Gender mainstreaming in the European Union

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Important Definitions
2.1 Definition of gender
2.2 Definition of mainstreaming
2.3 Definition and origins of the gender mainstreaming

3. The Development of gender mainstreaming in European policy
3.1 Gender mainstreaming and the European Union
3.2 The development of women’s politics
3.3 Women in the European Constitution

4. Gender gaps in the European Union
4.1 Gender gaps in the economy
4.2 Gender gaps in voting

5. Conclusion

Bibliographical References

Internet Sources

1. Introduction

The European Union is coming closer together and women such as Angela Merkel, the Federal Chancellor of Germany, play ever more important roles in the definition of European policy. Furthermore, the European gender-policies have been reaching importance since the Fourth International Conference on Women in Beijing.

The strive for equal rights mirrors the composition of the European Parliament, where women are becoming more prominent, but not yet as prominent as men. Additionally not only women as politicians develop since the emergence of gender mainstreaming. This political strategy comprises the behaviour of politicians, the behaviour of the society whether they go voting or not and finally the economy, also regarded from both sides - the employer and the employee.

It always was and still is a long and exhausting struggle for women in politics and the economy to be taken seriously. Although women obtain a high profile they often do not reach the same important positions as men do. As we can see in the European Commission - there are eight women and 19 men. Men represent hereby the most important departments.

Due to those facts the thesis of this term paper is: “Due to the modern European policy concerning the gender mainstreaming women are not yet equal players in the economical and political system of the European Union”.

My aim is to show the development as well as the current situation of women in the economy as well as in European politics. Women indeed reach higher level positions in the European politics and large enterprises nowadays and they also have almost the same rights as men have in Western Europe. But they still cannot reach the same degree of responsibility as their male colleagues do. In some areas of politics as well as business the emancipation is already quite sophisticated. Although in Germany we have a woman as a chancellor, there are still a higher number of men dominating economy and politics.

2. Important Definitions

In this chapter the major terms of gender mainstreaming and the gender mainstreaming itself will be explained. This knowledge will be the basis of the term paper.

2.1 Definition of gender

First of all it is important to differentiate between sex and gender. The sex identity is a physical difference between man and woman and defines the biological function of chemical hormones (Ford, 2002, p.7). The most decisive difference is the fact that only women are able to give birth to and breastfeed a child. Gender, on the other hand, is described as a society’s interpretation of sexual personalities and certain norms and values of each gender that differ in almost every culture (ibid). The author claims that the human nature consists of biology and environment. But the biology, which means the simple sex differences, might not be the main barrier to women’s equality (ibid, p. 8). Scott claims that gender implies what it means to be either a man or a woman in a certain place and time (1998, p.7). Additionally, the author states that the set meanings belonging to masculinity or femininity change “from era to era and from culture to culture”. That means that people’s attitudes towards masculine and feminine attributes differ from culture to culture which underlines the notion of Bothfeld, Gronbach and Riedmüller (2002, p.22). The society often puts males on a level with masculinity and females with femininity but in this way they do not automatically go together. Masculine women and feminine men exist as well (Scott, 1998, p.7). Further Scott argues that gender is something social. It describes how, in particular cultures, men and women are typically supposed to present them (ibid). This leads again to the conclusion that gender is something completely different than the sex. To illustrate that the author mentions that gender behaviour is something that can be learned and that even can be changed. Gender is socially constructed and each one develops unique understandings of gender that includes social class, ethnic background, place of resident and generation (ibid). Recapitulating it is to say that gender is more much more than the sex. It means a social and cultural gender-role which can be adopted or rejected (Bothfeld et al., 2002, p.22).

2.2 Definition of mainstreaming

The term mainstreaming is often coupled with inequality. Mainstreaming is described as a process that entails rethinking of people, either in the daily life or in the policy concerning discrimination and disadvantages, including ethnicity, class and disability (Scottish Office, 1998). Mainstreaming also contains the intent to remove imbalances and inequalities in society. It is a shared responsibility that concerns women and men for the same part (ibid).

Mazey claims that mainstreaming is based on perceptibility of gender differences between women and men concerning their socio-economic status (2001, p.7). Furthermore, it is stated that mainstreaming contains a particular policy style as well as resources and certain techniques used in politics and the economy. Mainstreaming is not an instrument that is to be used once, it is rather a constant line that should be drawn continuously throughout the whole policy (ibid, p.15).

2.3 Definition and origins of the gender mainstreaming

The strategy of gender mainstreaming became famous through the policy of the European Union and international organizations such as the United Nations. According to Bothfeld, Gronbach and Riedmüller the roots lie in the worldwide feminist movements and its experiences (2002, p.19). In the first three International Conferences on Women the first recommendations for the advancement of women were adopted. Although the national governments have accepted those recommendations, they have not yet realized them (ibid). Finally, at the Fourth International Conference on Women in Beijing, the new political strategy got a name: Gender Mainstreaming (ibid). In reference to the World Women policy this means that the government of each country and in each area of policy has to research the effects of their policies on women (ibid).

In 1993 on the European level, women were already able to accomplish equal opportunities for women and men and in 1995 the strategy of gender mainstreaming was officially defined by the Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities. This strategy was supposed to be considered for each political activity (Bothfeld et al., 2002, p.20). Another important step in the development of the gender mainstreaming was the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1996. This treaty was signed by the 15 member-states of the European Union. They have signed a pledge to use the gender mainstreaming actively in their own public policies (ibid). Since that time the strategy gets updated and substantiated regularly in the political action-programmes (Bothfeld et al., 2002, p.20).

The Commission of the European Communities points out that the gender mainstreaming should mobilize general policies for the function of achieving gender equality by “actively and openly taking into account at the planning stage their possible effect on the respective situations of men and women” (2006, p.5). According to The Council of Europe gender equality is supposed to be a visible participation of both, men and women, in all areas of private life, public and policy. It is mentioned that gender inequality is something different than gender differences. Gender inequality is something that can be changed, for example gender gaps in high pay. Gender differences are something more biological. Men, for example will never be able to give birth to children (Mazey, 2001, p.1).

To summarise the content of gender mainstreaming it is to say that this equality strategy is a long-run strategy which strives to achieve gender equality by “’engendering’ the policy-making progress” as Mazey states (ibid, p.9).

3. The Development of gender mainstreaming in European policy

Gender inequalities, gender differences and gender policy-making differ on almost every continent. The European Union has shown great efforts and also major competencies concerning the development and strengthening of gender mainstreaming. This chapter shows the development and also the current situation of gender policies and the gender mainstreaming in the European Union.

3.1 Gender mainstreaming and the European Union

After the Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 the European Union got involved with gender mainstreaming and gender equality as an instrument of their policy. The gender mainstreaming has been used for achieving this goal. It became a leading but also conflicting policy, which affiliated gender deliberations into almost all aspects of development (Carbone/Lister 2006, p.19). The authors state that gender mainstreaming was a reaction to the cognition that “women in development” offices within agencies were undermanned and felt dismissed. “Women in development” projects and policies on the other hand focussed too restricted on women and the contempt of men and the ratio between the two genders (ibid). Gender mainstreaming implies that both sexes have to get involved in setting and planning the “development agenda”. As a result the needs and interests of men and women concur in utilisation. Barriers for the gender mainstreaming are mostly made up of disability, race and age (ibid). The European Union went on developing its gender agenda in the run-up to the Treaty of Amsterdam. The 1995 notification on “Integrating Gender issues in Development Cooperation” by the European Commission was directly followed in 1996 by the “Incorporating Equal Opportunities for Women and Men into all Community policies and activities” by a Commission Communication (Carbone/Lister, 2006, p.19). Also the European Council has published “The Recommendation on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision progress”. This recommendation referred to the Beijing Platform for Action and it says that balanced participation in policy was a fundament for democracy (ibid). The Treaty of Amsterdam, which was effected in 1996, activated the European Union’s gender policy by repeating and depressing previous assignations concerning equality in employment and abatements of inequalities. The Treaty of Amsterdam also allowed the Council of the Ministers to engage in discriminative activities concerning race, ethnicity, religion, age, disability or sex (ibid).

Those conventions have as well appeared in 2000 in the Treaty of Nice. Lister and Carbone mention that gender mainstreaming started as a development activity and grew into more general European policy-making. In the context of development and external relations it has reached practicability in the European policies such as the “Community Framework Strategy on Gender Equality 2001 until 2005 (Carbone/Lister, 2006, p.20). The authors mention that the profoundness of previous gender activities has been strengthened.

A further important instrument for the gender mainstreaming in the European Union is the European Parliament. It actively promotes the gender mainstreaming and since 1999 the Committee on Women’s Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities has been “monitoring the Commission’s performance on gender issues” (ibid, p.20). The Committee itself was noted for critical views on subjects concerning the gender regulations and they also got involved with gender marginal groups such as women in Afghanistan and Iraq (ibid).

It is not to say that all of the EU member states support gender equality issues with the same effort. The authors note that the British and Austrian presidencies of 1998 and also the policies of the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and France have been active supporters of the gender mainstreaming. Italy, Ireland, Greece and Portugal on the other hand have been less enthusiastic with regard to such strong gender policies (Carbone/Lister 2006, p.20).

Female EU commissioners as Anna Diamantopoulou and also the Equality Group of Commissioners led by President Santer assured that gender issues stayed on top of the programmes (ibid, p.20).

As a result it is to say that the gender mainstreaming in the European Union is not yet implemented completely today.

3.2 The development of women’s politics

Contrary to classical politics including the electoral, party, or institutional behaviour of all participants the women’s political behaviour is more complex (Ford, 2002, p.5). Women were legally excluded from most forms of political participation until at least 1920. The distribution of segregated ideologies and also the power of patriarchy limited women’s opportunities to get involved with politics, as Ford argues (ibid, p.6). Although women were seen as “political outsiders” when they still had no suffrage they developed tactics, carried out a wide range of activities and cared about issues that were indeed keenly political (ibid). The author refers hereby to public demonstrations, organized by women as for example the so called “Anti-Tea Leagues” in America where women boycotted English tea to protest high taxes. During the Civil Wars and the Revolution, woman took part in the theatre of war but they also participated in traditional tasks such as nursing, sewing clothes and cooking (Ford, 2002, p.7). Ford states that those diverse roles have been used for an early “political recognition” even though women had not gained political power yet (ibid). Since women were excluded from the constitutional work they started organizing through social movements as well as voluntary associations. In the early twentieth century forceful women’s organizations composed a model for the development of the welfare state. Women were holistically active in many movements with the ambition to abolish the welfare state (ibid). During the 1930s political campaigns began to be more modern than in the past. At that time women joined political activities and campaigns by performing duties that fit to their gender role, such as “providing food, acting as hostesses and social organizers and cleaning up afterwards”. It is mentioned that women act like that because they wanted to call attention on themselves. Male observers even recognized their behaviour and they took it as a partisan diligence which was similar to the behaviour of men. According to Alexis de Tocqueville the new detected behaviour of women was seen as something very new. Instead of doing the chores, women started listening “to political speeches” (Ford, 2002, p.7). Although men still expect women to support their classic “gender roles” women went on acting politically and participating actively in politics even before they were awarded the suffrage (ibid).

The world-wide struggle for women’s equality got new impulses through the birth of the United Nations and the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. But nevertheless international communities still ignored the injustice of gender inequalities until the First World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975 (United Nations Development Programme, 2000, p.12). Accordingly, in 1979, women’s rights were assigned in an international human rights instrument for the first time in history. The “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women” became effective in 1981. This convention has 139 Member States in 2000 and another 44 countries have accepted the treaty with certain constrictions. But nonetheless women’s participation in governance is still not as high as the men’s participation (ibid). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) states that women cannot “reach full equality with men in any sphere” as long as there is no complete gender equality in governance.

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