The reality of gender mainstreaming implementation : the case of the EU research policy

Forfatter(e): Mergaert, Lut

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Forfatters egen omtale

The European Commission and gender equality: can it be more than just talk?

The European Commission explicitly committed to mainstream gender in all its policies. However, after more than a decade of implementation, the results of the gender mainstreaming approach by the EC remain below expectations. How can it be that this strategy, about which feminists and gender specialists were so enthusiastic, does not yield the expected outcomes? A recent study aims to answer this question, and concludes that institutional features of the European Commission impede a successful implementation of the policy. Notably the high level of internal staff mobility prevents the building up of expertise and stands in the way of institutional learning. This explains why intended changes are not realized.

Sammendrag

Gender, gender equality and gender mainstreaming are concepts from feminist theory that have been embraced at the policy making level as offering an alternative for the problematized existing situation of inequality between the sexes.

Feminist political science scholars strongly believed in the potential of gender mainstreaming to bring about gender change. Yet, they cannot explain why gender mainstreaming has not yielded the expected results. This poses a problem. Scholars agree there must be problems with the implementation of the strategy, but at the same time gender mainstreaming implementation remains largely understudied. As a conseqeunce, many have embarked into speculations about possible causes for variable outcomes of gender mainstreaming. However, these theories are very fragmented, unstructured, and based on rather loose empirical grounds. This situation calls for remediation, which the present research aims to contribute to.

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