Gender mainstreaming

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Gender mainstreaming is a strategic approach to gender politics . In contrast to the historical , implicit strategies, gender politics is disclosed for the first time with this approach and thus made explicit . At the same time, the approach not only targets women - as was previously the case with strategic approaches in women's policy - but all genders, i.e. H. also on men and non-binary genders .

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy for promoting gender equality . Gender mainstreaming means taking into account the different life situations and interests of people of all genders in all decisions at all social levels in order to enforce equality. The term was first discussed in 1985 at the 3rd UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi and was further developed ten years later at the 4th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing. The catalyst for the UN's repeated preoccupation with the question of gender equality was not least the increased understanding of the problem within the international community in view of the mass rape during the war in Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda . Since the Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997/1999, gender mainstreaming has also been a declared goal of the European Union .

Gender mainstreaming differs from women's policy in that it is a more comprehensive preventive strategy to prevent unequal treatment of women and men from the outset in all areas, while women's or equality policy is used as a strategy primarily corrective in order to counteract existing disadvantages. Another difference is that only a few specifically commissioned persons are responsible for the implementation of women's and equality policy (e.g. the equality officer in a company), whereas gender mainstreaming is a task for all those involved (e.g. in a company).

Gender mainstreaming is mostly used in public institutions, e.g. B. in libraries, while diversity management is used in the private sector as a concept for the implementation of equal opportunities. The gender aspect in diversity management is also referred to as gender diversity .

Word explanation and translation

The English expression gender [ ˈdʒɛndɚ ] denotes the social or psychological gender of a person in contrast to their biological gender (English sex ), a distinction that is also common in German today. Gender is therefore seen as a human-made social reality and not as a naturally given fact. This form of gender arises and changes socially, i.e. in the interaction between the individual, group and society.

"Mainstreaming" (of English. Mainstream "mainstream") refers to the strategy to bring an issue in the "mainstream" politics. Specifically, according to the definition of the United Nations , gender mainstreaming means assessing and evaluating the gender-specific consequences of every government action. The strategy aims to achieve gender equality in all areas of society in order to counteract the persistence of gender inequality. Accordingly, gender mainstreaming is also understood as a cross-sectional task that not only affects a specific area in an organization, such as an equal opportunities officer , but is aimed at all people in this organization.

Gender mainstreaming is often translated as "consistent equality orientation". The following formulations are also used by the authorities of the European Union for translations: “gender-sensitive impact assessment”, “equality-oriented policy” or simply “equality policy”. With reference to the central formula of the Beijing World Women’s Conference of 1995 - “mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programs” - gender mainstreaming can also be translated as “comprehensive implementation of a gender perspective”.

tasks

Based on the thesis that there is no gender-neutral reality, gender mainstreaming is, according to a brochure by the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth of the Federal Republic of Germany (2002), a mandate to the top of an administration, an organization , a company and to all employees, the different interests and life situations of women and men in the structure, in the design of processes and workflows, in the results and products, in communication and public relations and in the management ( controlling ) to take into account from the outset in order to achieve the goal to effectively achieve equality between women and men . One of the tasks of gender mainstreaming defined by the EU as a strategy for the years 2010 to 2015 is to remove the obstacles that lead to "the economy failing to realize its potential and valuable talents [of women] remaining untapped" .

The task of gender mainstreaming is to turn the gaze away from “women” - so so-called “women-specific” problems or policy areas - to “the genders” in general, so that a gender-sensitive perspective is integrated into all socio-political and economic areas and so that gender equality can be promoted by everyone in all areas.

Legal basis

Situation in Europe

Active gender equality policy is anchored in the law of the European Union as well as in national constitutional law and in federal laws in Germany , which is interpreted in terms of gender mainstreaming.

The implementation of the conceptually rather weak instrument of gender mainstreaming, however, remains a national task despite its being established in the European Union , so that the implementation of gender mainstreaming shows considerable differences internationally. The normative equality policy standards and legal regulations against gender discrimination and for gender equality are indeed far-reaching and binding in many areas throughout the EU, but their implementation is often far behind the legal standards and is strongly influenced by the political will of the governments as well as the depending on the political culture of the individual countries. The legal bases include:

“It is the task of the Community to promote equality between men and women throughout the Community [...] by establishing a common market and economic and monetary union, and by implementing the common policies and measures referred to in Articles 3 and 4 [...] ] to promote."

- Article 2 of the Amsterdam Treaty , entered into force on May 1, 1999

In practice, this means an increased integration of women into the European labor market. With sentence 2 of this paragraph, which was added in 1994, the state is expressly obliged to take active action.

"The aim here is not to limit efforts to promote equal opportunities to the implementation of special measures for women, but to expressly apply all general political concepts and measures to achieve equality, namely the possible effects on the situation of women or women. of men are actively and recognizably integrated in the conception phase ('gender perspective'). This presupposes that these political concepts and measures are systematically scrutinized and the possible effects are taken into account when defining and implementing them. "

- Commission of the European Communities : Communication from the Commission "Integrating equal opportunities into all Community policies and measures" (PDF) . COM (96) 67.Brussels, 21 February 1996

The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany states:

“Men and women are equal. The state promotes the actual implementation of equality between women and men and works towards eliminating existing disadvantages. "

- Article 3, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law

Methods

In an expertise from political advisor Barbara Stiegler from 2000, some methods are presented how gender mainstreaming can be implemented, namely through

  • Compilation of gender-specific statistics
  • Cost-benefit analyzes according to gender and gender roles
  • Development of gender analyzes
  • Checklists
  • The 3-R method : Each political measure is examined under the three categories of representation, resources and reality
  • The Equality Controlling as a business management tool of gender mainstreaming.

Examples

urban planning

In Vienna , gender mainstreaming is implemented in urban and living space planning. In particular, "women-friendly living" is measured according to criteria of safety (such as visual and call contact to children's play areas and in the house entrance areas) and suitability for everyday use (such as the presence of combined stroller and bicycle storage rooms).

Differentiation from women's politics / advancement of women

Gender mainstreaming describes a strategy to systematically consider different starting points and possibly different effects of measures on men and women. If disadvantages are found during this procedure, “women's politics” or “men's politics” are the instruments to be used to counteract the respective disadvantage.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
There is no source for this paragraph

Gender mainstreaming should therefore in no way replace women's and men's politics. Rather, gender-specific offers can be considered necessary on the basis of analyzes in the context of gender mainstreaming. Nevertheless, with reference to gender mainstreaming, women-specific offers (e.g. in youth work) or women's advancement agencies were saved. Since this runs counter to the goal of gender mainstreaming, ie gender equality, critics speak of an abuse of the strategy. This abuse discredits gender mainstreaming, particularly in circles that also pursue gender equality interests.

Difficulties in implementation

It is expected that the consistent implementation of the gender mainstreaming idea in Europe will take a few more decades, since integrating the gender equality goal into normal work routines is demanding: Gender mainstreaming needs to be anchored in institutions in order to implement it organize that both the management and the employees in an organization need gender competence and gender-differentiated data is needed. The consideration of all gender in all measures and programs must first be practiced and also made the starting point for decisions in cases in which gender-specific starting conditions may not be apparent at first glance.

Without introductory training and without gender-differentiated data, according to the federal ministries, gender mainstreaming instruments would run the risk of users not thoroughly questioning and analyzing gender relations, but instead stereotypes and traditional role expectations being established. Instead of the equality goals of “freedom from discrimination”, “equal participation” and “real freedom of choice”, gender attributions would then be laid down.

With regard to the realpolitical level, it is also criticized that the anchoring of gender mainstreaming in legal or constitutional texts is mostly just a matter of soft laws , which, in contrast to targeted women's / equality policies, remained conceptually unclear and usually no actionable guidelines be. Despite the establishment of gender mainstreaming as a guideline of EU policy, discrepancies between theory and practice, between legal norms and reality can be identified in all countries. The question of the implementation of European equality standards for the poorly networked European women's organizations and women and gender policy actors in science, business, political parties and civil society is a major challenge.

criticism

Some feminist social scientists see gender mainstreaming as adapted and ineffective reformism . In 2000, Barbara Stiegler spoke of an “abuse” if women's representatives were abolished or funding for women reduced with reference to gender mainstreaming .

The journalists René Pfister in the magazine Der Spiegel and Volker Zastrow in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung equated gender mainstreaming with “re-education measures”. They complained that it was about “destroying identities ” and cited a text about an educational project by the Berlin Dissens Association .

See also

literature

  • Susanne Baer , Karin Hildebrandt (Ed.): Gender Works! Gender mainstreaming: good examples from specialist work . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-55107-3 .
  • Susanne Baer, ​​Dietrich Englert (Ed.): Gender Mainstreaming in Personnel Development. Non-discriminatory performance assessment in the public service . Kleine, Bielefeld 2006, ISBN 3-89370-413-2 (gender competent; volume 1).
  • Ute Behning, Birgit Sauer (Ed.): What does gender mainstreaming do? Evaluation through policy analyzes . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-593-37608-3 .
  • Silke Bothfeld , Sigrid Gronbach, Barbara Riedmüller (eds.): Gender Mainstreaming - an innovation in gender equality policy. Interim reports from political practice . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-593-37038-7 .
  • Regina Frey : Gender in Mainstreaming. Gender theory and practice in international discourse . Ulrike Helmer Verlag, Königstein / Taunus 2003, ISBN 3-89741-083-4 .
  • Dietmar Krafft, Claudia Wiepcke: Gender mainstreaming through economic education . In: Bernd Weitz (Hrsg.): Standards in economic education. Hobein, Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-924985-41-3 , pp. 313-332.
  • Barbara Nohr, Silke Veth (Ed.): Gender Mainstreaming. Critical reflection on a new strategy. Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Texts 7. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2002.
  • Gertraude Krell, Renate Ortlieb, Barbara Sieben (eds.): Equal opportunities through personnel policy: Equality between women and men in companies and administrations: Legal regulations - problem analyzes - solutions . 6th edition. Publishing house Dr. Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-8349-2979-2 .
  • Michael Meuser , Claudia Neusüß: Gender Mainstreaming. Concepts - fields of action - instruments . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2004, ISBN 3-89331-508-X .
  • Barbara Stiegler : How gender gets into the mainstream: Concepts, arguments and practical examples for the EU strategy of gender mainstreaming . Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-86077-881-1 ( online ).
  • Karin Aleksander, Agata Martyna Jadwiżyc, Birte Meiners, Erwin Miedtke: The gender factor: power or new dialogue? With a gender perspective on libraries or libraries with a gender perspective. Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-940862-20-4 (see also review ).
  • Thomas Altgeld, Ulrike Maschewsky-Schneider, Monika Köster. Gender equitable health promotion and gender mainstreaming. In: Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) (Hrsg.): Key terms for health promotion and prevention. Glossary of concepts, strategies and methods, Cologne. 2018 10.17623 / BZGA: 224-i022-1.0

Web links

Wikisource: Higher Appeal Court Munich - Final judgment on the participation of women in political life (1876)  - Sources and full texts
Wiktionary: Gender mainstreaming  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gabriele Abels: Gender Policy . In: Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz (Hrsg.): Small Lexicon of Politics . 6th, revised and expanded edition. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-68106-6 , pp. 219-224 .
  2. ↑ Ulrike Liebert: Women's Policy / Gender Policy . In: Everhard Holtmann (Ed.): Political Lexicon . 3rd, completely revised and expanded edition. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 2000, ISBN 978-3-486-24906-4 , p. 192-195 .
  3. ↑ Manfred G. Schmidt: Dictionary of politics . 3. Edition. Stuttgart 2010, p. 300 .
  4. ↑ UN Women: Gender Mainstreaming , accessed January 4, 2016.
  5. ↑ Hans Joas (Ed.): Textbook of Sociology , Campus Verlag, 3rd extended u. updated edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-37920-3 , p. 307 f.
  6. ↑ Michael Meuser, Claudia Neusüß: Gender Mainstreaming - an introduction . In this. (Ed.): Gender Mainstreaming. Concepts - fields of action - instruments . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2004, pp. 9–22.
  7. ^ Rita Schäfer: Resolution of the UN Security Council on women, peace and security (2000). In: Sources on the history of human rights. Working Group Human Rights in the 20th Century, October 2017, accessed on November 2, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Rüdiger Voigt, Ralf Walkenhaus (ed.): Hand dictionary of the administrative reform . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-13756-5 , p. 154 f.
  9. ↑ Margherita Zander, Luise Hartwig, Irma Jansen (eds.): Gender incidental? On the topicality of a gender perspective in social work . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006, ISBN 3-531-14947-4 , p. 138 f.
  10. ^ Erwin Miedtke: Gender in Libraries. In: Brigitte E. Jirku, Marion Schulz (Hrsg.): Fictions and Realities. Women writers in the German-speaking literature business. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 2013, ISBN 978-3-631-63546-9 , pp. 77-88.
  11. ↑ Karin Aleksander, Agata Martyna Jadwiżyc, Birte Meiners, Erwin Miedtke: The gender factor: power or new dialogue? With a gender perspective on libraries or libraries with a gender perspective. Simon Verlag für Bibliothekswissen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-940862-20-4 .
  12. ↑ Peter Massing (Ed.): Gender and Diversity. Wochenschau Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-89974-483-5 .
  13. ↑ a b United Nations: Report of the Economic and Social Council for 1997 (under Concepts and Principles → Definition of the concept of gender mainstreaming).
  14. ↑ GenderKompetenzZentrum Berlin on the tasks of mainstreaming
  15. ↑ Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth: Gender mainstreaming, what is it? ( Online ).
  16. ↑ European Commission - Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion: Strategy 2010–2015.
  17. ↑ a b c Anna Holz, Claudia Neusüß: The EU equality standards: Reform engine for national women's and gender policy in the enlarged European Union? ( Memento of January 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 364 kB), September 2006.
  18. ↑ Living in "Frauen-Werk-Stadt II". In: Web service of the City of Vienna. February 22, 2001, accessed March 5, 2008 .
  19. ^ Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth: Equality and Participation. Strategy “Gender Mainstreaming” . Background message from February 19, 2016. Online .
  20. ↑ Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women & Youth: Gender Mainstreaming - What is it? Without year, p. 30 ( online ).
  21. ↑ Federal Ministry for Family, Women, Seniors and Youth: Working aid for § 2 GGO : "Gender mainstreaming in the preparation of legal provisions." Online .
  22. ↑ Barbara Stiegler: How gender gets into the mainstream. In: Silke Bothfeld, Sigrid Gronbach, Barbara Riedmüller (eds.): Gender Mainstreaming - an innovation in gender equality policy: interim reports from political practice. Campus Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-86077-881-1 , p. 19 f.
  23. ↑ René Pfister: The new person. In: Der Spiegel 1/2007.
  24. ↑ Volker Zastrow: Political Gender Change , in: FAZ, June 20, 2006; “Gender mainstreaming”: the small difference. FAZ, No. 208 of September 7, 2006, p. 8.
  25. ↑ Review in Querelles No. 17/2005, querelles-net .