Gender Audit: Whim or Voice

Abstract

“Ethical auditing” is regarded as a new device for monitoring the behaviour of firms and governments. the best known example is the EU-guideline for eco-auditing which aims a monitoring compliance with “voluntary” environmental protection standards. Unlike eco-auditing which covers firms, “women's auditing” focuses on national budgets and the behaviour of governments. It is assumed that checking revenue and expenditure item-by-item gives a clearer picture about discrimination than merely looking at tax legislation or sectoral budgets. the first country where women's auditing became institutionalised was South Africa, quickly followed by Australia, Canada, and the labour government in the UK. The paper will give a descriptive analysis of women's budgets. It attempts to clarify in how far item-by-item monitoring does indeed help to overcome the specific asymmetric information problem at stake: Asymmetric information here, takes on the form of governments claiming that budgets are gender-neutral. the high individual search costs for getting access to budget proposals before they pass parliament in combination with the generally low representation of women in parliaments defines a formidable threshold for women. A further question to be addressed is whether or not an institution such as women's auditing can be an effective device in situations in which consumer/voters’ interest are hard to organise.