Shadowing Practice: Gender mainstreaming: what does it take to build a gender responsive organization? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Those of us working for peacebuilding organizations and missions know

that the promotion of equality between men and women should form a core part of our business.

But where do we start?

And how can we guarantee that we have an organization that makes gender equality an obvious part of its mandate?

Gender mainstreaming means to systematically work with a gender perspective at all levels

and allows us to identify inequalities and to adjust our work accordingly.

This way, the needs and experiences of women and men become an integral component of the design,

implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programs in all political,

economical, and social fields so that both women and men can benefit and inequalities are not perpetuated.

This perspective tends to be applied only through separate projects and depends on personal commitments.

Based on global best practices and extensive experience of supporting international organizations, FBA rather recommends the activation of an institutional machinery

that can support the systematic use of a gender perspective throughout an organization's work.

Adopting the concept of bureaucratic gender mainstreaming is one means of reaching this objective.

Why do we talk about bureaucracy?

The concept reminds us

that gender mainstreaming should ideally be a commitment from the leadership to use the organization's dynamics

and daily operations to promote equality between men and women.

It is a process of change, carried out in small steps, which must be owned and led by the top leadership and middle line managers,

supported strategically by gender advisors and focal points, and implemented by all staff.

In other words, a functional bureaucracy that will underpin its effective application and make it impossible to avoid.

Let's see which are the key components of the concept.

Sustaining gender mainstreaming is best done through a top -down process with strong organizational commitment and leadership accountability.

When it comes to gender mainstreaming and the use of a gender perspective, The role of the leadership is to do what they always should do,

communicate direction, create an enabling environment, and hold the organization accountable through regular follow -up.

This systematization will make sure that gender mainstreaming doesn't remain on the margins.

Leaders and managers must be aware of what a gender perspective means,

both for the organization's mandate and in terms of their own role in implementing it.

And they should make use of the strategic support from the gender advisors.

It is important to have a full -time gender advisor who can guide decision -making and the implementation process.

Additionally, this function would support the development of ongoing training programs at all levels of the organization,

as well as effective strategies and tools that can be implemented in the organization's daily routines.

As for the gender focal points, generally under the guidance of the gender advisor,

we speak of a network of people from all units of the organization

that provide regular input to each of the work areas they belong to, so that a gender perspective is applied throughout the organization's work.

A person in this role must possess good knowledge of the thematic area he or she belongs to,

as well as good communication and collaboration skills to effectively support their colleagues

and have a positive impact on the work processes of their team.

All of us in the organization have the responsibility to implement this perspective in our daily tasks.

However, we are not expecting everyone in the organization to be a gender equality expert,

but rather to systematically ask ourselves a few extra questions as part of our regular tasks to make sure

we can identify hidden gender inequalities and then make the necessary adjustments.

Bureaucratic gender mainstreaming.

Organizational commitment and leadership accountability.

Strategic Support Functions.

Keep it realistic.

Make it doable for all staff.

What is your perception of these components in your organization?

Are we ready to advance in our ability to be gender responsive in the midst of our larger peace -building mission?

Are we still lacking some of these components?

FBA can support us with establishing them.

We will discover how to move into action in the second part of this video.

Thank you.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Gender mainstreaming: what does it take to build a gender responsive organization?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: gender, organization, mainstreaming, perspective, leadership. This video has 52 sentences and 692 words to shadow. The speech runs for 4:29. The speaker talks at a natural 154 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
mainstream adjective	/ˈmeɪn.stɹiːm/	Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc.
commitment noun	/kəˈmɪtmənt/	The act of sending a legislative bill to committee for review.
component noun	/kəmˈpoʊ.nənt/	A smaller, self-contained part of a larger entity. Often refers to a manufactured object that is part of a larger device.
equality noun	/ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/	The fact of being equal.
implement verb	/ˈɪmpləmənt/	To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.
advisor noun	/ædˈvaɪ.zə(ɹ)/	One who offers advice.
inequality noun	/ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/	A condition or state (of social, cultural, or legal matters) that is not equal; especially, such a condition that is thereby also unfair.
strategic adjective	/stɹəˈti.dʒɪk/	Of or pertaining to strategy.
belong verb	/bɪˈlɒŋ/	To have its proper place.
implementation noun	/ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/	The process of moving an idea from concept to reality. In business, engineering and other fields, implementation refers to the building process rather than the…
mandate noun	/ˈmændeɪ̯t/	An official or authoritative command; an order or injunction; a commission; a judicial precept; an authorization.
accountability noun	/əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/	The state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account or give an explanation; liability to be held responsible or answerable for…
organizational adjective	/ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/	Of, relating to, or produced by an organization.
focal adjective	/ˈfoʊ.kl̩/	Belonging to, concerning, or located at a focus (definite location).
bureaucracy noun	/bjʊˈɹɑ.kɹə.si/	Government by bureaus or their administrators or officers.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
follow up verb	To take further actions remaining after an event; to continue, revisit, or persist; especially, to maintain communication or verify.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Why do we talk about bureaucracy?
What is your perception of these components in your organization?
Are we still lacking some of these components?

Pronunciation to watch

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/, establish /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/, collaboration /kəˌlæbəˈɹeɪʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: equality /ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/, inequality /ˌɪn.ɪˈkwɑ.lɪ.ti/, implementation /ˌɪmplɪmənˈteɪʃən/, accountability /əˌkaʊn.təˈbɪl.ə.ti/, organizational /ˌɔː(ɹ)ɡənɪˈzeɪʃənəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like mainstream, commitment, component.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Gender mainstreaming: what does it take to build a gender responsive organization? - Learn English Speaking with Video

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