Reflections on the uneven development of gender mainstreaming in Europe

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming was endorsed as the official policy approach to gender equality in the European Union and its member states in the Amsterdam Treaty (1997). New member states have been obliged to adopt a gender mainstreaming approach as a condition of joining the EU. However, despite this endorsement, there remains considerable confusion as to what gender mainstreaming is and there has been uneven development in the adoption of gender mainstreaming tools. This article seeks to contribute to the debate by identifying three principles that appear to underlie gender mainstreaming in Europe – treating the individual as a whole person; democracy; and justice, fairness and equity. It then draws on the experience of a number of European countries to identify where tools associated with each set of principles have been introduced. These include gender-disaggregated statistics, gender budgeting and ‘visioning’. The article illustrates how there appear to be very few examples of a gender mainstreaming approach where promoting gender equality is the main policy goal (agenda setting). More often, gender mainstreaming is used as a means of delivering on or is subsumed under another policy (integration). Despite these weaknesses in practice, the article concludes that gender mainstreaming has significant potential as a transformative strategy.

Keywords:

• gender mainstreaming
• equality
• Europe
• UK
• equal treatment
• positive action

Notes

1. This article draws upon ten years' experience as an expert adviser to the European Commission on gender mainstreaming, in particular on education, training and labour market policies, and on science policies. I have also worked with accession countries to the EU (Malta and Cyprus) and the National Assembly for Wales on promoting gender equality, and been involved with a review of the Northern Ireland Equality Duty (Chaney and Rees 2004). From 1996 to 2002, I was the Equal Opportunities Commissioner for Wales and am now a member of the UK Government's Steering Group for the proposed Commission for Equality and Human Rights. While I draw on these experiences, the views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of any of these organisations.

2. The origin of gender mainstreaming as a concept is contested: some commentators identify development projects in the third world as the origin but the term appears to have come into common usage following the United Nations World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995.

3. According to the EC, mainstreaming involves: ‘mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality by actively and openly taking into account at the planning stage their possible effects on the respective situations of men and women (the gender perspective)’ (CEC 1996)

4. The Council of Europe definition is: ‘Gender mainstreaming is the (re) organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making’ (Council of Europe 1998: 19).