The Movement for Gender Equity has come of age. During that period, there have definitely been advances not just in the thinking that informs the Movement but the practice that has accompanied this thinking.

In the early days of the Movement, a part of the conventional wisdom was that numbers constituted a critical variable in women being able to exert collective influence on governance and decision-making. The concept of the critical mass was a point of political action . Counting was a measure of the achievement of gender equity and the programme for action was to get more ….

The question is: Has this been achieved, and, where it has, what difference has this made?
In any event have the demands and structures for governance and decision-making changed? If so, what are the implications for the involvement of women and for gender equity?

This presentation will explore this theme and will attempt to demonstrate that the new paradigms of governance , leadership and decision-making present specific challenges to previous assumptions.