El rol del ámbito local en la adopción del mainstreaming de género en políticas de empleo

Abstract

Employment policies have been extensively studied from a gender perspective. Yet studies in local arenas have been scarce. The study suggests a framework to check the adoption of a gender mainstreaming focus in local employment policies and highlights outcomes regarding the relationship between gender issues and local government policy implementation. Using both quantitative (survey) - qualitative (case study) research techniques, data gathered from 198 Spanish middle size towns have been analyzed.This research underlines the shortfalls of local employment policies and the limitations of the local authorities’ role. It also demonstrates that local governments use to take after the policy-making of higher level public administrations such as regional or central governments. As it is shown, within the framework of a multilevel policy, local governments do not use to play a particular role, therefore breaking down any potential advantage gained from proximity to users. Conclusions of the study might contribute to a better design of these policies in the current post-crisis scenario.