Guide on Gender Mainstreaming Employment & European Social Fund Employment & European Employment social affairs European Commission EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming Employment social affairs Employment & European Social Fund European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Unit B4 Manuscript completed in 2004 The EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming was written by a Working Group comprising experts from several Member States (Austria, Belgium-fr&de, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom-gb) and the European Commission services with the help of an external consultant, Ms Rebecca Franceskides. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. An electronic version of this Guide is available on the EQUAL website http://europa.eu.int/comm/equal. If you are interested in receiving the electronic newsletter "ESmail" from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, please send an e-mail to [email protected]. The newsletter is published on a regular basis in English, French and German. Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union. Freephone number(*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed. A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int). Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2005 ISBN 92-79-00128-0 © European Communities, 2005 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION . 5 2. UNDERSTANDING GENDER MAINSTREAMING . 7 3. GENDER MAINSTREAMING – A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CONCEPT AND TERMS . 9 4. THE FORMAL DEFINITIONS . 11 5. A SHORT HISTORY OF EUROPEAN UNION POLICY AND GENDER MAINSTREAMING . 12 6. GENDER MAINSTREAMING – SOME FIGURES . 13 7. PRACTICAL EXERCISE: UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING . 14 8. GENDER MAINSTREAMING – A STANDARD WITHIN THE EQUAL COMMUNITY INITIATIVE . 16 9. GENDER MAINSTREAMING THROUGHOUT THE LIFE CYCLE OF DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS . 18 10. THE GENDER IMPACT ANALYSIS:A STEP-BY-STEP DESCRIPTION FOR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS . 22 11. PRACTICAL EXERCISE FOR DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS. THE GENDER MAINSTREAMING STEPS . 24 12. POINTS TO CONSIDER: HOW TO TAKE THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE INTO ACCOUNT IN DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS . 25 13. GENDER MAINSTREAMING ISSUES IN MANAGING THE EQUAL PROGRAMME . 27 14. PRACTICAL EXERCISE. GENDER MAINSTREAMING ISSUES IN MANAGING THE EQUAL PROGRAMME . 30 15. POINTS TO CONSIDER: HOW TO TAKE ACCOUNT OF THE GENDER PERSPECTIVE IN MANAGING THE PROGRAMME . 31 16. EVALUATION GRID TO ASSESS THE GENDER DIMENSION OF APPLICATIONS UNDER EQUAL, AN EXAMPLE . 33 17. A WINDOW ON EQUAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS . 35 18. RESOURCES . 37 ANNEX. GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN THE EQUAL COMMUNITY INITIATIVE . 40 3 1 EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming • Briefing Note n° 1 1. Introduction Why this guide? or implementing your Development Partnership such as financial efficiency, accounting, transnationality, empowere- Gender mainstreaming is a tool to better understand ment, coordination and so on. The guide illustrates how the causes of inequalities between women and men in our gender mainstreaming is an essential part of all these societies and come up with appropriate strategies to tackle aspects of your Development Partnership. them. The goal is to achieve equality between women and men. You cannot strive to tackle inequalities without embracing the gender mainstreaming concept. Whether you are the But the concept has left many confused. It has been criti- coordinator or a partner, you will need to gain sufficient cised for being too abstract and difficult to understand understanding of gender mainstreaming. especially for non-English speakers. The result is that you will gain time and improve quality as What does it actually mean? How will I benefit as an organ- you can better target your Development Partnership and isation or even as an individual? Is this just another admin- its activities and results. istrative requirement that I have to comply with? This guide sets out to provide some of the answers. It explains gender mainstreaming in simple terms and shows Who is the guide for? the benefits it can bring. It also highlights that gender main- The guide has been written primarily for all who are steaming is a process. involved in the national EQUAL Programmes – the Development Partnerships, the National Support Structures, the Managing Authorities, the evaluators at The link with the EQUAL national and Development Partnership-level, as well as the Community Initiative Monitoring and Selection Committees. This guide has been written with the EQUAL Community However, it can be useful to all individuals or organisations Initiative in mind.This is because gender mainstreaming is an interested in learning more about gender mainstreaming integral part of EQUAL which is exploring new ways of and how it can be implemented in project planning, imple- tackling the problems common to different types of dis- mentation, monitoring and evaluation. crimination and inequality. Under the EQUAL Community Initiative, gender main- How do I use this guide? streaming is not optional. It cannot be something you add on to make your application more acceptable by saying for This guide has been designed to provide you with maximum example “we don’t discriminate” or “we treat everyone the flexibility. It contains a series of briefing notes.You can pick same” or “we are an equality project so this does not apply and choose the notes you need.You do not have to follow to us” or that “men and women are working together, so the order or read all of them. there is no need to focus separately on their respective They can be grouped as follows: needs.” • Briefing notes targeted at all readers giving theoretical and It should be a guiding principle for all partners in a factual information on gender mainstreaming and practical Development Partnership, irrespective of the thematic exercises to build up your organisation’s and your priority you have chosen, and for those managing the partnership’s understanding of gender mainstreaming. EQUAL programme. • Briefing notes specifically addressing Development Gender mainstreaming is not an additional issue to other Partnerships. factors that you need to take into account when planning 5 1 EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming • Briefing Note n° 1 • Briefing notes specifically addressing National Support Structures and Managing Authorities. • Briefing notes containing examples of EQUAL Develop- ment Partnerships and a list of resources. Don’t be put off by the task at hand. Gender mainstream- ing is a process. The guide can help you start and can accompany you as you become more familiar with gender mainstreaming and the huge potential it has for making your Development Partnership more effective. The authors The guide is the result of the work of the European Commission’s Gender Mainstreaming Working Group set up within the framework of the EQUAL Community Initiative comprising Managing Authority and National Support Structure representatives from the European Union Member States. A learning seminar held in Budapest in July 2004, organised by the European Commission and the Gender mainstreaming Working Group, and hosted by the Hungarian Managing Authority, also provided rich mate- rial for the guide. It was compiled and written by Rebecca Franceskides. 6 2 EQUAL Guide on Gender Mainstreaming • Briefing Note n° 2 2. Understanding gender mainstreaming Equal participation of women and men in all aspects of soci- interlink between women’s relative disadvantage and men’s ety is crucial for lasting growth and democracy. It also sym- relative advantage. It focuses on the social differences bolises a society’s level of political maturity. between women and men: differences that are learned, changeable over time and vary within and between cul- This ambitious goal, however, is far from being a reality tures. despite substantial progress over the last 40 years spear- headed by the European Union. For example, the unequal use of time by women and men has a direct impact on work patterns and, eventually their life Women's relation to the labour market remains largely choices.Typical male paid work patterns – full-time continu- mediated by men whether as family members, employers or ous employment across the life cycle – impose a constraint even suppliers of credit. on family time budgets.Women provide the flexibility. The labour market still favours men over women and It is women who reduce their working hours or opt out of reflects and reinforces men’s and women’s perceived roles full time careers as and when the family needs dictate. in the home, polarising existing divisions despite clear evid- ence that the lifestyle of the majority of women but also of The result is that women continue to form the majority of many men no longer fits into these tight compartments. the unemployed, of the poorly paid,