KIs represented different disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. occupational health, labour economics, social policy, gender and development), held positions at different levels (from junior positions to senior management) and performed different roles (e.g. technical specialists; partnerships, policy and research roles).
Mona C Backhans has an MSc in Sociology and is currently a PhD student in Social Medicine at Karolinska Institutet with a focus on gender policy, gender equality and health.
Her research studies the social impact of macroeconomic policies, gender issues and financial services for the poor in developing countries.
However, when simply added on as an after-thought or singled out as flagship policies, gender-based initiatives are less likely to have a positive and sustained impact.
Today, one in three women around the world are victims of physical or sexual violence; discrimination against women persists through laws and policies, gender-based stereotypes, social norms, and practices; women around the world earn 24% less than men for the same work; and women constitute only 22% of the world's parliamentarians.
Currently millions of insurance policies take gender into account.
"A couple of years ago, it would have been difficult to say the government had a clear policy of gender quality," says Estella Amador, regional director for Pro Mujer, a Central American NGO promoting gender equality.
Lucie Faucherre, junior policy analyst, Gender Equality and Women's Rights OECD, Paris, France, @luciefaucherre Lucie supports the work of GenderNet, the only international forum where gender experts from the donor agencies and foreign ministries meet to define common approaches.
Without a policy on gender, or quotas, this is unlikely to change organically at any reasonable rate.
There's no policy towards gender, body type, sexual orientation or disability, although the majority of their 1,300-odd 1,300-oddors seem to be healthy, young and white.
Part of the reason for this is that the one-child policy created gender equality in urban areas.
