Background

In spite of facing several hardships and meeting needs of domestic responsibilities, women have simultaneously designed and discovered solutions to address people’s need through their creativity and imagination. For generations they have adopted and discovered innovative methods to deliver meaning to innate phenomena, very often relating to everyday life. For instance, they are aware of the exact quantity of curd (starter culture for yoghurt) required to convert milk into curd. They examine the temperature and create favourable conditions by keeping the mixture at a place which is neither warm nor cold.

As traditional knowledge is passed on to women from generation to generation they learn to develop a "theory of practice" around them. This helps the womenfolk minimise work pressures and cope with life stresses and shocks.

Thus, they are known to be the "scientists at home." From experimenting with cooking to trouble-shooting, they have demonstrated expertise in dealing with issues with utmost strength and courage. They constantly analyse life situations, find alternative strategies and multi-task and emerge as a benchmark to have an eye for innovation.

This article by and large, would attempt to introduce the concept of women and innovation and Gender and Innovation Knowledge Platform and its role in knowledge creation.

Women and Innovation

It is now widely accepted that women innovate at several levels – individual, group and community. However, their efforts are seldom appreciated. The countries worldwide, especially India, are deeply ingrained with patriarchal norms that have conveniently sidelined women’s work with minor recognition. It has not only failed to acknowledge experimental ‘instinct’ of women but have also opted measures to keep it under cover. There are several reasons as to why it has failed to attract people’s attention, important among them being:

Women often work towards addressing day-to-day needs pertaining to not just themselves, but others too. Their experiments do not attract attention of those who believe in the positivist school of thought that primarily focuses on quantity and mass production. People who are sensitive to the qualitative side of an innovation, and its efficiency to meet the basic needs of the people, can appreciate women’s efforts in this field.

Sujatha Byravan, Senior Fellow at Centre for Development Finance, has highlighted key reasons for women’s absence in the arena of innovation. She explains that, "it is mainly to do with the way innovation is evaluated; who is asking the question and of whom; whether women innovators are acknowledged… It is a fact that in most places women’s knowledge and contributions are not valued or validated."

She also highlights some critical concerns of women innovators - "Spatial mobility, choice of business and family support are the three main difficulties for women entrepreneurs during start-up. However, once they enter the growth phase of the business, there arises yet another three-fold challenge for most women - acceptance of their authority, networking and trust building, and credibility with their employees, customers and suppliers."

Need for Gender and Innovation Knowledge Communication Platform (GIKCP)

The seed of gender and innovation was sown in the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) workshop organised in January, 2010 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. It was during the sessions that practitioners felt a need to create a platform to share knowledge and dialogue on varied experiments, experiences and innovations of women across eight partner countries.

Development Alternatives along with seven partners, in collaboration with IDRC, is creating a web-portal on Gender and Innovation which aims to disseminate knowledge and network with organisations working on innovation and women.

Partners from eight different countries play a key role in the creation and functioning of the web-portal. In association with them, DA will tap innovative work implemented by women across member countries. In addition to this, we will provide links to courses, funding, fellowships and blogs centred on women and innovation.

Under the larger theme of gender and innovation, the vision of the web-portal is to capture innovations initiated and implemented by women. It aspires to create a platform that can be a hub to share, discuss, and engage in dialogue and eventually open doors for creativity of women amateurs.

The Gender and Innovation Knowledge web-portal will showcase stories of a new idea being put into practice, profile of innovators, and links to the organisations and individuals committed to work in the given field.

We will draw learning from rich experience of partners, information available on the portal and from various other sources to create a theory of knowledge.

One of the key components of the GIKCP is to develop a theory of knowledge around gender and innovation. As the topic is gaining attention only now, it lacks a theory that can channelise the dynamism of theorisation and empirical work around it.

DA, in collaboration with partners and IDRC, has decided to use gender lens to view innovation differently. The area of innovation, which was earlier considered to be a domain of men, has started to provide a platform for women to come up with ideas, discuss, experiment and engage to create a theory of knowledge.

Byravan defines innovation in the specific context of knowledge generation of, access to and utilisation of it and, the progressive economic and social changes that go with it. She further says, "Research should develop a new set of indices to measure innovation and understand its role in development. Innovation needs to be redefined through the lens of context and gender. Studies should express the value of women’s contributions so that they can enter the national accounts in terms of GDP. Research should support women’s rights by funding the collection of national data on women’s contributions to the national labour force, and support the analysis of this information and identify how it could be used to formulate policies that would enhance women’s economic security."

As we discussed above that women hold a central role in the area of innovation mainly because of two reasons: a) women form nearly half the population of the world, and b) tapping women’s innovation is relevant as for centuries we have missed out on documenting their significant initiatives.

In this context, the gender and innovation knowledge platform plays an essential role in sharing and disseminating a tangible database to capture and mark women’s role in innovation. Along with the collaboration of partners it will provide immense opportunity to share experiences and best practices from one corner of the world to the other. It will be a bridge to exchange information exploring the possibility of replicating best practices in a given context.

The plateform aspires to create awareness and eventually reach out to the grassroots through practitioners where innovations are taking place. In the longer run, the platform is dreamt of becoming an important tool in motivating women to think critically about their situations and surroundings and hereafter bringing a qualitative difference to their lives. q