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Our Strategy

Promoting gender equality is one of the government‘s priorities and the Gender Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland 2006-2016 provides a policy framework for our work to mainstream gender equality and tackle gender inequalities. It will be supported by detailed action plans, one for women and one for men, outlining Departments’ actions and short to medium and long-term targets to tackle inequalities between men and women, boys and girls.
The Gender Equality Strategy identifies Key Action Areas for tackling gender inequalities. These key action areas are:
  • childcare/caring as roles for both women and men;
  • health and well being;
  • representation in public life/decision making;
  • education and life long learning;
  • access to employment;
  • gender pay gap;
  • work-life balance;
  • stereotypes and prejudices linked to men and women’s gender;
  • peace-building;
  • poverty; and
  • gender related violence
In implementing the Gender Equality Strategy, government will use two tools:
  • gender mainstreaming, and
  • gender action measures, which include positive action as provided for within the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976.
Gender mainstreaming involves a process of incremental change in policies, strategies and activities. The long-term objective is that attention to gender equality will pervade all policies, strategies and activities so that all women and all men influence, participate in, and benefit equitably from all interventions.
Gender action measures are used to tackle specific barriers to gender equality, some of which will be identified by the process of gender mainstreaming. Examples of gender action measures include the provision of childcare which is reliable, affordable and accessible, measures to improve women’s access to, and progress in, the labour market, and women-only training to encourage women into senior decision-making roles in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
As part of the gender action measures, two cross-departmental gender action plans, one for women and one for men, will support the strategy. The action plans will identify departmental objectives, anticipated outcomes and performance targets set by the departments in order to meet the strategic objectives as contained in the strategy document.
The strategy is fully consistent with the Northern Ireland Executive'sexternal website legal obligations and international commitments