Gender Mainstreaming

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Gender Mainstreaming

• From Theory to Reality
• Sarajevo - Bosnia / Herzegovia
• 25-26th September 2003

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The European Womens Lobby

• Established in 1990
• 3,000 Womens organisations

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The European Womens Lobby

• Our mission is to promote the empowerment of
  women in all their diversity to advance gender
  equality to combat all forms of discrimination
  and violence against women and to ensure full
  access for all women to their human rights
  through their active involvement in society and
  in policy development and implementation.

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EWL Structure

• EWL Member organisations in Europe
• National Co-ordinations of womens NGOs
• European Member organisations
• EWL General Assembly
• (100 delegates)
• EWL Board of Administration
• (25 elected members)
• EWL Executive Committee
• 1 President, 2 Vice Presidents, 1 Treasurer

EWL Secretariat (Brussels) EWL Secretary General
EWL staff
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European Womens Lobby (EWL)
EU Institutions

European Parliament (Womens Rights
Committee) European Commission (DG Employment
and Social Affairs) 'The Council'

• EWL Member organisations
• EWL Board members
• EWL Executive Committee
• EWL Secretariat
• (Brussels)

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Theory of Gender mainstreaming

• 1970 Introduction
• 1995 Beijing
• 1996 EC Communication on Mainstreaming
• 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam
• 1999 Structural Funds Regulation

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Mainstreaming?

• Gender mainstreaming gender equality
• Strategy
• Central to all activities
• policy development, research, advocay / dialogue,
  legislation, resource allocation and planning,
  implementation and monitoring of programmes and
  projects

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The Main Stream

• Accessibility for all?
• In what way?
• For how long?
• Who are the actors?

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Mainstreaming in practice

• Actors
• Decision-making
• Public sector
• Private sector
• Prioritizing

• Change of focus
• structural inequalities
• real needs
• impact assessment
• Tools
• gender budgeting
• gender analysis
• gender disaggregated statistics

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Threats

• Remains a concept
• Used as alibi
• Restructuring EP
• Convention
• EES
• NAPs

• Strategies without
• action
• verbal integration
• Enforce in EU charter of Fundamental Rights

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Actions

• Examine policies
• Budgetary procedure
• Impact assessment for both women and men

• Analyse gender specific consequences
• Budgets
• Programmes
• Projects

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Mainstreaming Method

• Dominant male society reality
• Gender system
• seggregation
• hierachisation
• Tackling inequality
• Political will and awareness

• Focus on real needs
• promote quality of life
• strengthen democracy
• womens rights human rights
• Civil dialogue
• Synergies between decision-makers

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Mainstreaming Equality between women and men?

• Gender inequalities
• better understanding of men and women as groups

• Structural barriers
• challenge stereotyped roles of men and women

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Paradigm Shift

• No human resource/employment issue
• But a fundamental issue concerning women as
• economic,
• social actors
• and full citizens
• Conceptual clarity is crucial
• NO Apartheid
• Theory of justice A decent society does not
  humiliate its citizens!

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A comprehensive approach

• Macroeconomic policies
• Trade policies
• Poverty reduction
• EU Foreign and Security Policy
• New directives
• Parity democracy

• Labour market
• Violence prevention
• domestic violence
• trafficking
• sexual violence (in public and private domain)
• Womens participation in society

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Gender mainstreaming within a Police-forceDutch
Situation

• Increase number of women
• mainstreaming policy?
• added value to force?
• enhance feministic view?
• more women in the top?
• decrease of gender discrimination?

• Minority groups in the police-force
• ethnic minorities
• gay and lesbian police
• What are the threats and possibilites for an
  organisation to be inclusive?

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Threats and possibilities of an inclusive
organisation

• Old boys network - macho sphere
• Positional threats
• Top-down approach
• Established attitudes withing the force

• Open sphere for more detail
• Changing structure
• Bottom-up approach
• Changing culture within the force

OPEN DIALOGUE
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True Equality of women and men

• Must be the key objective within
• a European strategy
• the thinking of all European citizens
• The key objective within any
• organisation
• Mainstreaming as a tool to achieve equality
  should not be a theory but become and remain a
  true reality

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Gender Mainstreaming

• From Theory to Reality