Sisyphus' Sisters: Can Gender Mainstreaming Escape the Genderedness of Organizations?

Abstract

Currently, gender mainstreaming is presented as bringing new élan to gender equality policies. Gender mainstreaming is a gender equality strategy that aims to transform organizational processes and practices by eliminating gender biases in existing routines, involving the regular actors in this transformation process. In this article, we question the aspirations of gender mainstreaming. Can gender mainstreaming escape the genderedness of organizations; can it genuinely effect change, or does it inevitably become compromised? Our analysis of a case project within Human Resource Management in the Ministry of the Flemish Community in Belgium shows that gender mainstreaming does indeed bring about changes, but that it does not break down the genderedness of organizations substantially. While gender mainstreaming invokes an image of cooperation between equal parties that pursue a dual agenda of business needs and feminist goals, our analysis shows that crucial power differences between those parties determine the outcome. The complex social dynamics of gender mainstreaming entail compromises in the context of these power differences, which seriously hinder the transformative and innovative potential of gender mainstreaming.

Keywords:

• Gender mainstreaming
• equality policy
• personnel management
• participatory research
• Belgium

Notes

¹ Sisyphus is a character in Greek mythology who was punished by the Gods and condemned to push a heavy rock up a mountain daily only for it to roll back down at the end of the day. Hence, the expression Sisyphus' labor refers to repetitive, hard work that does not lead anywhere.

² The classical argument for difference reads that women differ from men essentially and that a revaluation of feminine values, life experiences and/or characteristics is called for. A central debate in gender studies focuses on universalism and particularism, the first referring to the commonalities of women as women claiming that there are universal problems shared by all women; the latter stating that differences among women are crucial and hence attention for the particularities in context is needed.

³ This section discusses the case organization providing more contextual information on the Ministry of the Flemish Community and its decision to commission this project. The next section discusses the specifics of Gender Balance as a combined research and intervention project. An overview of the design of the project in six phases has been provided in table 1. This section is deliberately kept descriptive to avoid confusion between design and analysis of the project.

⁴ A SWOT analysis combines an internal examination of Strengths and Weaknesses of a program or organization with an examination of Opportunities and Threats in the external environment (Jackson et al., 2003).