Structural Funds and Gender Equality: The Impact of Gender Mainstreaming in Western Scotland

Abstract

The introduction of the Gender Equality Duty (GED) on 6 April 2007 represented the most significant change to sex equality legislation since the equal pay and anti-discrimination Acts of the 1970s. The GED is a form of legally enforceable gender mainstreaming that requires public authorities to build gender equality into all of their activities. Gender mainstreaming represents the latest approach in the search for equality. It is a holistic strategy that requires making equality considerations a central feature of policy-making. While gender mainstreaming may be new terrain for a number of policy makers, the experience of managing Structural Funds in Scotland provides a practical example of gender mainstreaming in action. On the positive side, there are examples of how projects from infrastructure to business development have integrated gender in all aspects of the policy and planning cycle and in service delivery. On the negative side, there still appears to be a lack of understanding of what gender mainstreaming is all about. Gender is seen as being about women and there is confusion between mainstreaming as the method, and the overall objective of achieving gender equality. The challenge for the GED is to underline the role of gender as a key variable in the success or failure of public policy interventions.