ABSTRACT
Bureaucracies pose a particularly problematic challenge to feminist analyses in their tendency to value hierarchy, centralized authority, control over resources and knowledge, and neutrality while formally eschewing what is seen as the messiness of politics. Some feminists have argued that by their very nature, bureaucracies are antithetical to feminist concerns and incompatible with feminist goals (Ferguson, 1984; Small, 1990). Others have seen the potential for a 'gendered bureaucratic subversion' (Alvarez, 1990, p. 40) in transforming bureaucracies and the administrative state. International organizations (IOs) are, of course, a peculiar kind of bureaucratic organization. They are answerable to no one state and instead negotiate between many masters-a situation that allows a certain freedom often denied to national organizations (see Bartlett, Kurian and Malik, 1995). IOs are, thus, often independent actors who influence the agendas and shape the policies that emerge in the international arena. Yet, the demands posed by the nature of environmental politics and policy and by the international women's movements call into question the traditional roles and activities of IOs, forcing them to revise their agendas in their attempt to maintain their legitimacy in the international arena. The World Bank, the largest international developmental organization, has responded
with varying degrees of commitment and success to the changing mandates. Indeed, although often portrayed as a monster on the loose by environmentalists and environmental organizations (see, for example, Schwartzman, 1986; Rich, 1994a), the Bank is a complex institution not easily open to simple dismissal.
