Rethinking the portrait of southern women in the heat of the fourth feminist wave. The case of Oxfam Intermón

Abstract

Development NGOs (NGDOs) have adopted communication guidelines to improve the image they offer about the citizens of southern countries, paying specific attention to women. However, various investigations have shown that these entities have not managed to transcend neither the victimized and dependent image that they have used to represent them, nor the gender roles traditionally associated with the female population. On its behalf, the fourth feminist wave has raised new debates and questions that invite NGDOs to rethink the way they treat female figures in their messages. For this reason, this study proposes a new analysis to record any possible changes in the portrait of southern women outlined by these organizations before and after the most recent feminist emergence. Oxfam Intermón, a distinctive organization in the sector, has been taken as a reference and its magazines, published in the periods 2015-2016 and 2018-2019, have been chosen for a more detailed review. Three variables are studied: the presence of individual female figures, the roles assigned to them and their use as information sources. The results show that the presence of female figures is recurrent in the texts analysed. However, the traditional gender roles have not been broken. The potential of southern women as sources is also wasted, since their statements are generally limited to confirming the existence of the adversities indicated by the NGDO and to highlighting the benefits of the interventions they have received.