Topic 2 Gender Budgeting
Gender budgeting is a strategy to achieve gender equality through allocating public resources in a way that addresses the specific needs of women and men. For example, gender budgeting recognises different societal roles that women and men perform, such as women’s unpaid care work, and distributes resources accordingly. It is both efficient and effective budgeting.
According to the report from European Instituted for Gender Equality: Gender Mainstreaming Advancing Work–life Balance with EU Funds, a model for integrated gender responsive interventions, concerning inequalities between men and women, the EU’s budget is not enough. less than 1 % of the 2014–2020 ESIF budget has been earmarked for gender equality.
Even though several EU policies highlight the importance of mainstreaming gender into the Union’s budget, EU Funds and Member State budgets, current proposals for the post-2020 EU budget show a low level of ambition when it comes to realising gender equality through economic measures.
Gender budgeting contributes to achieving gender equality, improving the population’s well-being, and spearheading more sustainable, inclusive growth and employment.
EIGE (2017), Gender Budgeting, EIGE, Vilnius. Available at:
https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/methods-tools/gender-budgeting
