Concept Of Gender Mainstreaming Research Articles

Pengarusutamaan Gender di Jepang Untuk Mencapai SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals) dalam Perspektif Feminisme Liberal

Japan is one of the countries that has adopted the 2030 sustainable development agenda or SDG's (Sustainability Development Goals) by building an SDG’s Promotion Headquarters to achieve balance in the country's development while protecting earth and eliminating poverty. Gender equality is a development target in the SDGs contained in point five. The increase in the elderly and the decline in the birth rate prompted the Japanese Government to take the initiative to increase the role of women in the public. However, the ranking of gender equality in Japan is ranked low globally. Therefore, to achieve the SDGs, the urgent goal that must be done is to address gender equality in Japan by integrating the concept of gender in policy and decision making. In this study, the authors will describe the policies issued by the government in integrating gender and collect data on the gender gap that exists in Japan. By using the concept of gender mainstreaming in liberal feminism perspective, the author takes the initiative to find the causes of the factors that cause gender equality in Japan to be unsuccessful. Therefore, this study will explain some of the obstacles to gender equality by looking at what terms have not been implemented by Japan. The author has succeeded in finding that there are two factors that cause gender equality in Japan to be unsuccessful, there are the lack of commitment and understanding of gender by the government and regulatory agencies and the Gender Responsive Budget (ARG) which has no legal provisions.

The power of narratives: Explaining inaction on gender mainstreaming in Uganda’s climate change policy

AbstractMotivationGender mainstreaming has been increasingly viewed as a fundamental element of agricultural climate adaptation policies. However, the expectation that gender‐mainstreaming efforts would contribute towards greater gender equality has been mostly disappointed. Our starting point is this disjuncture between a firm establishment of the gender mainstreaming discourse and the limited visible effects in reducing gender inequalities.PurposeTo understand this disjuncture we examine the meanings through which policy makers relate to, and dis/engage with gender issues. The article draws attention to the role of narratives in micro‐processes of policymaking that support, perpetuate or create resistance against the concept of gender mainstreaming, or against policy change more broadly.Approach and methodsThe study deploys a multi‐step narrative analysis in which we identify story episodes, co‐construct stories, identify and interpret the narratives and finally study these narratives in interaction. The empirical material consists of thirty semi‐standardized expert interviews as well as excerpts from ten multi‐stakeholder meetings on the themes of climate change, agriculture, rural livelihoods and gender in Uganda.FindingsThe analysis reveals a complex ecology of 22 stories, clustered in five main narratives. While most stories unfold a Gender Equality narrative, four competing narratives emerge. Shifts during conversations from the Gender Equality narrative to other narratives reveal that the discursive engagement with gender mainstreaming is accompanied by simultaneous resistance, deconstruction and revocation. These narrative shifts exercise four distinct power effects: They (1) shift blame for ineffective gender implementation; (2) legitimize policy inaction; (3) foreground and naturalize patriarchy; and (4) promote the diversion of resources. The implicit communicative strategies exercise power through ideas (persuade listeners that the equality narrative is inappropriate), power over ideas (gender equality ideas are rejected or frustrated) and power in ideas (entrenched patriarchy ideas are reproduced).Policy implicationsAttention to ideational power through policy narrative contributes to explain implementation issues with gender mainstreaming in Uganda, and is likely to be relevant beyond this case.

Paridad y justicia de género. Algunas reflexiones críticas sobre las políticas de igualdad en España

En la última década España se convirtió en un referente a nivel internacional en materia de políticas de igualdad de género. Sin embargo, la crisis económica ha provocado un aumento de desigualdad, lo que ha puesto de manifiesto la debilidad de los instrumentos adoptados. A pesar de la abundante legislación en esta materia, la realidad social no ha cambiado del todo, incluso se han producido evidentes retrocesos en los últimos años. Esta situación fue puesta de manifiesto en el Informe realizado en 2015 por el Comité de Naciones Unidas para la Eliminación de la discriminación contra la Mujer (CEDAW). Por lo tanto, es urgente revisar el concepto de mainstreaming de género y la adopción de instrumentos de “hard law”. El objetivo debe ser alcanzar una justicia de género basada en tres elementos —identidad, redistribución y participación— y una real democracia paritaria.

The Fragility of Gender Equality Policies in Spain

Within the last decade, Spain has become a model in legislative policies for gender equality at the international level. However, the economic crisis has led to a growth in inequality, which has revealed the weaknesses of the adopted instruments. Despite the large amount of legislation in this area, the social reality has not changed at all, even experiencing a setback over the past few years. This situation was exposed in our country by a report issued in 2015 by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). This report showed the negative effects of the economic crisis and austerity policies on women, even in a context necessitating increased efforts towards women’s rights. Therefore, it is imperative that the concept of gender mainstreaming and the adoption of instruments of “hard law” be revisited. The goal should be to achieve gender justice based on three elements—distribution, identity, and representation—and a real parity democracy.

<em>Mainstreaming</em> de género y cambio social

El artículo profundiza en el concepto de mainstreaming de género, analizando sus dos componentes básicos: (i) su contenido sustantivo que es el enfoque de género, de acuerdo con el cual la desigualdad entre mujeres y varones es un fenómeno sistémico cuya raíz última sería el género entendido como la (re)construcción social de la diferencia entre los sexos y de las relaciones entre ellos; y (ii) el mainstreaming como estrategia para alcanzar la igualdad, estrategia consistente en incorporar la perspectiva de la igualdad de género en todas las normas y en todas las políticas (transversalidad, enfoque global), estrategia que sería complementaria y no excluyente de la igualdad de trato y de las acciones positivas y que aspiraría a ser particularmente incisiva para el logro del mencionado objetivo. Teniendo en cuenta que la meta del mainstreaming de género es la transformación social, la modif icación de las relaciones entre los sexos, así como de sus representaciones sociales y la existencia de una gran ambigüedad en torno a cuál debe ser el sentido y la dirección de los cambios, en el trabajo se argumenta que la transformación social debe ir en la línea de superar tanto el asimilacionismo (asunción de los modelos masculinos por parte de las mujeres), como el dualismo entre mujeres y varones, el mantenimiento de esferas separadas y distintas, pues ambos hacen imposible la consecución de la igualdad real. La transfor- mación social, que requiere incorporar a los varones al cambio, debería orientarse hacia la consecución de una mezcla positiva (a positive form of melding), de un nuevo modelo de sociedad superador del androcentrismo, pues el paradigma de lo humano, susceptible de universalizarse, serían no sólo los valores “masculinos”, sino todas las cualidades, ca- pacidades y posibilidades humanas, tanto las que forman parte del modelo “masculino”, como las que forman parte del modelo “femenino”, pues todas ellas son valores humanos que cualquier ser humano puede practicar.Por último el artículo destaca las potencialidades que encierra la estrategia de Gender Mainstreaming y también los riesgos y las dif icultades que comporta.

Gender Mainstreaming of the Security Sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina: From the Policy Papers to Reality

It is not enough to have knowledge, one must also apply it. It is not enough to have wishes, one must also act.Johann Wolfgang von GoetheIntroductionGender mainstreaming* 1 of the security sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) twenty years ago was perceived as a foreign syntagma and proved very difficult to translate into the three official languages (Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian). The challenge was not only translation but also the transposition of that concept into reality. The link between the concept of gender mainstreaming and security sector tasks and responsibilities was a new topic for BiH society as well as globally. As a post-conflict country, in the last twenty years Bosnia and Herzegovina has gone through reforms in different areas such as police, intelligence, justice, etc. Those reforms were intensified in the period from 2003 until 2008 in the framework of the BiH integration process into the European Union and NATO. At that time, neither the BiH political elite nor representatives of the international community were aware of the benefits of the integration of the gender con- cept in those nor in other reforms in the country. It was women's organizations that started familiarizing the BiH public with the importance of including and applying the concept of gender in security sector reforms, namely to implement United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (UNSCR 1325).2 They first gained financial support from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and other UN organizations in order to implement different programs and projects. Those efforts, commitments, and the influence of these women's organizations led to the government at all levels in Bosnia and Herzegovina establishing in 2003 official gender mechanisms such as the Gender Center of Government of Federation, the Gender Center of Government of Republic Srpska and, in 2004, the Gender Equality Agency at the national level. Their establishment came at a crucial moment for the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming in all areas of public and private life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Only a few years after those gender mechanisms were established they were applied in the drafting of two strategic documents, the Gender Action Plan (GAP)3 for the period 2006-2013 and an Action Plan for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (AP 1325)4 for a period of three years (20102013). Those two documents were not imposed or drafted externally, which was the case with many other documents in Bosnia and Herzegovina from that period. They were produced by the representatives of BiH institutions together with the representatives of NGOs according to local priorities and needs, an important precondition for local ownership and sustainability of the whole process. Because of this, many were hopeful that enacting these documents would have a real and positive effect on the lives of men, women, and children throughout the country.In this article I first give a brief overview of the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina before those national policy documents were adopted and of the post-adoption period. Second, my intention is to analyze the reasons why the adoption of AP 1325 was perceived as a big success in the country as well as the region and at a global level. Third, because I was personally involved in the implementation of the first AP 1325 on behalf of the Ministry of Security and in the drafting of the second AP 1325, my focus will be on the achievements of the Ministry of Security in the implementation process of AP 1325 as well as my personal experience with gender mainstreaming of the security sector in BiH. Finally, in my conclusion I examine the main lessons learned, current challenges, and present my personal view of how the envisaged goals from the documents can bring meaningful and real change to the daily lives of all people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Period Before AP 1325: The Role of Civil Society and International Community in Bosnia and HerzegovinaBetween 2005 and 2007, or almost five years before the implementation of UNSCR 1325, women's advocacy groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina relied on raising awareness through public and media presentations to demonstrate the importance of their implementation in the country. …

Doing Safer Masculinities: Addressing at-Risk Gendered Behaviours on Mine Sites

Doing Safer Masculinities: Addressing at-Risk Gendered Behaviours on Mine Sites

Mainstreaming culture in psychology.

Despite the "awakening" to the importance of culture in psychology in America, international psychology has remained on the sidelines of psychological science. The author recounts her personal and professional experience in tandem with the stages of development in international/cross-cultural psychology. Based on her research in cross-cultural personality assessment, the author discusses the inadequacies of sole reliance on either the etic or the emic approach and points out the advantages of a combined emic-etic approach in bridging global and local human experiences in psychological science and practice. With the blurring of the boundaries between North American-European psychologies and psychology in the rest of the world, there is a need to mainstream culture in psychology's epistemological paradigm. Borrowing from the concept of gender mainstreaming that embraces both similarities and differences in promoting equal opportunities, the author discusses the parallel needs of acknowledging universals and specifics when mainstreaming culture in psychology. She calls for building a culturally informed universal knowledge base that should be incorporated in the psychology curriculum and textbooks.

Gender mainstreaming: myths and measurement in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania

This article critically examines the concept of gender mainstreaming and raises questions about a series of category slippages in debates and discussions. Some key concerns are the way in which women are constructed as a unified analytical category, and how gender equality is frequently reduced to issues of representation. It also critically interrogates how gender mainstreaming initiatives can be undermined by sexist practices such as sexual harassment. Focusing on higher education, it draws on empirical data from the research project ‘Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard’ (sussex.ac.uk/wphegt). Central arguments relate to the call for intersectional analyses and how GM needs to go beyond access and representation and address feminist concerns with the way in which gendered power and privilege are enacted in everyday social relations in higher education institutions.

GENDER EQUALITY POLICY OR GENDER MAINSTREAMING?

The aim of this article is to analyse some of the core conceptual and implementation issues underpinning the process of introducing gender mainstreaming strategy in Hungary. It examines the approach of Hungarian policy makers to gender mainstreaming and evaluates the political framing of some crucial aspects of gender equality. Our argument in this article is twofold. First, we observe that the concept of gender mainstreaming as a cross-sectoral and comprehensive policy tool for achieving gender equality has only been sporadically present and this has mostly been located at the rhetorical level. Hungary has no comprehensive gender equality strategy and no distinctive gender equality policy instruments currently in place. Rather, the promotion of equal opportunity on all grounds has become a powerful policy approach in the last two to three years, often neglecting the specific requirements of gender equality. Secondly, we argue that the influence of the European Union (EU) accession process has had two stages, as far as gender equality policy is concerned in Hungary. The first stage, has referred primarily to the de jure harmonization of Hungarian legislation with relevant EU directives, but has brought very little harmonization at the policy level, and brought limited de facto realization of the rights imposed by the directives. The second stage, identified from mid-2003, is coterminous with Hungary joining the different EU level policy processes. This second stage signaled a shift from legislative harmonization to a more focused policy approach. This stage may be characterized as a direct process of EU-isation on Hungarian policy concepts and tools, such as gender mainstreaming. However, it is too early to judge the practical implications of this development.

Gender mainstreaming in government offices in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos: Perspectives from below

In this article I aim to examine the ways in which gender concerns have been ?mainstreamed? into government activities. I focus on three countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region: Thailand Laos and Cambodia. While gender mainstreaming policies are in place at the national level in these countries the ?evaporation? (Longwe 1995) of such policies at the lower levels has been a problem. The article concentrates on challenges of implementation which exist at provincial/commune and department levels. Drawing on the experience of middle- and low-level government officers I argue here that policy evaporation occurs partly because of lack of political commitment to gender mainstreaming at different levels. Another problem is that the concept of gender mainstreaming itself remains vague and is thus difficult to translate into action. (authors)

Bypassing districts? Implications of sector-wide approaches and decentralization for integrating gender equity in Uganda and Kenya

While the concept of gender mainstreaming has gained acceptance among many national and international development organizations, many obstacles are faced in translating the concept into tangible improvements in the health and well-being of women and men. This paper presents two qualitative case studies, one from Kenya and one from Uganda, of experiences of mainstreaming gender at district level; experiences which are set against the context of decentralization and sector-wide approaches (SWAPs). The conceptual framework of social movement theory, as used by Hafner-Burton and Pollack, is drawn upon to analyze the findings of both case studies. This paper has been written in conjunction with a paper by Theobald et al. which explores gender mainstreaming at national level.

Gender Mainstreaming and Sector-wide Approaches in Health: Key Areas for Debate

This paper explores some of the opportunities and challenges that the increasing move towards sector-wide approaches (SWAps) offer gender mainstreaming. SWAps, as a new approach to aid and development, are growing in number, particularly in more aid-dependent country contexts. The paper introduces what is understood by SWAps and then explores the concept of gender mainstreaming, with particular reference to health. At a theoretical level the paper discusses the potential synergies between the goals of SWAps and gender mainstreaming in terms of promoting equity, efficiency and sustainability in health outcomes. However, early discussions of the SWAps process in the health sector in different countries reveal some emerging tensions and dilemmas for gender mainstreaming strategies, which are discussed. These are the relationship between government and donors, the involvement of district and civil society in the SWAp process, and, possibly, an increasingly biomedical approach to health. The paper concludes by laying out questions for further discussion and experience sharing.