Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy for achieving gender equity through bringing a gender perspective and the goal of gender equality to all activities, policies and programs.  As a process, gender mainstreaming involves assessing all organizational activities in terms of their potential gender impacts and integrating the consideration of men and women’s needs and concerns into any planned course of action. 

As the term suggests, gender mainstreaming seeks to bring considerations of gender from the margins to the centre of policy and program design and implementation across all levels and areas.  Gender mainstreaming is a systematic, embedded approach to gender equity which has evolved from earlier approaches that limited considerations of gender equity to separate ‘women’s activities’, often as an afterthought to major policy initiatives.  This does not mean that targeted gender initiatives to address areas of inequality or specific priorities for women and men are not needed.  Rather, gender mainstreaming complements targeted initiatives by ensuring that they do not become one-off or isolated activities, but are sustained and supported by a comprehensive institutional framework approach to gender equity. 

At an international level, gender mainstreaming was established as an intergovernmental mandate following the 1995 UN International Conference on Women and the adoption of the ‘Beijing Platform for Action for women’s advancement.  Gender mainstreaming as a strategy to promote gender equality as a development goal was re-affirmed in the follow-up UN General Assembly special session held five years later in June 2000.  Member states have begun adopting gender mainstreaming in consensus as a global strategy for promoting gender equity and implementing gender mainstreaming across a wide range of national policy areas and institutions.

A number of non-government aid agencies have also embarked on gender mainstreaming, both in terms of internal organizational processes and the delivery of their programs.  For an organization, gender mainstreaming usually commences with a gender ‘audit’ to assess the level of gender equality across all operations and the extent to which internal policies contribute to gender equity.  For aid and development organisations, this logically extends to the programs and projects which they facilitate and support.  A gender audit involves asking questions such as whether the organisation has data disaggregated by sex for its various operations and programs, whether there is gender balance in its decision-making bodies and the stakeholder groups it consults.  Conducting a gender audit of development programs involves also assessing whether proposed interventions involve and reflect the needs of women and men, whether potential negative impacts on men and women have been identified, whether gender roles present a risk to program delivery or effectiveness, whether the goal of gender equality is embedded in the program cycle and to what extent program development is gender sensitive.  Gender analysis, gender impact assessment, gender sensitisation training, gender-based monitoring and evaluation and the development of gender-sensitive indicators are all gender mainstreaming tools that may be employed to assess organisational culture, processes, policies and programs in terms of how they contribute to the goal of gender equality.

As different international organizations and governments have developed and adopted gender mainstreaming, a range of different approaches to and definitions of gender mainstreaming have also emerged.  As a relatively recent phenomenon, there is currently little evaluation of the implementation of gender mainstreaming strategies or research into its effectiveness in terms of increasing gender equality.  As with measuring empowerment, developing appropriate indicators to assess the outcomes of gender mainstreaming is still an emerging area, with most commentators agreeing that both qualitative and quantitative approaches are required. 

Guidelines and examples of gender mainstreaming are available from several websites.  As part of its gender mainstreaming strategy, the International Labor Organisation’s Gender Equality division has produced a gender mainstreaming checklist for all ILO operations and programs (http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---gender/documents/publication/wcms_084294.pdf).  The European Commission (EC) has also produced a toolkit on methods for gender mainstreaming its development cooperation activities (http://www.iiav.nl/epublications/2004/TOOLKIT_on_mainstreaming_gender_equality.PDF), as has the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) (http://europeandcis.undp.org/public/show/6D8DE77F-F203-1EE9-B2E5652990E8B4B9).

 

Sources and online resources:

European Commission EuropeAid Cooperation Office (2004), Toolkit on mainstreaming gender equality in EC development cooperation, (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://www.iiav.nl/epublications/2004/TOOLKIT_on_mainstreaming_gender_equality.PDF

Moser, C. (2005) An Introduction to Gender Audit Methodology: Its Design and Implementation in DFID Malawi, London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), (Accessed 9 Nov. 07)
http://www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/pdf/GenderAuditMethodology-ODI.pdf

Moser, C & Moser, A (2005) ‘Gender mainstreaming since Beijing: a review of success and limitations of international institutions’, Gender & Development, 13(2):11-22, (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://www.oxfam.org.uk/gadjournal/display.asp?K=002J1151&sf1=editor&st1=Caroline%20Sweetman&sort=sort_date/d&m=40&dc=314

Porter, F. & Sweetman, C. (2005) Mainstreaming Gender in Development: A Critical Review, London:OxfamGB, (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://publications.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam/display.asp?isbn=0855985518

United Nations Development Program (2000), UNDP's Capacity Building Support Strategy for Gender Mainstreaming Objectives (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://www.sdnp.undp.org/gender/capacity/gm_info_module.html

Waterhouse, R and Sever, C. (2005) ‘Gender Mainstreaming in Development Cooperation Ireland Country Strategy Papers (CSP)’, BRIDGE IDS, (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/cf/searchres.cfm

Women & Equality Unit, Department of Trade and Industry, Government of the United Kingdom, ‘Gender Mainstreaming Explained’, (Accessed 9 Nov. 07) http://www.womenandequalityunit.gov.uk/equality/mainstreaming_explained.htm