What happens when an Oxford professor puts out a top-ten list of development thinkers, and almost everyone on the list is a man?
Nothing, usually, because we're used to it.
But back in early January, something different happened.
After King’s College London lecturer Alice Evans called Stefan Dercon's list of top development thinkers a "sausagefest" on Twitter, she received an outpouring of support and sparked a conversation about how development organizations—many of whom name gender equality and women's empowerment as core goals—can get better at putting their own values into practice.
Evans recently visited CGD to continue that conversation at an event called Practicing What We Preach, which you can check out in this video. She also stopped by the CGD Podcast to chat with CGD senior fellow Cindy Huang about how social change happens, the consequences of male bias for developing countries, and some big takeaways for development experts.
One of the key things to work on, Evans says, is overcoming our fears about speaking up when something is wrong: "What we all need to do is to publicly speak out, and then we'll see that other people will support us. And that will galvanize further change, leading to a positive feedback loop. So we have to be bold here."
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Disclaimer
CGD blog posts reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise.
CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions.
