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Reynolds, Kretzer Chun, and Bronkema, Gender Mainstreaming and … 37 

 

Gender Mainstreaming and Christian Relief, 

Development, and Advocacy Organizations: 

Introduction  
 

Amy Reynolds, Joanna Kretzer Chun, and David Bronkema  
 

 
 

Introduction 
This special issue of the Christian Relief, 

Development, and Advocacy journal is focused on 

bringing to the forefront and tackling a major issue that 

exists in evangelical organizations affiliated with the 

Accord network and beyond: the lack of the full 

inclusion of women in the theologies, cultures, 

practices, and leadership of Christian organizations. For 

organizations, like those in Accord, who are committed 

to restoring shalom, pursuing right relationships, and 

empowering those around them, this lack of inclusion 

hinders their mission. 

The articles in this issue come from a variety of 

scholars and practitioners, some based at Accord 

organizations and others connected with NGOs inside 

and outside the United States. In some ways, these 

articles are the product of years of conversation in the 

faith-based development sector as a whole. For 

example, a report by the World Humanitarian Summit 

(Boan 2016) highlights the need for faith-based 

academic institutions to more rigorously engage in 

research with development groups, especially around 

macro-level development issues. We see research and 

conversations around gender mainstreaming as one 

such effort. Indeed, motivated by this charge, a group 

of Christian development practitioners and scholars 

came together around this topic in 2018, leading to the 

formation of the Wheaton Network Initiative on 

Gender, Development, and Christianity. This group 

collaboratively launched the first round of the 

Principles for Gender Equality in Development 

Organizations (2019) [www.wheaton.edu/gender]. 

These working principles are intended for Christ-

centered development agencies and are included 

directly following this introduction (6-8).  

The co-editors of this special issue are aware that 

naming gender inequality and calling for increased 

gender mainstreaming may immediately rub some in 

the evangelical sector the wrong way, because of the 

association of this topic and those terms and words with 

a liberal perspective. This topic has become even more 

 

 controversial as this issue goes to publication in March 

2025, because of the very strong political pressure to 

move back from intentional efforts to create more 

inclusive environments.  In fact, one of the six articles 

that was to be featured in this special issue, a case study 

on gender mainstreaming in an evangelical 

organization, had to be pulled because of current 

political realities. 

Yet relegating certain key issues to the domain of 

those deemed to be more progressive, and washing 

one’s hands of them as part of that process, is a poor 

and spiritually dangerous excuse for not engaging and 

thus avoiding scriptural and prayerful testing of the 

arguments in this important conversation. In other 

words, simply dismissing concerns about gender 

equality and other issues of inclusion within our 

evangelical organizations as arising from inherently 

suspicious and threatening viewpoints may limit the 

work of and quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 

5:19-22). Therefore, we hope and pray that all who read 

through the articles of this issue, including this 

introduction, will approach this topic prayerfully, 

humbly, and with openness to the leading of the Spirit; 

as co-editors of this issue, we have tried to do the same. 

To this end, and in this context, it is important to 

provide clarity on how the term “gender” is being used 

and focused on in this special issue, since different 

people mean and perceive different things when they 

use or see this term. When we use the word gender, we 

are not talking primarily about issues of gender identity 

or sexuality. Rather, we use this term to be able to talk 

about how perceptions and expectations around roles, 

attributes, and capacities of males and females vary 

greatly between countries and cultures where most of 

our organizations do our work, and because framing 

women’s equality as gender inequality helps us 

acknowledge that these gender roles are culturally 

shaped.  Gender as a term also acknowledges that the 

experiences of both women and men must be 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 6(2), Winter 2025  

Reynolds, Kretzer Chun, and Bronkema, Gender Mainstreaming and … 38 

considered when we discuss equality and justice for 

women.  

Our prayerful hope is that this special issue will 

both challenge and encourage everyone in Christian 

relief, development, and advocacy organizations who 

seek to be faithful in pursuing the call to gender equality 

and gender mainstreaming in their institutions, and we 

have assembled this set of articles to try to achieve that 

goal.  In what follows, we provide what we hope will be 

helpful background to them, first briefly exploring the 

concept of gender mainstreaming in development and 

discussing the central role of theology in informing such 

efforts. We then describe how and why this special 

issue as a whole came about and why we believe this 

topic to be so important for Christian relief, 

development, and advocacy efforts. Finally, we 

summarize the key themes of each of the articles that 

follow. 

 

Development as a Gendered Issue  

and Gender Mainstreaming  
Within the international development sector, 

gender inequality is recognized as a central concern that 

impacts the well-being of communities. Although the 

topic of women’s marginalization has been discussed in 

many development conversations over the last 50 years, 

the focus on organizational structures and more 

systemic issues became more important in the last 

several decades. 

As discussed partially in Reynold’s article in this 

issue reporting on the demographics of Accord 

organizations, there have been different movements in 

the development space as regards gender equality. Early 

on, in the 1970s, specific questions arose around how 

women were faring in development, and the Women in 

Development (WID) paradigm gained prominence. It 

focused attention on the well-being of women in 

development efforts, given the fact that most of the 

world’s poor were women, and that women were often 

not given equal access to development resources 

(Tinker 2004). WID was replaced in the 1990s by the 

Gender and Development (GAD) paradigm, which 

shifted attention to the systems (such as policies, market 

dynamics, and cultural understandings) that shaped 

gender relationships and ideas. Instead of considering 

particular challenges faced by women in development 

projects carried out within an unquestioned system, the 

focus was turned to the systems that created these 

conditions (Tinker 2004).  

Gender mainstreaming is related to this latter 

approach. Gender mainstreaming as a term was 

popularized in the late 1980s, but its roots lie in the 

broader history of international development, rights 

movements, and organizational change. Gender 

mainstreaming is an approach that suggests that all areas 

that impact women and men—legislation, policies, or 

programs, in all areas and at all levels—must consider 

the concerns and experiences of both women and men 

so that both benefit and inequality is not perpetuated 

(Beijing 1995). In practice, the idea of gender 

mainstreaming presents gender equality not as a 

separate agenda for women alone, but as a central 

organizational aspiration to be integrated into all shared 

efforts by women and men.  First proposed at the Third 

Conference on Women in 1985, and formally featured 

at the Fourth Conference on Women in Beijing in 

1995, it built on key milestones, such as the First World 

Conference of the International Women’s Year 

convened by the United Nations in Mexico City in 1975 

and the UN General Assembly's proclamation of 1976-

1985 as the United Nations Decade for Women.  

Gender mainstreaming is thus a long-standing 

approach, recognized and emphasized by NGOs, 

governments, and agencies worldwide, that seeks to 

address gender disparities and promote gender equality 

in every facet of organizational and societal life. Over 

these last thirty years, it has been both lauded as having 

led to significant improvements as well as critiqued for 

how it has been implemented and for not having done 

enough (see, for example, Moser and Moser 2005, 

Tiessen 2007, Meier and Celis, 2011, Keleher 2013, 

Milward et al. 2015, and Kotze et al. 2021). As with all 

ideas, paradigms, and movements, it is crucial to subject 

them to the testing of Scripture and the Spirit; to that 

end, as we have interacted with gender mainstreaming 

over the years and come together to share our 

organizational experiences, we have become convinced 

that unless we address underlying theological 

perspectives and practices, any efforts around diversity 

will stall.  What makes the articles in this issue so truly 

powerful is that they do just that; they build upon the 

principles of gender mainstreaming, add the theological 

component, and direct this integrated offering toward 

our Christ-centered organizations. 

This offering is needed more than ever in this 

present moment. Although evangelical Christian 

organizations represent a significant segment of the 

relief and development sector, they do not make up a 

significant percentage of those engaged in the gender 

mainstreaming conversations, at either the national or 

international level.  This may be in large part because 

of a polarization that appears to exist between the 

“secularized” international development sector and the 

religious sector out of which these evangelical sectors 

were birthed, leading the latter to shy away from that 

kind of engagement.  This chasm has been the subject 

of commentary by scholars, in particular Marshall 

(2010) who notes that the “secular” development sector 

sees religion as having a mostly negative impact on 

women’s agency, whereas religious actors often believe 

that common development models undermine the 

family and religious values. Still, she notes that these 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 6(2), Winter 2025  

Reynolds, Kretzer Chun, and Bronkema, Gender Mainstreaming and … 39 

actors often share an emphasis on dignity and have 

some similar programs.  

Whether or not this is a significant driving force 

behind the lack of engagement by evangelical Christian 

relief, development, and advocacy organizations with 

gender mainstreaming issues, it is also the case that 

there is a dearth of adequate research around the 

intersection of gender, faith, and development. Some 

groups studying religion, like the Joint Learning 

Initiative on Faith and Local Communities, stand out 

for their research focus on a number of issues around 

faith-based development, including research on gender 

based and sexual violence. Further, a volume on 

Gender, Faith, and Development (Tomalin 2011), 

delves into a number of case studies around how 

religious actors engage with gender in development 

programs and efforts. But these are more exceptions 

than the norm in research on religious efforts around 

gender equality. In the current context it is even more 

vital to help those working in evangelical relief, 

development, and advocacy organizations understand 

the importance of prayerfully considering how they 

might be called to engage with their own gender 

mainstreaming issues. This special issue of CRDA is an 

attempt to do that, as well as to remedy the gap in the 

research itself. 

 

Theology and Commitments  

to Gender Equality 
Given these gaps in the development literature on 

both the secular and faith-based side, it is not surprising 

that there has been a lack of adequate research on how 

theology shapes the gendered work of development 

organizations. Three elements came to the fore along 

those lines as we began our work on this special issue. 

First, in the literature that does exist, religious 

communities are either often viewed as playing the role 

of merely pushing back on real feminist goals (Marshall 

2010), or as inappropriate communities to critically 

assess and critique (Tomalin 2011). Those involved in 

gender and development work tend to view religious 

ideologies and assumptions as being a negative factor, 

or they tend to leave them unexamined in relationship 

to that work.  This is despite the fact that there are good 

examples of organizations that use theology and biblical 

texts as foundations for seeking transformation of 

harmful gender norms in programming, including those 

mentioned below and in the articles that follow. In 

short, how religion shapes the ideologies and 

assumptions around gender in Christian relief, 

development, and advocacy organizations as well as 

among the people they serve, whether through current 

ideas or the continued importance of historical ideas (as 

highlighted in Jones and Odhiambo contribution on 

patriarchy), is understudied by the research 

community.  

Second, one crucial area that has been 

underserved in the scholarly and practitioner attention 

in this field has been the implications of religion for 

women’s representation in Christian development 

organizations. Many Christian organizations lack clear 

and transparent statements about women in leadership 

and gender equality; in fact, senior leaders of many 

Christian nonprofits disagree on what the official 

theological views of their organizations are regarding 

gender equitable relationships and women in 

leadership. Reynolds explored this confusion in her 

original work back in 2014 that considered the broader 

constellation of Christian nonprofits. Part of this 

confusion likely stems from the fact that a majority of 

Accord members have ecumenical identities (Offutt 

and Reynolds 2019) and may bring together groups with 

dissimilar ideas around gender;  this also points to the 

crucial fact that an examination and clear enunciation 

of theology is a necessary first step for Christian 

organizations in implementing gender equality and 

inclusion efforts (Birmingham and Simard 2022, 

Reynolds and Curry 2017). This is something that 

appears still to be missing, as shown by Reynolds’s 

updated study in this issue. 

This is not to say that all Christian development 

organizations have failed to examine or are not 

currently probing these questions about the role of their 

faith when it comes to gendered realities. For example, 

World Vision has been involved in asking these 

questions for several decades (Tripp 1999); Catholic 

Relief Services (CRS) has pioneered a couples 

strengthening approach known as “The Faithful 

House” with a strong set of tools for facilitators (CRS 

2009; Brewster-Lee 2011). As highlighted by Deepan 

and Blake (2025), Tearfund has a long list of resources 

and programming around issues of Christian theology 

and gender. Others in the Accord community, although 

a minority, could be mentioned as well, and we hope 

more examples can and will be shared in subsequent 

issues of the journal. But in general, the evangelical 

Christian development sector lacks this deep 

theological reflection, something Smith’s contribution 

(2025) alludes to when he analyzes how attention to 

Scripture and gender in development theologies often 

engages with gender only superficially. 

Third, we find that theologies in general have 

gendered implications even when gender is not the 

focus. The article in this issue by Lee, for example, 

highlights the way that theological language around 

rescue, and the process (including the who) of 

theologizing in anti-trafficking work has had negative 

unintended impacts for many marginalized women. 

While Lee focuses on anti-trafficking, she brings up 

broader questions for organizations involved in the 

work of women’s empowerment. 



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 6(2), Winter 2025  

Reynolds, Kretzer Chun, and Bronkema, Gender Mainstreaming and … 40 

In summary, while the enduring problem of 

gender inequality is an issue for the development sector 

as a whole, this problem is even more entrenched and 

significant for evangelical Christian international 

development organizations. Few of these organizations 

have robust gender equity or inclusion efforts or are 

actively pursuing gender mainstreaming, and as 

highlighted in Reynolds’ contribution to this issue, 

women’s representation in leadership of Christian 

organizations falls short of what we see in the sector 

more broadly, meaning that men are largely leading the 

work of organizations in the Accord Network. 

Moreover, there seems to be a tendency for many male 

leaders to see gender inequality as a women’s issue. 

Deepan and Blake’s article here stands out as an 

example of a male leader rejecting this narrative.  

 

Conclusion 
As signaled by the various articles in this collection, 

good resources exist that point toward ways to institute 

gender mainstreaming. We especially emphasize the 

“Principles for Gender Equality in Development 

Organizations” mentioned above and published 

following this introduction. Drawing on a history of past 

sources, most recently the Gender Practitioners 

Collaborative (2017), these principles are specifically 

aimed at Christian organizations and were created by 

the Wheaton Network Initiative for Gender, 

Development, and Christianity. They start by 

emphasizing the shared commitment to shalom (#1), 

before delving into five specific principles related to 

gender mainstreaming efforts—clear theological 

commitments (#2), measurement and accountability 

(#3), resourced intentionality (#4), appropriate HR 

policies/protocols (#5), and gender inclusive 

programming (#6).  

The articles in this issue embody these principles. 

Reynolds starts off the issue by providing a quantitative 

overview of the gendered leadership realities in Accord 

organizations, which highlights the lagging presence of 

women at all leadership levels. The second article, the 

original case study of how an organization implemented 

these principles, unfortunately had to be pulled just 

before this issue went to press, as noted above. This 

special issue moves then to theological concerns that 

underpin the topic of gender mainstreaming in critical 

way: first Jones and Odhiambo discuss the historical 

embeddedness of patriarchy and its impacts for 

Christians, and then Smith provides different 

approaches organizations might find helpful in doing a 

deep dive into the Old Testament and God’s heart for 

gender justice. To round things out theologically, Lee, 

while not focused solely on biblical studies or 

theologies, provides a helpful call to expand the 

Christian theological voices that development 

organizations consult and that shape our approaches to 

justice.  

This issue concludes with a testimonial by Deepan, 

one of the central architects of Tearfund’s 

Transforming Masculinities curriculum, co-written with 

Blake, who draws on the insights of those around 

Deepan. In sharing his personal and ongoing journey 

toward being an ally to women around issues of gender 

inequality, he invites male allies to engage more deeply 

in this work. We hope this concluding article reminds 

all Christian organizations of the ongoing, never-

finished work of Christian individuals and organizations 

in learning, listening, and pursuing shalom in this world, 

especially around matters of gender. We hope and pray 

too that the ideas, resources, and underlying theologies 

will help Christian organizations and leaders think 

further about what new directions championing gender 

equality might look like in their organizations, and what 

useful tools might help us all along the way.  

 

References 
 

Boan, David, ed. 2016. The Role of Faith-Based 

Academic Institution in Sustainable  

Development: Recommendations from Wheaton 

Regional Meeting. 

Birmingham, Beth, and Eeva Sallinen Simard. 2022. 

Creating Cultures of Belonging: Cultivating 

Organizations where Women and Men Thrive. 

Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press. 

Brewster-Lee, Dorothy. 2011. The Faithful House: 

Core Module Manual and Fertility Awareness 

Methods. Baltimore: Catholic Relief Services in 

collaboration with Maternal Life Uganda. 

https://www.crs.org/sites/default/files/tools-

research/the-faithful-house_0.pdf  

Catholic Relief Services. 2009. The Faithful House: 

Training of Facilitators Manual. Catholic Relief 

Services in collaboration with Maternal Life 

Uganda and Maternal Life International. 

https://www.crs.org/sites/default/files/tools-

research/faithful-house-training-of-facilitators-

manual-secular_0.pdf  

Curry, Janel, and Amy Reynolds. 2016. “Missional 

Effectiveness: Achieving Institutional Goals and 

Mission,” Report for the Women in Leadership 

National Study. Gordon College. 

Eyben, Rosalind, and Laura Turquet. 2013. Feminists 

in Development Organizations: Change from the 

Margins. Warwickshire: Practical Action 

Publishing.  

Freeman, Dena. 2018. “From Christians Doing 

Development to Doing Christian Development:  

The Changing Role of Religion in the International 

Work of Tearfund.” Development in Practice 28 

(2): 280–291. 

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Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 6(2), Winter 2025  

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Gender Practitioners Collaborative. 2017. Minimum 

Standards for Mainstreaming Gender Equality. 

Available at https://genderstandards.org/. 

Accessed October 2024. 

Keleher, Helen. 2013. “Policy Scorecard for Gender 

Mainstreaming: Gender Equity in Health Policy.” 

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public 

Health 37 (2): 111–117. 

Kotze, Shelley, Ana Blazheva, and Mirek Dymitrow. 

2021. “Ticking Boxes and Clocking in: A Critical 

View of Gender Mainstreaming in Labour-Market 

Integration.” Norwegian Journal of Geography 75 

(3): 171–186. Full article: Ticking boxes and 

clocking in: A critical view of gender 

mainstreaming in labour-market integration  

Marshall, Katherine. 2010. “Development, Religion, 

and Women’s Roles in Contemporary  Societies.” 

The Review of Faith and International Affairs 8 

(4): 33–40. 

Meier, Petra, and Karen Celis. 2011. “Sowing the 

Seeds of Its Own Failure: Implementing the 

Concept of Gender Mainstreaming.” Social 

Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & 

Society 18 (4): 469–489. 

https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxr020  

Moser, Caroline, and Annalise Moser. 2005. “Gender 

Mainstreaming since Beijing: A Review of Success 

and Limitations in International Institutions.” 

Gender and Development 13 (2): 11–22. 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/20053145  

Milward, Kirsty, Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, and Franz 

F. Wong. 2015. "Gender Mainstreaming 

Critiques: Signposts or Dead Ends?" IDS Bulletin 

46 (4): 75–81. https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-

5436.12160.  

Offutt, Stephen, and Amy Reynolds. 2019. “Christian 

Ideas of Development: Understanding the 

Current Theories, Networks, and Priorities of 

Accord Organizations.” Christian Relief, 

Development, and Advocacy 1 (1): 1–14. 

Reynolds, Amy. 2014. “Gender Dynamics in 

Evangelical Institutions: Women and Men 

Leading in Higher Education and the Nonprofit 

Sector.” Report for the Women in Leadership 

National Study. Gordon College. 

Reynolds, Amy, and Janel Curry. 2017. “Best 

Practices for Attracting, Promoting, and Retaining 

Female Leadership in Christian Organizations.” 

Report for the Women in Leadership National 

Study. Gordon College. 

Tiessen, Rebecca. 2007. Everywhere/Nowhere: 

Gender Mainstreaming in Development 

Agencies. West Hartford: Kumarian Press. 

Tinker, Irene. 2004. “Challenging Wisdom, 

Challenging Policies: The Women in 

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Tripp, Linda. 1999. “Gender and Development from 

a Christian Perspective: Experience from World 

Vision.” Gender and Development 7 (1): 62–68. 

Tomalin, Emma, ed. 2011. Gender, Faith, and 

Development. Warwickshire: Practical Action 

Publishing.  
 

 

Amy Reynolds is an associate professor of sociology at 

Wheaton College, where she specializes in economic 

globalization, religion, and gender.  
 

Author email: Amy.Reynolds@wheaton.edu  

 

Joanna Kretzer Chun has over twenty years of 

international development experience. She is 

passionate about seeing women and men fully live into 

their gifts and callings. Joanna holds master’s degrees 

in Intercultural Studies and Family Studies from Fuller 

Seminary. 

 

Author email: Joanna.kretzer@gmail.com 

 

David Bronkema is a professor at Eastern University 

in the Organizational Leadership program and an 

editor of this journal. He worked in the field of 

international development for thirteen years and 

enjoys the continuing process of working with and 

learning from colleagues. 

 

Author email: dbronkem@eastern.edu  
  

 

 
 

https://genderstandards.org/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00291951.2021.1929453
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00291951.2021.1929453
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00291951.2021.1929453
https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxr020
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20053145
https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-5436.12160
https://doi.org/10.1111/1759-5436.12160
mailto:Amy.Reynolds@wheaton.edu
mailto:Joanna.kretzer@gmail.com
mailto:dbronkem@eastern.edu

