Gender Mainstreaming

What is gender mainstreaming?

The term ‘gender mainstreaming’ sounds complex, but it can easily be explained. It means putting a gender equality perspective into mainstream policies. The Council of Europe defines it as ‘the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making’ ⁽¹⁾.

This cartoon helps explain why incorporating this perspective into mainstream policies is important.

In Western societies, a dominant ethos is that opportunities are equally open to all people. This ethos does provide many opportunities and benefits for many groups of people. However it can be difficult for all people to access opportunities equally.

Underlying the concept of mainstreaming is recognition of the fact that not all groups or individuals in a society have the same ease in accessing opportunities. In order for all groups of people to be equally able to access the services and facilities, mainstream policies need to take account of the different ability of different groups to benefit, and plan for this. In this case we are concerned about the ability of women and men to access services and facilities provided by mainstream policies.

Statistics illustrate that women and men do not access services and facilities to the same extent or in the same way. To take a quick example, in Northern Ireland 79% of men have a full driving licence compared to 61% of women ⁽²⁾. This difference is most significant in urban areas, and means women are more reliant on public transport than men, so are likely to access it more. In addition 78% of men are in the labour force compared to 65% of women ⁽³⁾. So women are more likely than men to be travelling to non-work facilities, such as shops, schools, health centres, and childcare facilities. Putting a gender equality perspective in mainstream transport policies thus means considering public transport provision not just to work, but also to these other facilities to which women are more likely than men to travel, and taking these issues into account as policy is developed and implemented.

Footnotes

1  Gender mainstreaming: Conceptual framework, methodology and presentation of good practices. Report of Activities of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming (EG-S-MS (98) 2), Strasbourg: Council of Europe, 1998.

2  Travel Survey for Northern Ireland 2000-2002, DRD

3  Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, DETI.