Gender mainstreaming in the United Kingdom: Current issues and future challenges

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming (GM) has been hailed as a ‘potentially revolutionary concept’ a significant policy innovation, and even a paradigm shift for thinking about gender equality in policymaking processes (Rees). Despite the rhetoric about GM, there are growing concerns about its ability to realize its perceived potential. Increasingly calls are being made to evaluate GM to better understand the complexity of factors inhibiting or leading to its promotion and operationalization. In some jurisdictions, the need to move from GM to equality or diversity mainstreaming has been recognized and alternative frameworks to GM are in their nascent stages of conceptualization and implementation. The purpose of this article is to examine GM in the UK context, especially in light of recent developments in equality law and policy. In so doing, the article will present data from 30 qualitative interviews conducted between 2007 and 2008 with feminist academics, representatives from women's/equality-seeking organizations and policy decision-makers across the United Kingdom, including the devolved states. Together with textual analyses of key government documents and reports, the article seeks to illuminate some of the current tensions between gender and diversity within equality policy and to consider what their implications may be for the future of GM.