Gender Mainstreaming Strategy Research Articles

Gender mainstreaming in Albanian higher education institutions

Gender equality is a fundamental human right and the foundation for a sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world. Achieving gender equality and women's empowerment is integral to each sustainable development goal. Higher education and research institutions must create a working environment and organisational culture based on equal opportunities and the promotion of good relations based on protected characteristics such as gender, race, disability, or age. The paper aims to examine the experiences of Albanian universities regarding gender mainstreaming. The aim is to understand the level of commitment of Albanian universities to achieving gender equality and to identify gaps and weaknesses. The analysis was based methodologically on gender indicators from several public and non-public Albanian universities and statistical indicators published by INSTAT for all Albanian universities. The analysis focused on gender indicators regarding access to education, progress in career and gender representation in decision-making bodies. The paper found that while implementing a gender mainstreaming strategy is important and shows progress, there are still many challenges. Horizontal segregation is still present. Women are less represented at the top position of academic career progression than their average presence among teaching staff. They remain underrepresented in academic and administrative leadership and decision-making positions in universities. This diagnosis allows for evident actual measures, reinforces existing structures, and defines goals based on the needs detected.

#MeToo movement in Korean arts & culture sector and gender mainstreaming strategies in cultural policy

ABSTRACT This study examines how the #MeToo movement in the Korean arts and culture world has changed the Korean government’s cultural and gender equality policies. First, I discuss the gendered power structure of the Korean arts and culture sector, focusing on the issues raised by this movement in terms of the specificity of the sector, which is a dominant discourse of cultural policy. Second, by exploring that newly organized activist groups through the movement played a significant role as gender governance, I examined how this gender governance overcame the limitations of government gender mainstreaming strategies and reconciled the specificity of the arts and culture sector with gender mainstreaming strategies under the conflicted political circumstances and government policy-making process. It resulted in the ‘mainstreaming of gender equality as an inalienable right of artists’ in the new Artist’ Status and Rights Guarantee Act, beyond the mere reliance on the existing gender mainstreaming tools.

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Policies: Considerations in Health Sectors in Nepal

This article tries to highlight the existing gender equality and social inclusion GESI policies and practices in health sectors in Nepal. Nepal has participated and ratified the gender policies in all Conventions and Conferences. To fulfill this very obligation, it has introduced some legal provisions and made an attempt to implement them. Due to this region, Nepal has started to address the gender issues in health sectors from Interim Constitution 2007AD addresses health as a fundamental right and that have very citizen shall have the right to basic health services free of cost from the state, as provided in law. Ninth, Tenth and Three-Year Interim Plan have pursued gender equality and women’s empowerment through a gender mainstreaming strategy. The governance framework, fundamental rights and directives of the constitution provide the impetus for revising the 2009 Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Strategy of the Health Sector and to align the strategy with the new governance arrangements and state obligations. The institutional structure to lead and coordinate the mainstreaming of GESI into the health system was created in 2012. The Health Sector Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy (2010) provides the foundation for mainstreaming GESI, ensuring that policy development and programme planning are viewed through a create a favourable environment for the use of rights based approaches and more equitable access to healthcare. Implementation of the strategy is guided by the GESI Operational Guidelines (2013). Constitution of Nepal 2015 AD has also considered the rights of women as the right to receive special opportunities based on positive discrimination in education, health, employment, and social security. The Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and the Nepal Health Sector Strategy (2015-2020) embrace the importance of gender equality, and leaving no one behind to achieve health goals.

Gender Mainstreaming in Indonesia’s Bilateral International Development Cooperation

Gender mainstreaming is an important subject to be mindful of in the Indonesian government’s development cooperation with bilateral development partners. Gender conflict is one of the obstacles that countries face when executing national and international development programs. Indonesia is one of the countries that uses a gender mainstreaming technique to incorporate gender problems into development initiatives. The establishment of a gender mainstreaming strategy (PUG) is vital in developing policies, particularly in carrying out bilateral development cooperation. This is significant for Indonesia as an endeavor to decrease inequality in the country, but Indonesia’s weak PUG is one of the country’s impediments to fulfilling national interests. One of the strategies undertaken by Indonesia to integrate gender mainstreaming into international development is through the Triangular South-South Cooperation Forum in order to form a strategic partnership with Afghanistan and Germany. Afghanistan is seen as a potential bilateral partner with aligned interests in promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality. Given that it is not only Indonesia that has national interests, the second-party countries must also have interests and conditions that are not always mutually agreed upon and might be detrimental to Indonesia. Therefore, the dynamics of bilateral cooperation between Indonesia and Afghanistan are interesting to identify, considering that GIZ, as the German representative, is present as a mediator bridging the partnership. Thus, this study aims to explain the strategy for gender mainstreaming in Indonesia’s international development cooperation with bilateral partners, which is also equipped with an analysis of the constraints that affect the outcome of the cooperation.

Challenges to achieve gender equality in South Africa

The article is devoted to achieving gender equality and overcoming gender discrimination in the Republic of South Africa. The analysis of the scientific literature on this issue attests to the variety of problems that negatively affect gender equality in society. The urgency of solving this scientific problem lies in the fact that to improve the situation; it is necessary to accumulate financial and intellectual resources to expand the rights and opportunities of women. For the needs of this study, the methods of conceptual analysis were chosen, which involve a careful study of rational relationships between terms, concepts, variables, definitions, constructions, hypotheses, theories and statements, as well as categorization of their consequences and assumptions. The collection of information for the office study lasted 3 months. The Republic of South Africa was chosen as the case of the study because, starting in 1994, a democratic regime was established in the country, which helped to overcome the problems of racial inequality and discrimination. The normative basis for ensuring gender equality is determined by the second chapter of the International Bill of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The issue of protecting gender inequality in the workplace is also regulated. The study empirically confirms and theoretically proves that despite the legislative regulation of the problem of gender equality and the strengthening of the international community to this issue, women still cannot take on strategic roles and leadership in management decision-making due to gender disparity in both political and administrative positions. To ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and men, which are defined at the legislative level, it is necessary that the top management of companies is aware of the gender equality programs that can be implemented in their respective divisions and that gender awareness is integrated into the organizational culture and processes monitoring. The work emphasizes the need to change the paradigm from a gender-biased to a gender-oriented society. The study results can be helpful for policy makers to implement a gender mainstreaming strategy to promote gender equality.

Cash Transfers to Poor and Vulnerable Households in Nigeria: A Critical Analysis of the Gender Mainstreaming Approach

In 2016, the Federal government of Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari established the National Social Investment Program (NSIP), including the Cash Transfers (CTs) to tackle poverty in the country and prevent vulnerable households from falling further down the poverty line. The CTs program, known as the Household Upliftment Program (HUP) targeted the poorest of the poor for 6 years (2016-2022) by giving N5000 monthly to “poor” households across the 36 States and the Federal Capital territory. As stated in the National Social Safety Nets Project (NASSP) Manual, cash transfer implementation was guided by gender action plans designed in line with the gender mainstreaming strategy, whose objective is to is to ensure equitable representation and participation in the program by all genders. This paper seeks to address two important research questions; what are the specific ways the gender mainstreaming approach was used in the design of the cash transfer program? Is the implementation of the cash transfers in line with the gender mainstreaming approach?

Challenges and strategies for gender mainstreaming policy in smart city development in Indonesia

A smart city is an urban policy innovation that can improve the community's quality of life by promoting environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues. The involvement and participation of civil society in developing smart cities is a major issue in implementing inclusive smart cities. However, gender issues are often forgotten in developing sustainable smart cities. This article examines two issues. First, the importance of gender issues integration in the development of sustainable smart cities in Indonesia. Second, the importance of gender mainstreaming policy in the development of smart cities in Indonesia. This is a desk study or literature study. Data were obtained from research results published in national and international journals. Data was obtained through accredited journal search engines, namely google scholar, SagePub and Researchgate. The research results show that development of smart city in Indonesia is not yet gender responsive, causing gender inequality gender and excluding women from development. To respond to this, thus there is a need for gender mainstreaming policies in developing smart cities through an overview of the challenges of gender mainstreaming in developing smart cities. Thus, this research recommends a gender mainstreaming strategy as a policy in developing smart cities in Indonesia. Gender mainstreaming policy in smart city development need to be to create a smart city life that is just, inclusive and involves women in development.

Gender mainstreaming efforts in disaster management plans: Case study West Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia

Women are significantly vulnerable to disasters due to gender inequality. Many studies suggest that gender mainstreaming can help minimize women's vulnerability in a disaster. While national policies stipulate that disaster documents should be women-sensitive, no study identifies how local policies integrate gender-mainstreaming strategies within. This research identifies whether the current disaster management plans from seven regencies and municipalities in West Nusa Tenggara Province, one of the disaster-prone provinces in Indonesia, have included gender mainstreaming strategy in all disaster risk management (DRM) phases. Content analysis, a widely used qualitative research technique, was performed in the study. It revealed that every region had adopted at least one gender mainstreaming strategy in each DRM phase, except for West Lombok and East Lombok Regency. The result shows that there are commitments to mainstream gender within the system and to encourage equal access. However, relevant strategies supporting women's participation in DRM were absent in all investigated regions.

Gender‐focused or gender mainstreaming programmes? The gender dimension of international aid

AbstractAid in support of gender equality and women's empowerment has gathered significant momentum over the past decade and has also sparked a renewed debate over the effectiveness of foreign aid. Is gender aid a panacea that will help the recipient countries confront the challenges of the gender inequality deeply ingrained in their societies, or is it just a placebo pretending to be effective? Is there any difference between gender‐focused aid and gender mainstreaming aid in terms of aid effectiveness? To answer these key questions, this article examines the impact of gender aid on gender inequality using a sample of 116 recipient countries that covers the period from 2010 to 2019. By adopting a hybrid method that incorporates fixed‐ and random‐effects models, we obtain results indicating that increasing amounts of gender mainstreaming aid over time successfully reduce gender inequality and close the gender gap. In stark contrast, gender‐focused aid lacks the statistical significance needed to prove its potency. In addition to confirming gender aid's effectiveness, this article provides further policy implications regarding the gender mainstreaming strategy in the field of international development, particularly when considered in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Challenging gender mainstreaming through the narrative of Islamic youth organization: A case study on Persis in Indonesia

ABSTRACT Implementing gender mainstreaming policies has become one important strategy for solving gender-based issues in society, especially in developing countries like Indonesia. However, one anomaly that becomes a concern in Indonesia’s gender mainstreaming strategy is how religious youth organizations would conflictingly react to this issue, as they may become a determining factor in how society would shift in dealing with gender issues. This study investigates the youth in Persis, a prominent Islamic youth organization in Indonesia, to understand gender mainstreaming in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach and case study design, the study revealed that informants have doubts, skepticism, and slight conflict towards gender mainstreaming policies, due to misunderstandings and differences in personal and religious beliefs. This study provides insights into the gender mainstreaming views of a religious youth organization and how gender-based policies, programs, and research on gender have been and could be implemented in Indonesia.

The Gender Mainstreaming Strategy as a Solution for the Constitutional Rights Violation of Female Circumcision

In recent years, violence against women has continued. Culture, beliefs, and the role of community and religious leaders are the reasons for the practice of female circumcision in East Java Province. To the perpetrators, this activity is reasonable. This article is a policy study with a gender perspective approach and uses qualitative methods and quantitative data. The results of this study reveal the insights of circumcision practitioners in women who are less aware of the effects of female circumcision, low education levels, and trust and pressure from the family (internal) and the environment (external). Moreover, the main rules are legalised as the 1945 Constitution explicitly outlines government interference in community control, including social and cultural. The gender mainstreaming strategy (PUG) has been implemented to eliminate activities that violate women's rights to health and other constitutional rights.

Case Study of Challenges Gender Focal Person Facing: The Case of College of Humanities, Addis Ababa University of Ethiopia.

Higher education’s responses and decisive roles to bring consistent and persistent change to socio-political and economic influences that affect gender equality at the nation-state and university levels has unparalleled importance that can bring tangible behavioral and institutionalized change toward gender equality. The gender focal point/person is the key staff member within an organization dealing with gender mainstreaming strategy and build capacities for incorporating gender into work and advocating for increased attention to and integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender mainstreaming is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. This article identified lack resource and facilities, lack of attention/recognition, and language barrier as challenges that hinder gender focal person to accomplish her responsibilities. Preparing and drafting policy is a good and guiding step for institutionalizing and tackling identified problems, however the main decisive factor that enhances success is determined and committed leaders who are ready to implement and support it.

Finding the right mix: re-evaluating the road to gender-equality in countering violent extremism programming

ABSTRACT The adoption of gender mainstreaming strategies has become an increasingly common expectation within countering terrorism and violent extremism policy and programming. Through comparative case study examination of two iterations of a Strengthening Resilience to Violent Extremism programme, this article shows that practitioners are often left struggling to design effective and transformative strategies that can overcome practical and conceptual barriers. This is due to several intersecting and compounding elements, including institutional conceptual limitations around gender and gender equality in the security context, a weak evidence base on how and why gender plays a role in violent extremism, and a lack of effective feminist knowledge transfer and co-creation processes between academic and practitioner researchers.

Pembuktian Strategi Pengarusutamaan Gender (PuG): Analisis Capaian Indeks Pemberdayaan Gender di Indonesia

This study aims to prove the Gender Mainstreaming strategy which is analyzed from the achievements of the Gender Empowerment Index from 2010 to 2020. To prove the Gender Mainstreaming strategy, the author uses an index measurement approach from the indicators forming the Gender Empowerment Index which is then analyzed descriptively. It was found that the implementation of the Gender Mainstreaming strategy in Indonesia has not been optimal. The average achievement of the gender empowerment index from 2010 to 2020 was 71.39, which is still far from the perfect ratio of 100. Judging from its forming indicators, it was found that the representation of women in parliament from 2010 to 2020 was still below 30 percent, then women as the professional workforce are still growing at 40 percent which has not yet reached the 50 percent equality level, and the contribution of women's income has experienced an increasing trend which reflects that women have been included in the workforce, but the increase has been slow.

Pembuktian Strategi Pengarusutamaan Gender (PuG): Analisis Capaian Indeks Pemberdayaan Gender di Indonesia

This study aims to prove the Gender Mainstreaming strategy which is analyzed from the achievements of the Gender Empowerment Index from 2010 to 2020. To prove the Gender Mainstreaming strategy, the author uses an index measurement approach from the indicators forming the Gender Empowerment Index which is then analyzed descriptively. It was found that the implementation of the Gender Mainstreaming strategy in Indonesia has not been optimal. The average achievement of the gender empowerment index from 2010 to 2020 was 71.39, which is still far from the perfect ratio of 100. Judging from its forming indicators, it was found that the representation of women in parliament from 2010 to 2020 was still below 30 percent, then women as the professional workforce are still growing at 40 percent which has not yet reached the 50 percent equality level, and the contribution of women's income has experienced an increasing trend which reflects that women have been included in the workforce, but the increase has been slow.

Implementation of Gender Responsive Policies in Higher Education: A Study at Three Universities in North Sumatra

One of the problems that are often faced related to the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in Higher Education is Do Higher Education Have Policies, Programs, Activities, and Budgeting by paying attention to the needs of men and women in the Governance of the Tridharma of Higher Education through the Gender Mainstreaming Strategy . Based on these conditions, the purpose of this study is to find out whether universities have Gender Responsive Policies, Programs, Activities and Budgeting to build gender sensitivity and commitment of policy makers to make Higher Education Gender Responsive. In addition, this research will produce publications in accredited national journals in Sinta-2 and additional outputs in the form of Copyright in the form of books with ISBN. The research method uses a qualitative research design with a case study approach. Where the subject of this research will be taken with a purposive sampling approach. The primary data collection techniques used in-depth interviews and documentation. The collected data is then analyzed using a qualitative approach with an interactive model as proposed by Miles and Huberman, namely; Data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing/verification.The results of the research show firstly that the three universities representing universities in the city of Medan in general have not yet become gender-responsive universities. This can be seen from the absence of policies, programs, activities and budgets that accommodate the needs of all lines, both men, women, children, disabilities and others. Second, the lack of gender sensitivity and commitment from policy makers to make it a Gender Responsive University . ThirdPSGA does not yet have a role in providing understanding to structural officials and the academic community about the formation and development of Gender Responsive Higher Education. However, one thing that attracts Islamic universities is to implement gender-responsive universities.

Challenges and opportunities of gender mainstreaming strategy implementation in public sectors: The case of Women and Children Affairs Office, Bahir Dar City Administration, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

AbstractGender Mainstreaming is an organizational strategy to bring a gender perspective to all aspects of an institution's policy. This research aimed to investigate the challenges and opportunities of gender mainstreaming implementation by taking women, children, and youth affairs office of Bahir Dar City administration as a case. To do so, a qualitative research method with a case study research design was employed. To select the participants, purposive and availability sampling techniques were employed. Interview, focus group discussion, and document review were used as major data collection instruments. The data were analyzed thematically. The findings revealed that, absence of gender focal person, compartmentalization, lack of commitments, lack of training, lack of theoretical and technical skills about gender, and insufficient budget were the identified challenges. The presence of evaluation among heads at the council, existence of policies, and cooperative leadership were identified as an opportunity. To sum up, there are numerous challenges that hinder its monitoring and evaluation activities to mainstream gender even if there were a few opportunities that facilitate their activities. Based on the findings, the regional government should support and monitor the respective office challenges.

From the Inside Out: Gender Mainstreaming and Organizational Culture Within the Aid Sector.

Many international non-government organizations (INGOs) implement interventions designed to promote gender equality, investing significant resources into embedding gender considerations into programmes through the strategy of gender mainstreaming. However, despite their altruistic mission, INGOs place less focus on addressing culture and power hierarchies within their organizations. This article suggests that many INGOs fail to walk the talk on gender equality. Through an analysis of recent challenges facing the development and humanitarian aid sector, including gaps in safeguarding and #AidToo, this paper emphasizes the importance of addressing gender equality from the inside out. It draws on feminist perspectives, the notion of the “deep structure” of organizations and the author’s own experiences to argue for the need to address gendered, racial and colonial power hierarchies within the organizational culture of INGOs. The article argues that it is no longer sufficient to reduce gender mainstreaming and inclusion to programming interventions, and that INGOs need to reflexively and intentionally tackle power and inequalities within their own culture and structures.

Accounting for gender in climate policy advice: adapting a gender impact assessment tool to issues of climate change

ABSTRACT This article discusses how gender impact assessment (GIA) can be adapted and utilised to better include gender aspects in climate policy advice. The article explains the re-modelling of the equality governance tool gender impact assessment in the context of climate change and adaptation policies, programmes and projects on behalf of the German Environment Agency. While the focus of the tool remains on women and men, it operates with an intersectional and non-binary gender+ concept and understanding of sex and gender relations. The main novelties of the tool are its evidence-based educational elements and that it encompasses seven gender dimensions addressing the main areas of life that play critical roles in producing and reproducing gender disparities. This allows for the identification of how climate policies interact with gender relations and can make substantial contributions to gender equality, as well as of areas in which addressing gender issues could render climate policies more effective. Drawing on the case of the GIA tool in Germany, we argue that core insights gained during the tool development and testing can be applied to gender mainstreaming strategies of climate policies and interventions in other jurisdictions, as well as holding potential for adoption in other policy domains.

Mexican women’s emotions to resist gender stereotypes in rural tourism work

Understandings of emotions and their role in ordering social life has been a fruitful feminist contribution to cultural and social studies. Under this theoretical perspective, affective or emotional responses illustrate women’s strategies to cope with or resist productive and spatial limitations produced by traditional gender roles and stereotypes. Since the 2000s, tourism and gender researchers have turned their attention to emotions, although their intersection of gender stereotypes in rural tourism has been limited. We rely on Ahmed’s framework on emotions and other theoretical contributions on socio-cultural spaces, embodied emotions, affective practices and gendered work to investigate gender roles, stereotypes and tourism productive and spatial relations in Mexican rural contexts. This context shed light on roles and gender stereotypes and their connections with the affective spatial practices experienced by women. A total of 49 Mexican women were interviewed from 2015 to 2018. Qualitative content analysis is employed to examine interview data, using inductive and deductive approaches. In addition, non-participant observation, document review, and field notes enrich and complement the interview data. Emotions are shown to mediate women’s lived experiences of gendered rural tourism work and the potential of emotional responses to contest social norms in opening new paths to surpass women’s relatively weaker positions in rural societies and to negotiate inequalities. Women continue to experience contradictory messages and tensions generated in both the family and the community, even with the growth in gender mainstreaming strategies; we propose a framework to contest traditional gender roles and to improve women’s affective spatial practices in rural contexts.