What tasks did you perform during your internship?
– I was an intern in Save the Children's international department, working with the Gender and Equality Advisor. My main task during the internship period was to map the equality work in Save the Children's new Norad programme, "Transforming The Future - For and With Children", for the period 2024-2028. The program covers 12 countries, and contains projects on, among other things, education, child protection, sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR). My task was to review all the countries' results frameworks and program plans, where I searched for measures on both "gender mainstreaming" as well as more concrete equality measures. The topics in these measures could be about SRHR, child marriage, teenage pregnancies, sexual and gender-based violence, LGBTIQ+, men and masculinities and more. Here I designed a mapping where all data was organized and presented in tables. In addition, I identified weaknesses and challenges in this work, as well as made a summary with trends and patterns in the program.
Other tasks included contributing to an 8 March event, writing internal online matters in connection with Women's Day, as well as reading and writing summaries of the equality work in final reports from the previous Norad programme. I also got to participate in a number of departmental meetings, professional lunches and other relevant meetings.
How did you use skills you have acquired from your education at the Faculty of Humanities?
– The internship has made me aware that my way of working, especially analyzing problems, seeing things from different perspectives and asking questions, is inspired by the studies and texts I have read and written in recent semesters. The analytical competence I have gained through the master's in Gender Studies has proven to be very useful for solving various problems in a practical context, and also valuable for me personally.
What do you think is or was the greatest benefit from your internship?
– Since I got to work specifically as a gender and equality intern, my professional background in gender studies became particularly useful. I have had several different subjects that have given me relevant expertise on gender as a topic, and this became very relevant in relation to Save the Children's equality work.
As the mapping task I did meant that I had to identify to a large extent myself which measures were aimed at gender and equality and assess how these were relevant, the knowledge I brought with me from the study was very valuable. It also meant that I could participate in professional discussions and meetings and contribute with a gender perspective in conversations about other more 'general' challenges related to children's safety and rights. It therefore felt necessary to have the prior knowledge I have gained through studying Gender Studies.
Anything else you would like to add?
– My internship took place over the span of 3 months, full-time. Before I accepted this position, I was unsure of the workload especially since I also had to start my thesis. So, my advice would be to really weigh the odds and decide what is more worth it in the long run and what opportunities you don’t think you can pass on. Besides that, my advice is to go all in! I had the opportunity to take part in a lot of different events (film screenings, literature events, concerts, exhibition openings…) and I tried to do as much as I could, which really paid off. I learned and experienced a lot and met some very nice and interesting people along the way!
Martine Stigen Dreier
Study program:
Gender Studies
Internship course:
KFL4910 – Arbeidspraksis for Gender Studies
Internship placement spring 2024:
Save The Children Norway (www.reddbarna.no)