Whatever happened to gender mainstreaming? : Lessons for the EU’s 2014–20 Structural and Investment Funds

Abstract

The concept of gender mainstreaming was adopted by the EU in the mid-1990s and became a requirement for EU Cohesion Policy delivered through the 2000–6 Structural Funds programme, which continued into the 2007–13 period. Gender mainstreaming implied the need to recognise that additional resources targeted at stimulating economic development and growth did not benefit men and women equally. Policy interventions could no longer be assumed to be gender neutral. Therefore, in order to maximise the economic impact of policies designed to stim-ulate regional development, they needed to be more ‘gender aware’.This chapter explores the impact of gender mainstreaming on projects funded under the Structural Funds in Scotland in the 2007–13 period. A cross-section of ESF- and ERDF-funded projects that supported labour market participation was investigated. The main issues examined included the extent to which the par-ticipants understood and were aware of gender mainstreaming and whether they undertook any gender-based monitoring and evaluation. The case of Scotland is then contextualised within the experience of the EU as a whole, highlighting the relevance for achieving Europe 2020 targets. Finally, the chapter discusses what lessons we can learn from this experience and whether gender mainstreaming can deliver in terms of increasing female employment opportunities. [undefined.EU Cohesion Policy (Open Access): Reassessing performance and direction]