Gender mainstreaming
The concept of gender mainstreaming was first proposed at the 1985 Third World Conference on Women and has subsequently been pushed in the United Nations development community.
This approach will often involve looking at documents, resolutions and peace agreements to see how they reproduce the narratives of gender in a political context.
For example, liberal feminism is strongly invoked by mainstreaming through the binary approach of gender in strict relation to the public sphere of policymaking.
[3] According to Jacqui True, a Professor of politics and international relations, "[e]very policy or piece of legislation should be evaluated from the perspective of whether or not it reduces or increases gender inequalities.
"[4] Puechguirbal takes a discursive approach to argue that in order to successfully mainstream a gendered perspective in politics, language needs to be reevaluated and used to change the parameters of how women are perceived.
Historically, documents concerning international agreements, peacekeeping arrangements and legal resolutions have perpetuated stereotypes that disempower women.
Much of feminist research has found that returning to 'normal' is of little comfort for women, who were burdened by the patriarchal systems that were in place before conflict broke out.
As Handrahan[8] notes, the international community involved in much of PCPB "tolerates high levels of violence against women in their own societies."
Policy that prioritized gender in its applications and goals would seek to build a society where women are better off than they were before conflict broke out.
This was to encourage the involvement of Nicaraguan women in the country's economic, social, cultural, and political development and to promote a change in mainstream gender constructs.
[15] More specifically, the INIM aims to institute in all sectors a system of gender-focus indicators and to achieve equal opportunity in all State body programming.
The discussions formed a plan, which defined patriarchy, sexism, and gender stereotypes to reduce inequality in education, employment, and violence.
[18] In late 2006, the city council of Vienna, capital of Austria, ordered several gender mainstreaming measures for public facilities and areas.
Pictograms and information display charts feature a male silhouette holding a baby in his arms to advise passengers on the underground railway to offer seating to parents with children.
[19][20] Emergency escape paths are marked by a square table featuring a long-haired lady running in her high heel boots.
"[34] More specifically, gender mainstreaming was introduced in 1991 in the European Community as an element of the Third Action Programme on Equal Opportunities.
This article states the following: "In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between men and women".
This network, created in 1985, consists of NGOs, women's organizations, gender experts, and activists active in development.
Women in Development Europe monitors European economic and developmental policies and practices[39][33]: 52 and is involved at many phases in policy-making activities as knowledge source.
[39] Maria Stratigaki, Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Policy of Panteion University, claims that the transformative effect of gender mainstreaming was minimal and its application has led to contradictory results.
As Charlesworth notes, "[i]n the most readily measurable area, the United Nations' employment of women in professional and managerial posts, progress has been glacial.
[42] True claims that mainstreaming gender does not end in simply increasing the number of women within a specific institution.
[43] The danger of gender mainstreaming is that large compromises can be made for small gains and can lead to what feminist and sociology professor Gail Dines calls "trickle-down feminism"—i.e., "working to increase the ranks of women in elite jobs without a strategy for wider economic and social change represents a kind of "trickle-down feminism.
"[44] Charlesworth remarks that "[a]lthough it has not been difficult to encourage the adoption of the vocabulary of mainstreaming, there is little evidence of monitoring or follow-up.
When mainstreaming decisions within international organizations are made by elites can undermine the input of local women's groups.
When institutions reach out to the women's rights movement, it demonstrates transparency, inclusiveness, accountability and the implementation process is more likely to be monitored with diligence.
