Topic 3 Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming has been embraced internationally as a strategy towards realising gender equality. It  involves the integration of a gender perspective into the preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and  evaluation of policies, regulatory measures and spending programmes, with a view to promoting equality  between women and men, and combating discrimination.

Gender mainstreaming ensures that policy-making and legislative work is of higher quality and has a greater  relevance for society, because it makes policies respond more effectively to the needs of all citizens – women  and men, girls and boys. Gender mainstreaming makes public interventions more effective and ensures that  inequalities are not perpetuated.

Gender mainstreaming does not only aim to avoid the creation or reinforcement of inequalities, which can have  adverse effects on all genders.

At European level, the EU Institutions are in charge of implementing gender mainstreaming, whereas at  national level, it is up to the governments of Member States. However, it is not only the responsibility of  specific individuals working in certain areas or units. While specific structures should be established and  persons responsible appointed, the responsibility for implementing gender mainstreaming should be with the  entire staff of public institutions, under the leadership of the management.

Integrating the gender perspective in a policy means that equality between genders, as the overarching principle, should be taken into consideration in all decisions, in each phase of the policy-making process, by all the actors involved.

(EIGE)