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TIMMER, ANDRIA D. and ELIZABETH WIRTZ, 2022, Gender, Power, and Non- 
Governance: Is Female to Male as NGO is to State? New York: Berghahn Books, 298 pp., ISBN 
978-1-80073-460-9  
 
Keywords: NGOs, States, gender binaries, power relations, queering  
 
Timmer and Wirtz’ Gender, Power, and Non-Governance consists of case studies into the 
gendered dichotomy of the feminized NGO and the masculinized State and how this binary is 
reaffirmed, strengthened, and challenged. Using Sherry Ortner’s female/male nature/culture 
analogy to orient the book, Timmer and Wirtz successfully introduce how the patriarchal State 
occupies power and policies that are “dominated by, centered around, and defined by men or 
masculine ideologies” (11). Alternately NGOs are feminized due to the nature of work they 
provide (healthcare, education, feminist issues, etc.) and largely women populate the employees, 
volunteers, and beneficiaries of NGO aid. In their Introduction, Timmer and Wirtz both highlight 
the complexities, nuance, and intricacies of this male/female divide and discuss localized 
engagement with these topics in three carefully crafted sections. 
 
The first section engages the “Patterns of Reproduction,” where even attempts to break out of 
binaries or work outside of them does nothing to change or unsettle the power structures and 
hierarchy of gender in NGOs (29). In Chapter 1, Alexandra Crampton unsettles the dichotomy by 
explaining how the NGO becomes male and the state becomes female through gerontological 
interventions. Because NGOs have had to advocate and frame aging as a social problem for the 
State, Crampton shows that NGOs often have to push the state to assume care and responsibility 
for populations. Because elder care is historically feminized Crampton asserts that the 
masculinized State is often resistant to taking up the issue thus the need for NGO advocacy. In 
Chapter 2, Christopher Loy explains that with the Ainu, an indigenous group in Japan, NGOs 
were carrying out the function of the state by pushing the assimilation of the Ainu. 
Simultaneously, NGOs were also pushing against assimilation, employing the international 
Indigenous framework, highlighting that opposites may exist in NGO advocacy. This duality is 
due to the current political and legal leanings of governments, thus for the success of NGOs and 
the populations they serve NGOs must engage meaningfully with the current social climate. 
Lastly, Amanda J. Reinke shows in Chapter 3 the ways in which an NGO in the processes of 
United States Alternative Justice movements previously pushed more feminized practices based 
on flexibility, empathy, and care. Yet, in a more business-focused, action-based shift, they are 
taking on more masculine qualities like updating ID cards, conducting background checks, and 
working through paperwork. Thus, through the work, the NGO aligns more closely with the legal 
system and bureaucratizing qualitative data. In doing so, NGOs collude with the State for 
economic benefit thereby becoming reliant on their support, but seemingly also aiming to 
undermine State control in marginalized communities. Ultimately, all three chapters in this 



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section highlight that while trying to complicate the gender binary of State/NGO, organizations 
often unintentionally play into these categories. 
 
The second section, “Care Work as Feminized Work,” highlights the feminized workforce of 
NGOs. In Chapter 4, Tess Altman, and in Chapter 5, Smita Mishra Panda and Annapurna Devi 
Pandey, explore how the devaluation of women’s labor has now opened a political alternative for 
women to critically engage with NGO work and advocacy. Andria D. Timmer in Chapter 6 
explains that love as an intervention is an actionable way to complete work when there are policy 
and money constraints due to neoliberalism. Yet often, this act of love is a form of emotional 
labor and is feminized, placing the care on the NGO “mother” (151). Closing out the section, 
Yang Zhan in Chapter 7 discusses how the Chinese government has created the ideal communist 
soldier which has now been gendered and transformed into feminizing NGO workers and 
volunteers. Specifically focusing on the feminization of NGO work through the lens of 
“nurturance” this section highlights just how deeply confined NGO work may be when gendered. 
Often it is relegated to more “acceptable” feminine work including aid, poverty alleviation, and 
relief. By discussing the feminization of work and limiting factors for NGOs in this section, it is 
evident that Ortner’s framework of State/NGO Male/Female impacts the reception of NGO work 
around the world.  
 
In the last section of the book, the authors work to queer the dichotomy. Binaries are only 
productive to an extent, and by blurring the State/NGO, Male/Female the authors are able to 
show localized queer realities while highlighting that nongovernmentality is still devalued and 
less powerful than its government counterpart. Mark Schuller begins this queering in Chapter 8, 
discussing the “drag” the Haitian state puts on to assume NGO features while still acting as the 
State. While it did not give up the masculine government, it did instead bend to donors for aid in 
rebuilding efforts post-hurricane. In Chapter 9, Alejandra Wundram Pimentel highlights in 
Guatemala how trans individuals bolster their identities to grant them services and recognition by 
the State when their citizenry is denied. Similarly in Chapter 10, while advocating for queer 
political action Tamar Shirnian discusses that by working outside of NGO structures, a queer 
collective in Armenia was able to do more transformative work than its similar NGO counterpart 
which instead had to work within the system. Concluding queering with a discussion of the 
liminality that stateless forcibly displaced people, Elizabeth Wirtz discusses the hierarchies of 
power that complicate queering. While queering may occur, because hegemonic boundaries only 
controlled by States are maintained, it requires an entire restructuring of the heteropatriarchy we 
all live under.  
 
This text provides a wonderful addition to the literature on humanitarian interventions and NGOs 
and how gender may be engaged within this context. Each chapter provides a fruitful discussion 
of contextual and localized NGO and State inter/in-action. Through accessible language and 
approach, the book is suited for a large audience of NGO workers, volunteers, and academics of 
all levels alike. Yet, when considering NGO workers and volunteers as well as applied 
anthropologists the one drawback of the book is that it exists as a snapshot. It highlights a 
singular moment of engagement with literature, theory, and case studies. It does not provide 
actionable ways that we may disentangle the heteronormative State with feminized NGO work. It 
is instead up to the singular authors to call action or the reader to create avenues in their mind of 
how they can effect change. Despite this, I believe that through these strong chapters, readers 



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across all different disciplines may see their own work within the pages, understanding how they 
might dismantle our gendered governing processes.  
 
Gender, Power, and Non-Governance is a gripping read that highlights the intricacies of NGO 
work and the engagement within and outside gender binaries. The book may inspire NGO 
workers and volunteers as well as anthropologists to engage with the gendered structures of 
government, and non-governance alike, around them. By understanding the State/NGO 
Male/Female framework and its queered realities, we may see more examples in the future of 
work within, outside, and differently from the State/NGO realities of today.  
 
Emily Selby Smith is a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at Syracuse University. 
Her research investigates gendered recovery, memory, and humanitarian representation of 
survivors of genocide and mass violence. Her master’s research at the University of Memphis 
engaged with an American NGO’s gendered representation of the populations they serve and 
what they perceive as the role of their NGO in genocide assistance. 
 

© 2024 Emily Selby Smith 

 


