Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Failure: Implementing the Concept of Gender Mainstreaming

Meier, Petra; Celis, Karen

doi:10.1093/sp/jxr020

Cited by 88 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Instead, it refers to undifferentiated categories of men and women, and is often a shorthand for policies targeted at women or an excuse to discontinue such policies (Stratigaki, 2005). The integrationist version often consists of a set of tools and procedures, along with detailed instructions for their implementation and for the measurement of their success (Meier & Celis, 2011;Squires, 2007;Woodward, 2008), hence the frequent assertion that gender mainstreaming has become a box-ticking exercise, devoid of any substantive content.…”

Section: Gender Mainstreaming and Horizontal Policy Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may really only emerge through an elaborate process that is likely to include those stages which are conventionally described as implementation' (Hill, 1997). We should therefore not expect a linear connection between intent and outcome and should not assume that 'intentions can be translated into practice by measuring, organising, reorganising, improving, developing, and evaluating the policy process' (Meier & Celis, 2011). The inclusion of a reference to gender mainstreaming or gender equality in a policy document does not necessarily demonstrate the intention to achieve it.…”

Section: Gender Mainstreaming and Horizontal Policy Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender mainstreaming and policy coherence for development: Unintended gender consequences and EU policy

Allwood

2013

Women's Studies International Forum

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Section: Gender Mainstreaming and Horizontal Policy Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gender Mainstreaming and Horizontal Policy Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender mainstreaming and policy coherence for development: Unintended gender consequences and EU policy

Allwood

2013

Women's Studies International Forum

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“…She points out that 'development agencies pursue a [gender mainstreaming] strategy which itself has consumed all attention at the cost of tangible action to solve real problems' (2013: 4). Meier and Celis (2011) concur that the problem is not simply that gender equality and empowerment objectives are not generally assessed in evaluations of gender mainstreaming in relation to women's real lives, but that gender mainstreaming processes have dropped initiatives that address these altogether. This has blurred the objectives of gender mainstreaming and reduced it to procedural detail (2011: 471).…”

Section: Failure To Scrutinise External Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Mainstreaming Critiques: Signposts or Dead Ends?

Milward¹,

Mukhopadhyay²,

Wong

2015

IDS Bulletin

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An enduring legacy of the Beijing conference, gender mainstreaming has been widely implemented and widely critiqued since the 1990s. But the basis of these critiques has changed over time: this article charts a typology of critique approaches. It shows how the central problem is diagnosed variously as the loss of the political dimensions of gender in the course of mainstreaming; or technical shortcomings; or the gendered nature of organisations as the causes of technical failure. For others, the problem has been the failure to scrutinise the connection between gender mainstreaming and changes in gender relations in women's real lives. More recently, another group asserts that the trajectory of gender mainstreaming is simply part of the much broader logic of neoliberal governance. Understanding the technologies of power that shape a feminist practice suitable for the governance institutions into which it is inserted can help guide future feminist engagement.

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“…Others have taken a less optimistic view, agreeing in principle that gender mainstreaming is a possible, even likely, transformative strategy but that it has been much more difficult to accomplish in practice than was originally foreseen . It has been found to be a disappointment (for an overview of these discussions, see for example Jacquot 2010, Meier andCelis 2011). The feminist project might not so easily transport itself into mainstream politics.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The cost might be losing the political edge once gender policies become intermingled with other political objectives and, even worse, it might become an alibi for cutting financial resources for other types of initiatives, such as specific actions for women (Stratigaki 2005). Gender mainstreaming has also been problematised as a particularly vague strategy and more about format than content, where creating new checklists and tool-boxes becomes the end of the strategy, rather than facilitating any real transformation and thus rendering it to be a solely technocratic or procedural approach (Meier and Celis 2011). It has been seen as an example of the general neo-liberal trend in public administration where the quest for eco-Introduction nomic efficiency, measurability and control has spread at the cost of values such as justice and equality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making equality work : Ambiguities, conflicts and change agents in the implementation of equality policies in public sector organisations

Callerstig¹

2014

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The overall aim of this study is to contribute to knowledge about the implementation of equality policies in public sector organisations. This is achieved through the development of a theoretical framework of feminist implementation studies. It involves the study of influential factors that impact upon the implementation process, with the aim of contributing to an understanding of the outcome of implementation processes within the equality policy field. The methodology used is based on qualitative case study research combined with a meta-analysis that allows for comparisons across cases. Four initiatives in the implementation of gender mainstreaming strategy were studied in different contexts, namely, two local municipalities and one government agency in Sweden. The main questions asked are: How was gender mainstreaming implemented? What were the main factors influencing the implementation process and why? What was the impact of change actors working to implement gender mainstreaming? The case studies were conducted using an interactive research approach where the different dilemmas encountered by the gender mainstreaming practitioners are used as a starting point for developing a joint learning process. The thesis comprises an introduction and five published papers. The main findings of the study include how the implementation process developed over time and the impact of the micropractices of the “gender mainstreamers” involved. The study provides insights into the factors influencing the implementation process, and how these factors change over time. Different types and levels of conflict, together and interlinked with different ambiguities, affect the practical work where dilemmas inherent in the concepts of “gender”, “equality” and “change” become central. Overall, the study shows how the specific preconditions for implementation of gender mainstreaming make the local arenas of implementation crucial for understanding the outcomes.Syftet med avhandlingen är att bidra till kunskapen om implementeringen av jämlikhetsstrategier i offentliga organisationer. Detta görs genom utvecklingen av ett teoretiskt ramverk för implementeringsstudier med ett feministiskt perspektiv. För att bidra till en ökad förståelse av de resultat som nås inom jämlikhetspolitiken studeras faktorer som påverkar implementeringsprocessen. Studien är baserad på kvalitativa fallstudier och en meta-analys som möjliggör jämförelser mellan fallstudierna. Fyra olika fall av implementering av jämställdhetsintegreringsstrategin har studerats utifrån olika kontexter; i två svenska kommuner och en statlig myndighet. Avhandlingens huvudsakliga frågeställningar är: Hur implementerades jämställdhetsintegreringsstrategin? Vilka var de huvudsakliga faktorer som påverkade implementeringsprocessen och varför? Hur påverkades processen av de förändringsaktörer som arbetade med att implementera strategin? Fallstudierna har genomförts med en interaktiv forskningsansats i vilken olika dilemman i det praktiska arbetet har använts som utgångspunkt för en gemensam...

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Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Failure: Implementing the Concept of Gender Mainstreaming

Cited by 88 publications

References 9 publications

Gender mainstreaming and policy coherence for development: Unintended gender consequences and EU policy

Gender mainstreaming and policy coherence for development: Unintended gender consequences and EU policy

Gender Mainstreaming Critiques: Signposts or Dead Ends?

Making equality work : Ambiguities, conflicts and change agents in the implementation of equality policies in public sector organisations

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