What is Gender Mainstreaming

Gender main streaming is an approach to policy that requires policymakers to apply a gender – or intersectional – lens to all policies and programs at all stages of policymaking. With a long history in feminist activism, international commitments to gender mainstreaming were formalized at the Fourth UN World Conference on Women and the resulting Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. Since then, gender mainstreaming has proliferated around the world and in all major international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development, becoming one of the main strategies for achieving gender equality.

‍

There are many different approaches to gender mainstreaming, as they tend to vary in terms of institutional organization and objectives (see Paterson and Scala 2024 for a detailed overview). With respect to institutional organization, approaches are classified as either expert-bureaucratic, as in Canada and Australia, in which gender mainstreaming is concentrated within government and among gender experts within bureaucracies, or participatory-democratic, as in the Netherlands, in which gender mainstreaming is undertaken in collaboration with community organizations. In practice, however, most approaches require both gender experts and collaboration and consultation with community groups (Osborne et al 2009).

‍

Individual approaches also vary with respect to the core objectives of gender mainstreaming (Gouws and Madsen 2021). Three objectives – or understandings – of gender mainstreaming have arisen, including:

-      Integrationist (Jahan 1995), in which a gender equality lens is applied to or integrated with existing governmental agendas, processes and institutions;

-      Agenda-setting (Jahan 1995), requires rethinking existing agendas, processes, and institutions from a gender perspective;

-      Transformative (Squires 2005), where power relations are challenged from an intersectional and deliberative approach (see Gouws and Madsen 2021 for a recent discussion)

Gender mainstreaming has also evolved over time, with many countries adopting more explicitly intersectional approaches (Hankivsky and Mussells 2018).

‍

Gender mainstreaming is necessary because the effects of policies are not neutral. Depending on our social location, we all experience policy differently, which is why intersectional approaches are essential. At the same time, however, while gender or intersectionality mainstreaming is often presented as an approach to yield “better” policies and policy outcomes, it can also undermine and transform power relations (Squires 2005).

‍

Despite its promise, gender mainstreaming has yet to meet its transformative potential. Research from both academic and international organizations has revealed several factors that contribute to the success of gender mainstreaming, including effective leadership (e.g., Scala and Paterson 2017; UN 2020), clear goals (Meier and Celis 2011), capacity, including accountability and recourse mechanisms as well as resources (OECD 2023; Minto and Mergaert 2018), early and consistent application (Verloo 2001; UN 2020), and access to quality gender disaggregated and intersectional data (OECD 2021; 2023).

It is also important to remember that gender mainstreaming, while necessary, is by no means sufficient to achieve equality. As articulated in the Beijing Platform forAction, gender mainstreaming must work alongside equal representation and power in decision-making, robust institutional machinery, and commitment to human rights, as well as addressing persistent gaps such as labour market inequality, violence against women, and childcare. In addition, thriving social movements and state engagement are essential to identify issues and solutions that are needs-based and community and culturally specific (e.g., Rankin and Wilcox 2004).

‍