Gender Mainstreaming

1. GENDER MAINSTREAMING
B R SIWAL
NIPCCD
NEW DELHI
E-MAIL [email protected]

2. Gender mainstreaming is not:
A Women only issue
It is not just about improving access or of balancing
the statistics
About having well written statements
About blaming anybody for the inequalities which
exist
About only women taking action
About only women benefiting from it
About stopping or replacing gender specific policies
and projects targeted at either women or men

3. Gender mainstreaming:
Is about reducing poverty, boosting economic growth and
strengthening citizenship
Is a pro-active process designed to tackle inequalities which
can and do discriminate against either sex
Targets major economic and social policies that deliver major
resources
Makes good economic sense ensuring that women as well as
men are active, using 100% of the productive labour force
Represents a further step in the search for equality
Recognises that gender is one of the most fundamental
organising features in society and affects our lives from the
moment we are born

4. Presupposes a recognition of male and female identities
Recognises that differences exist in men’s and women’s lives
and therefore our needs, experiences and priorities are different
Involves a willingness to establish a balanced distribution of
responsibilities between women and men
Needs determined political action and support with clear
indicators and targets
Will not happen overnight, it is a continuous process

5. Gender mainstreaming means:
That differences between women and men may never
be used as a ground for discrimination
A radical rethink of the way labour markets work and
their impact on women’s and men’s employment
Long-lasting changes in society, transforming parental
roles, family structures, and the organisation of work,
time and even institutional practices
Reshaping the mainstream rather than adding
activities for women at the margins

6. A partnership between women and men to ensure both
participate fully in society’s development and benefit equally
from society’s resources
Responding to the root causes of inequality and putting
remedial action in place
Ensuring that initiatives not only respond to gender differences
but seek to reduce gender inequality
Asking the right question to see where limited resources should
be best diverted
More attention to men and their role in creating a more equal
society

7. Gender mainstreaming covers:
policy design
decision-making
access to resources
procedures and practices
methodology
implementation
monitoring and evaluation

8. Gender Mainstreaming
 ?
Whatisthemainstream
 ?
Whatisbeingmainstreamed
 ?
Whatdoesitmeantobepartofthemainstream
 ?
Whatisthetargetofmainstreaming
 ?
Whatisthegoalofmainstreaming


Howgendermainstreaming

9. DEFINATION OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING
"Mainstreaming a gender perspective process of assessing
the implications for women and men of any planned
action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in
all areas and at all levels.

10. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's
concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the
design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programmes in all political, economic
and societal spheres so that women and men benefit
equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The
ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.”

11. What Is Being Mainstreamed?

Genderequalityisrecognisedasnot
’
justa“womensissue”butasocietalone

Genderequalitygoalsinfluence

mainstreameconomicandsocialpolicies

thatdelivermajorresources

Genderequalitypursuedfromthe

centreratherthanfromthemargins

12. What Does It Mean To Be Part Of The
Mainstream?
 ’ ,
Havingequitableaccesstosociety sresources
- ,
includingsocially valuedgoods rewardsand
opportunities
 ,
Equalparticipationininfluencingwhatisvalued
,
shapingdevelopmentdirections anddistributing
opportunities

13. Why Gender Mainstreaming?

Shiftinunderstandingoftheproblem

Recognitionthatgenderequalityisintegralto

developmentgoals

Realizationthatpreviousapproacheswerenot

resultinginrealchangeinthepositionofwomenand

genderequality

14. Shift In Understanding Of The Problem
EarlyEarly ApproachesApproaches CurrentCurrent ThinkingThinking
Analysis:Analysis:
women left outwomen left out
women lack:women lack:
·
educationeducation
·
trainingtraining
·
credit self-esteemcredit self-esteem
Analysis:Analysis:
social structures and social structures and
processes recreate processes recreate
inequalities between women inequalities between women
and men in:and men in:
·
resourcesresources
·
opportunitiesopportunities
·
decision-makingdecision-making
Problem:Problem:
womenwomen
ProblemProblem: :
inequality between women inequality between women
and menand men
Approach: Approach:
women must change their women must change their
attributes to be integrated into attributes to be integrated into
developmentdevelopment
Approach:Approach:
society and institutions society and institutions
must change ideas and must change ideas and
practices in support of practices in support of
equal choices and equal choices and
opportunitiesopportunities

15. GM aim to Make Development More
Effective Through:

Emphasisonreshapingthemainstreamratherthanadding

activitiesforwomenatthemargin
 ,
Focusongenderequalityasanobjective ratherthan

womenasatargetgroup

Ensurethatinitiativesnotonlyrespondtogender

differencesbutseektoreducegenderinequality
 ’
Moreattentiontowomen sorganizationsandthe

momentumforchange

Moreattentiontomenandtheirroleincreatingamore

equalsociety

16. Organisational Capacity for Gender
Mainstreaming

Appropriateknowledgeandskills

Strategicmanagement

Effectivenetworksandlinkages

Enablingpolicyandinstitutionalenvironment
 ,
Supportiveeconomic socialandpoliticalenvironment

17. As Change Agents Working To Mainstream Gender
 -
Contributegenderperspectivestodecisionmaking
,
processes especiallypolicyandprogramme
,
planning personnelissuesandadvocacy
 -
Promoteandfacilitateinteragencydialogueon

gendermainstreaming

Persuadeandconvinceothersoftheneedfor

gendermainstreaming
 ,
Analyze collectanddisseminateinformationon

genderanalysisandgendermainstreaming
practice

18. 
Networkextensivelywithothergenderfocal
, ’
points womensorganizationsandour
constituencies

Interveneappropriatelyinpolicyadviceand
,
dialogue ensuringthatgenderequality

considerationsaretakenintoaccountindiscussion
-
anddecisionmaking

Recordandfindmechanismsforlearningfrom
.
programmaticandorganizationalgoodpractices

19. Steps for Gender
Mainstreaming
1. :
AMainstreamingApproachtoStakeholders Whoare
- ?
theDecision Makers
2. : ?
MainstreamingaGenderAgenda WhatistheIssue
3. : ?
MovingTowardsGenderEquality WhatistheGoal
4. : ?
MappingtheSituation WhatInformationdoweHave
5. :
RefiningtheIssue ResearchandAnalysis

20. 6
FormulatingPolicyfromaGenderPerspective
7. : !
ArguingYourCase GenderMatters
8. : ( - )
Monitoring Keepinga Gender Sensitive

EyeonThings
9. : ?
Evaluation HowDidWeDo
10. -
En genderingCommunication

21. 1. GENDER-SENSITIVE STAKEHOLDER
CHECKLIST
• Gender focal points in ministries and
departments?
• Development partners with a gender equality
mandate?
• •• An umbrella organization of women’s or gender
NGOs?
• Any NGOs or community groups that represent
men’s gender interests?

22. • Relevant sectoral or “special interest”
NGOs that have an interest or
experience in gender issues?
• Human rights groups or advocates?
• Academics or researchers from
university Gender Studies
departments?

23. 2. MAINSTREAMING A GENDER AGENDA:
WHAT IS THE ISSUE?
What is the subject of your project
or policy-making initiative? This
subject then needs to be examined
from a gender perspective, in order to
discern where, why and how specific
gender mainstreaming initiatives may
need to be applied. The following
question will help you decide what the
“gender issue” is:

24. Does this issue affect men and
women in different ways? The
answer is likely to be “yes”. This
means that the specific ways in which
men and women are differently
affected

25. 3 .MOVING TOWARDS GENDER EQUALITY:
WHAT IS THE GOAL?
?
Whatdowewanttoachieve
?
Isthegoaldisaggregatedbygender

Doesthegoalincludeabroader

commitmenttoimprovinggender
?
equality

26. 4. MAPPING THE SITUATION:
WHAT INFORMATION DO WE HAVE?

whatyouknow
 ’
whatyoudon tknow

whatprojectsorpolicyinterventionshavealready

happened

whatiscurrentlyhappening

whatotherrelatedinterventionsareplanned

27. 4. HELPFUL SOURCES OF INFORMATION

 Database of government
legislation

•

Databaseofgovernmentdocuments

•
-
Databaseofgovernment commissionedresearch

•
-
Databaseofdonor fundedtechnicalassistance

•

DatabaseofNGOactivities

28. 5 .RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
This phase involves:
• Specifying the research question

• Determining necessary inputs
• Designing and/or Commissioning
the
research

29. 6. FORMULATING POLICY OR PROJECT FROM A
GENDER PERSPECTIVE



efficiency
– cost-benefit analysis;
–
effectiveness
– the degree to which your goal will be
met; and
m ,
socialjustice
including
genderequality
– the extent to
which social and historical disadvantages between different
groups in society are addressed and compensated.

30. 7 ARGUING YOUR CASE: GENDER
MATTERS
Justice and Equality
Credibility and Accountability
Efficiency and Sustainability
Quality of Life
Alliances
Chain Reaction

31. 8 MONITORING:
I. LEVELS OF MONITORING
II. GENDER-SENSITIVE
MONITORING PLANS
III. GENDER-SENSITIVE TARGETS
AND INDICATORS

32. HOW TO DEVELOP INDICATORS?
Asking the right question :
What do you want the indicator to tell you?
 Determining the information needed to
answer the question :
What do I need to measure or compare?
 Identifying the source of information.
 Quantitative vs Qualitative Indicators.

33. 9 EVALUATION: HOW DID WE DO?
Evaluation criteria E
Who determines the
evaluation criteria? gender equality
considerations?
Evaluation Actors E
Are all stakeholders
involved in the evaluation process? Who
will provide inputs for evaluation data? Will
the opinions of both men and women be
considered?
Will participatory methods be used ?

34. 10. EN-GENDERING COMMUNICATION
Do men and women read different publications?
• Do men and women watch or listen to different
electronic media?
• Are media consumption patterns (frequency, time)
different for men and women?
Do men and women have different credibility criteria
(regarding “authorities”, arguments used, etc)?
• Do men and women have different values that cause
them to respond to certain messages in different
ways

35. MAINSTREAMING PARAGRAPHS IN THE
PLATFORM FOR ACTION
para. 79 education
para. 105 health
para. 123 violence
para. 141 conflict
para. 164 economic activity
para. 189 power and decision-making
para. 202 institutional mechanisms for
women’s advancement
para. 229 human rights
para. 238 media
para. 252 management of natural resources
and the environment
para. 273 children and youth

36. Education
Agriculture
Rural development
Environment
Infrastructure
Health
Nutrition
Housing
Governance
Industry
Economic policy
Trade and commerce
Gender is cross cutting in all sectorsGender is cross cutting in all sectors

37. Coping With Resistance
- Forms of Resistance
Denial

Speaking“onbehalfofwomen”

Tokenaction

Lipservice

Misconstruedmainstreaming

Commissioningastudy
Compartmentalization

Appointingatokenwomen

38. THANK YOU