these
representation problems in account and take it for granted. Instead it asks various
questions effecting these representations problems and who privileges from these effects.
Bacchi states that the questioning of the problem representation or demonstration is

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different from the problem solving approach in terms various other conventional policy
analysis (Verdurmen et al. 2017).
Question 1: What is the problem represented to be in a specific policy or policies?
Answer:
The specific concentration of the policy and its problem lies in gender proofing
and gender impact assessment. The problem that is present in the chosen policy, which is
the ‘Gender Inequality and Women Empowerment’ is that, besides of having various
implementation of laws and strategies globally including Australia, which is known to be
the lead regarding the integration of such policies in this field, still the condition of
women and their rights in every sector is not up to the mark. The struggle among women
regarding their safety and opportunities in comparison of men in all aspects of the society
is still a big issue all across the world which should be mitigated (Fanghanel et al. 2014).
Question 2: What deep-seated presuppositions or assumptions (conceptual logics)
underlie this representation of the “problem” (problem representation)?
Answer:
Integration of the subordination of women states the characterisation of social
relations. This focuses on the method policy of the acronym WPR. The condition of
women in the society is not how it should be, and the struggle in terms of women is much
higher in comparison to men, and inequality among genders can be seen traced
everywhere across the globe, the aim of this strategy is to empower the women of the
society and to give them the opportunity that they can stand strong in a parallel level to
all men. The central fields regarding this policy is going to focus on are employment

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ground, where the opportunity for women are much lesser and most vitally the wage
pattern of the women is not acceptable in any manner. Also regarding the safety of the
women is a huge concern because whether it is a girl or a women there is always a chance
of violence that they might have to suffer because of the society pattern which is violated
itself (De Silva et al. 2018).
Question 3: How has this representation of the “problem” come about?
Answer:
The problem that is kept in account in the making and implementing of this policy
is regarding the system of society where the condition of women is a matter of tension
which is happened to be found globally, in order to prevent more risks regarding the
violence that has been happening to the women in every aspect of the society, the policy
has been made but even after integrating so much of effort and planning the condition
does not seem to be improving that much, it cannot be said that dispute is only in the
policy matter because the policy comprises solid notions which are fully relevant to
regarding the improvement of the condition of the society and further the condition of the
women (Swesi et al. 2017).
Question 4: What is left unproblematic in this problem representation? Where are
the silences? Can the “problem” be conceptualized differently?
Answer:
The policies underlying propositions about policies are productive. The problem of the
policies do not stay there outside in the society to be solved by itself rather with the help of time
and interventions. The problem has aroused mainly because of the rigid society system and that

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the policy is not been implemented and merged into the society system neither it was followed
thoroughly. Taking in account the focus of the policy under the WPR tool the which assures the
liability and guaranteed solution of the policy it can be considered that the policy followed the
laws and rules totally in favour of the women empowerment but the problem is clearly regarding
the global condition of women and also the third gender of the society (Liyanga et al. 2017).
Question 5: What effects (discursive, subjectification, lived) are produced by this
representation of the “problem”?
Answer:
The policies do not simply deals with the problem of gender inequality, rather the
policies forms different impressions regarding the fact that what the problem of the
gender inequality entails, as the work of the WPR. While the policies are considered as
the initiatives of the gender equality, therefore it becomes important to focus on just the
meaning that are attached to this defined term of gender equality. An approach to analysis
of policy assists in the task. It is quite useful on the other side to think that the policies as
classing and always taking in account the vital matters of recognising the incomplete
nature of these processes (Liyange et al. 2015).
Question 6: How and where has this representation of the “problem” been
produced, disseminated and defended? How has it been and/or how can it be
disrupted and replaced?
Answer:
There are many other policies that plans for tax regimes and encourages women,
girls, and transgender people rights and opportunities. The ideas of the policy

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productivity and the constitutive on the other side also means attending to the ways in
which the policies, with the help of their representation of the problem, reinforced and
produced category of people, involving the both men and women. The notion has been
developed that the policies are gendering and the reflection of the proposition. The
policies as discursive processes, patterns and practices in terms of opening up in certain
subject positions regarding the individuals resist and or either adopt the solution, the
effecting interaction which are interpersonal in nature and having the meaning which are
attached to those interactions are totally in the verge of constitutive in terms of gender
relations and interlinking factor and of specific sorts of social being such as men and
women (Swesi et al. 2017).
Effects:
Effectiveness: What effects does the policy have on the targeted problem?
Answer:
The policy of the gender inequality and women empowerment regarding the problem that
the women are facing in every aspect of the society is implemented in order to mitigate the issues
although hard to completely overcome the problems.
Unintended effects: What are the unintended effects of this policy?
Answer:
The policy is moderately effective in terms of mitigating the gender issues that lies within
the society although there are some unintended effects like it has aggrevated other groups of the
society.

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Equity: What are the effects of this policy on different population groups?
Answer:
In other population groups effect varies, some of the people are in favour of this policy
rules and some are simply against it, which is an obstruction is the process.
Implementation:
Cost: What is the financial cost of this policy?
Answer:
The financial cost or budget estimate of the policy is near about, 55$ million.
Feasibility: Is the policy technically feasible?
Answer:
Around 11.6m girls and women of the society has been benefitted with the accessibility
of the new improvised infrastructure due to the support of the policy.
Acceptability: Do the relevant policy stakeholders view the policy as acceptable?
Answer:
Yes it is acceptable as its implementation is showing results, however it is moderate and
will take time to change the entire societies thought process.
Approach:
Effectiveness: How well does it work?
Answer:
It works moderately in terms of providing women and other gender the position and
opportunity it requires in order in order to be equal in the society, however the situation has not
changed entirely which will take time.

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Efficiency: How much work does, or will it entail?
Are there significant costs associated with this solution, and are they worth it?
Answer:
Taking in consideration what the policy is intended to do to the targeted problem for
which it is implemented, it is evident that there are positive impacts of the policy on the women
and other gender of the society, also it does requires moderate budget estimate associated with
the solution which is worth it.
Ethical consideration: Is it ethically and morally sound?
Are there unintended consequences?
Answer:
There are unintended consequences that the policy has to face which similar to any policy
case, as some people will be its supporter and some will simply remain against it, however
considering what the policy is intended to do in order to improve the condition of women in the
society it is clearly morally and ethically sound, equality is everyone’s right.
Evaluations of alternatives: How good is it compared to other approaches?
Have all the relevant other approaches been considered?
Answer:
In comparison with other approaches this policy rules under WPR is considerable enough
because of the positive changes that it has shown on the condition of women, and relevant as to
this field.
Establishment of recommendations for positive change: What can actually be
implemented?

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Is it better to amend, replace, remove, or add a policy?
Answer:
According to the important reports the motive should have been to contribute more under
this implementation, policies like foreign policy, developmental program, economic diplomacy
which will led to drive the gender equality and women empowerment to a great extent.
Conclusion, Evaluation and Recommendation:
Hence, in conclusion, in order to address these priorities the explicit funding investments
are considered within the investments. The human resource program provides the development
to promote equal employment among women and men and the investments in economic and
trade sectors can integrate a zero tolerance regarding the violence that occurs on women
employees. The evaluation of discursive way of thinking that reinforces particular categories and
produces various patterns of social organisation assists in order to work through the some of the
obligations and practices and blockages in theorising caused concentrating on the categories,
which validates the recommendation of the policy.