ABSTRACT
The research explored in this chapter investigates how youth programmes recreate gender hierarchies among youth through utilising gender-neutral strategies towards youth equality, and their focus on the individual instead of the collective. This research utilised a qualitative research methodology, in which interviews were conducted with youth leaders and workers. The main findings focused on how programmes with gender-neutral policies led to the reproduction of gender hierarchies among young people. Such policies avoid binaries of gender as the public/private but, at the same time, young women’s available choices were impacted negatively by the gender equality approaches utilised by organisations. This led to the reproduction of traditional roles. Young women’s engagement was negatively impacted by Patriarchy not only within group dynamics, but also as a result of family restrictions on young women, which organisations tended to ignore. Empowerment of young women was positively impacted by the presence of other female role models in the group and by the collective ability to accomplish goals.Building young women’s engagement and resistance to colonisation, expands the space available for young women to engage, and reflects positively on their agency.
