Scottish Office: Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities

Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities

Section 3: ‘Mainstreaming’ in government - the wider picture

Case Studies of ‘mainstreaming’ Initiatives

This section of the report summarises a selection of ‘mainstreaming’ initiatives at various national, provincial/regional and local levels. It is drawn from three main written sources: The Council of Europe (1998) Final Report Of The Group of Specialists on ‘Mainstreaming’; the EOC synthesis report of its recent transnational research on ‘mainstreaming’; and the forthcoming European Commission funded report Overview State of the Art Study of Research on Women in Political, Economic and Social Decision Making in Europe (Lovenduski and Stephenson, 1998, forthcoming) together with materials from various country reports by contributing experts. It also draws upon a University of Edinburgh research project on equal opportunities and local government, which is nearing completion. Supplementary information was gathered from selected government web sites in Europe and elsewhere. It must be noted that this does not constitute an exhaustive survey, this was not possible within the time scale of the research.

Case studies do not necessarily involve parliamentary-based actors on an explicit basis although it must be remembered that the successful formulation, implementation and monitoring of these initiatives is largely dependent upon political will which is lodged at both executive and parliamentary/local council levels.

Germany: compulsory progress reports and the handbook on equal opportunities.

The machinery to implement equal opportunities in Germany is partly in the form of ministries at Federal and Länder level holding the portfolio for equal opportunities and women’s affairs. In some cases the same task is integrated in a combination of different portfolios, such as the Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Some Länder have regional level Equality Officer, reporting directly to the prime minister. In addition, over 1,500 local and sub-regional equality counsellors (called kommunale Gleichstellungsbeauftragte or Frauenbeauftragte) are active all over the country. They are all concerned with the implementation of equal opportunities in general.

There is a degree of ‘mainstreaming’ in the sense that all government departments at Federal and Länder level are required to involve Ministries and Länder level equality officers in the drafting of legislation to make sure that the equal opportunities dimension and impact are taken into account. They must also be consulted by other departments before these take action in fields which are politically relevant to women. In a number of our parliamentary case studies, parliamentary committees worked closely with their Länder level Equality Officer/ Ministry. The equalities legislation of some Länder , for example Lower Saxony, requires monitoring and annual or bi-annual progress reports presented to parliament. This exercise provides a constant up-date of relevant figures and raises questions to be analysed by research and study.

Another example of a ‘mainstreaming’ project in Germany is The Manual on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (Handbuch Chancengleichheit für Frau und Mann). It was initiated by a group of women holding leadership positions: the President of Federal Parliament, a member of Federal Parliament, the equality counsellor of the umbrella organisation of German cities and municipalities. They convinced one of the major publishing houses for law and economics to start a manual with a provision of up-date information on policy issues, the relative position of women and men in the public, political, economic and social sectors and other reference materials.

Canada: British Columbia

The provincial government of British Columbia (B.C) has developed an integrated programme for gender equality in government. Government wide efforts to achieve gender equality are coordinated by the Ministry of Women's Equality, but work is initiated and implemented in all ministries. The primary ‘mainstreaming’ instrument is ‘Gender Lens’, formalised as a guide produced by the Ministry of Women's Equality in 1997 which gives detailed guidance on gender-inclusive policy and programme development. The Ministry also provides expert advice. Figure 8 below reproduces an extract of the guide which deals with the initial identification of the gender dimensions of a policy issue and steps to ensure meaningful consultation.

Figure 8: Extract from Gender Lens. British Columbia (Canada), Ministry of Women's Equality (1997).

Extract from Gender Lens: A guide to gender-inclusive policy and program development.

HOW TO ENSURE A GENDER-INCLUSIVE IDENTIFICATION OF THE ISSUE

Identify and define the issue so that you take into account key factors affecting women and men. For example, keep in mind that women are under-represented in positions of influence in our society. This means that large, powerful organizations, such as business, professional and labour organizations, are primarily led by men. Their framing of an issue is unlikely to reflect women's perspectives. Furthermore, because women do not have economic equality, women and women's organizations have few resources to present their point of view to government.

Find out what women's organizations and researchers with expertise in women's issues have to say about the issue. Doing this may help to uncover perspectives you might not have thought of. The Ministry of Women's Equality maintains mailing lists of B.C. women's organizations (see List of Resources), as well as a comprehensive library on issues affecting women's lives. You may find these resources useful at this and later stages of the policy/program development process.

Provide opportunities for men and women from affected and disadvantaged groups to lead in identifying and defining the issue. For example, if your policy/program affects aboriginal people, do not assume that aboriginal organizations speak for aboriginal women and men. Seek the direct input of both aboriginal women and men.

Make sure you consider the diversity of women in identifying and defining the issue. The interests and concerns of white, middle-class, able-bodied women will differ considerably from those of aboriginal women, immigrant and visible minority women, and women with disabilities. The provincial government has developed a number of tools which you may find useful in respecting the diversity of men and women in policy/program development (see List of Resources).

Involve women and men in the community in identifying and defining the issue.

(source: http://www.weq.gov.bc.ca/GENERAL/Gender-Lens/fazeone.html)

The Justice gender equality initiative

An example of ‘mainstreaming’ in operation can be seen in the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Gender Equality Initiative aimed at securing equality for women in law and the administration of justice. It works with the Ministry for Women’s Equality and with other ministries, including Skills, Training and Labour; Social Services; Health; Education; Aboriginal Affairs; and the ministry responsible for immigration and multiculturalism, who develop policy and provide related services that have a direct effect on women's experience of the justice system in B.C. In addition to the provincial government, other justice system partners - the police, the judiciary, the legal community and numerous non-governmental organizations - are recognised to play key roles that affect women's experiences of the justice system and are involved in the initiative.

The Ministry produces an annual report of its progress which also serves as a basis for annual consultation with those individuals and groups interested in the priorities and proposed activities that comprise the Gender Equality Plan. Key areas of work since 1994 have included domestic violence, child abuse and sexual abuse, and community safety. Changes have also been made to the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program as a result of consulation and gender lens analysis. For example, new regulations have made it easier for the courts to obtain information about assets of the absent parents, and overdue payments are subject to interest charges. In addition, British Columbia has led the way in addressing the problem of enforcing orders beyond provincial boundaries. To assist in locating persons in default on child support payments, they negotiated an agreement on behalf of all jurisdictions across Canada that provides access to motor vehicle information through the Interprovincial Records Exchange database¹²

Flanders

In response to recommendations resulting from the United Nations conference in Beijing in 1995 the Flemish and federal governments have both launched attempts to begin monitoring all government policy in terms of compliance with objectives of ‘emancipation’. An example of this sort of check-listing in the interests of ‘mainstreaming’ is the Flemish Gender Impact Assessment tool. It is based upon its Dutch predecessor and was developed by academic researchers in 1997, at the request of the Flemish authorities. It is a modest instrument, which helps to assess policy proposals on their eventual differential impact on women and men in order to adapt these proposals, to make sure that discriminatory effects are neutralised and that gender equality is promoted in all policy areas. The Flemish Gender Impact Assessment consists of three steps, i.e. to trace the gender dimension of a policy proposal, to estimate its size and to formulate alternatives where necessary. In summary, the instrument helps to recognise a problem, to assess its dimension and to find a solution for it.

The instrument was modified and simplified from the more sophisticated Dutch prototype to take into account the fact that Flanders had little or no tradition of gender equality work. Equalities work is hampered by the lack of gender disaggregated statistics which map the relative positions of women and men in society at either national or regional/ community level. The instrument does, however, still require some knowledge of gender issues for its correct implementation and therefore depends on the administration’s capacity to develop such knowledge.

‘Nonetheless, the first step of the instrument can be applied without being a gender expert. So, even if the user has difficulties applying the second and the third steps, s/he is able to detect eventual gender blindness and false assumptions in the first step. The instrument itself has therefore been designed to stimulate awareness-raising among policy makers: being confronted with an instrument making you look at your own policy proposal from a different angle helps to develop new perspectives.’ ¹³

The instrument is accompanied by a handbook, explaining the aims and concerns behind such a tool, as well as its operation.

The Flemish Gender Impact Assessment is an interesting example for countries with little or no tradition of gender equality work and with few of the prerequisites or facilitating conditions for ‘mainstreaming’. The tool has not yet been applied on a large scale. Therefore, it is not known how this instrument will work in the daily policy process.¹⁴

Netherlands - Gender Impact Assessment

The Dutch Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) was commissioned by the Dutch Equality Division and constructed by academic researchers in 1994. The aim of the project was to construct an instrument that could assess the impact on gender relations of any policy proposal at the national level. The GIA is an ex-ante evaluation, which means that the impact on gender relations is assessed before the final decision on a given policy proposal is taken. The results of the GIA can then be used in the process of political decision-making. If necessary, policies can be changed.

The GIA is designed to fit all policy areas. ‘A basic but solid’ gender expertise is needed to use it. So far, the instrument has been used in the Ministries of Education, Justice, Agriculture, Nature and Fishery and Domestic Affairs. Projects in other ministries are in progress. GIA has also been used at the regional level. In some cases, the policy proposals have been changed to counter potential negative impacts on gender relations. The coordinating Minister of Emancipation has stated that the instrument has proven to be useful.

Most of the GIAs have been carried out by academic researchers, sometimes in a joint venture with civil servants.

The conceptual framework of the GIA identifies two basic structures that are central to gender inequality: the division of labour, and the organisation of intimacy. It further identifies two basic processes that constitute gender relations: the distribution of and access to resources, and the existence and application of gender rules. The GIA sets two criteria to decide whether impacts will be positive or negative: equality in the sense of equal rights and (un)equal treatment of (un)equal cases, and autonomy, in the sense of the possibility for women to make their own decisions.

A GIA starts with assessing the gender relevance of a policy proposal and continues with describing the current and future situation in a given policy field in terms of the conceptual framework, reaching a conclusion as to which structures and processes are at stake, and to what degree the criteria are met. It then analyses the policy proposal in these terms, and shows where it will affect the basic structures and processes. The two criteria are used to decide if the policy proposal will have a positive or negative impact on gender relations.

Following the GIA, a few similar instruments have been developed and used. Among those, the Gender Impact Test, which is more simple, and developed and used at the local and regional level. In 1998, the Dutch Association of Local Authorities also designed a GIA for the local level.¹⁵

New Zealand - Guidelines for gender analysis

In 1996, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs published guidelines to provide a framework for carrying out a gender analysis of policies.¹⁶ The aim of the guidelines was to help policy-makers to achieve the New Zealand government’s stated policy goals in terms of gender equality and the integration of a gender perspective into all policy-making. In addition to the public sector, the guidelines also focused on private companies and organisations, and were meant to help improve management practices and targeting of products and services. In the guidelines the policy process is divided into six stages: defining desired outcomes, identifying problems and issues, developing options, analysing options and making recommendations, implementing decisions, monitoring and evaluating policies. For each of these stages, the guidelines provide issues to consider a given policy from a gender perspective. The guidelines are a good example of a manual meant to help individual policy-makers to integrate a gender perspective in their daily work.

Officials from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs report that the guidelines for gender analysis have not been implemented yet, due to lack of political and bureaucratic support. In the near future however, the Minister of Women's Affairs intends to work with the New Zealand State Services Commission and the Audit Department to develop ways of integrating the expectation of gender analysis into formal accountability documents such as chief executives' performance agreements, and departmental purchase agreements (a formal structure by which Ministers ‘purchase’ certain outputs such as policy advice, from their departments). The recent appointment of the Minister of Women’s Affairs as Prime Minister is also anticipated to boost political will to promote ‘mainstreaming’.

Denmark - Evaluation of legislative proposals in a gender perspective

The Danish Ministry of Labour has recently piloted an evaluation scheme which assesses the ‘equality consequences’ of labour market policy and the regulation of leave schemes. Comments regarding the gender impact of a legislative proposal are included in the same way as evaluations of the ‘economic and administrative consequences.’

Civil servants and ministers are encouraged to consider the equality aspect from the very first draft stage. In addition, external partners are consulted on the ideas behind the suggested legislation in order to ensure a cross-disciplinary input. Civil servants and ministers are responsible for carrying out the evaluation although a task force which includes a special adviser has been established to provide support and expertise.

The mechanism does require knowledge and understanding of equality issues in general and in relation to specific issues and therefore training is required. The Danish government intends to evaluate the ‘equality consequences’ of all legislative initiatives in the future as soon as the necessary experience is available.

‘Mainstreaming’ experiences in Sweden : an integrated approach

The Swedish case offers one of the most advanced examples of an integrated approach to equalities, although Swedish commentators stress that ‘mainstreaming’ remains incomplete. The Swedish government at national level works in partnership with regional administrative structures and with local government. Sweden, in common with other Nordic countries and the Netherlands, has a long history of state intervention in pursuit of gender equality and work is well advanced. Social attitudes are supportive and the policy environment is generally sympathetic. In terms of perceived prerequisites for successful ‘mainstreaming’, Sweden can be said to meet many of the facilitating conditions, including political will, strong national equality machinery with the ability to exert influence on the policy making process, research and training on gender issues, widely disseminated gender statistics, and high levels of participation of women in political and public life and in decision-making processes.

The Swedish approach involves high profile and long term political support and the use of a co ordinated range of analytical, educational, organisational, and consultative strategies. In 1994, the Swedish Government introduced a policy whereby the gender equality perspective must be taken into account in the preparatory proceedings of all decisions by the Cabinet and that all ministers are responsible for gender impact analysis and work on promoting equality within their fields of responsibility. This formal political commitment to ‘mainstreaming’ at the highest level is restated each year and progress is measured against specified national targets for gender equality.

Terms of reference have been introduced which state that all government committees of inquiry should analyse and discuss their proposals from a gender perspective. The gender impact - whether direct or indirect - of proposed changes in the labour market, in the economy, in the welfare system, in education, etc. should be described. If the committee or the special commissioner considers it impossible or unnecessary to do so, the reason must be stated. Organisational and budgetary programmes also have to be analysed from a gender perspective.

Statistics Sweden, the official statistics services in Sweden first set up a special unit for the production and promotion of gender statistics in 1983. Since 1992 all statistics collected on individuals in Sweden have been disaggregated by sex in an annual publication called Men and Women in Sweden. In 1996, the Swedish Government commissioned the National Labour Market Administration to present labour market statistics disaggregated by sex. Gender disaggregated statistics are seen as a central plank of ‘mainstreaming’ to raise awareness, inform policy making and to monitor and evaluate the impact of policies and programmes.

Organisation of ‘mainstreaming’

‘Mainstreaming’ is co ordinated by the Equality Affairs Division of the Ministry of Labour Law, Working Hours and Equality Affairs. The Division’s responsibilities include:

Ensuring that the terms of reference for government committees and commissions require them to analyse the gender perspective in their work and the gender impact of any proposals made.
Scrutiny of (from an equal opportunities perspective) all proposals for government bills and other government decisions emanating from various ministries prior to discussion by cabinet, for example in planning processes and budgeting.
Approval of public appointments to public boards and committees, including an evaluation of a particular recommended appointment against the targets and timetable to achieve equality on that body. The Swedish Government has set the target that the official committees and government boards should have an equal representation of women and men by 1998.
Co-ordination and the monitoring process. The Division arranges regular meetings with the State Secretaries of all ministries on the development of ‘mainstreaming’.
Initiation of promotional activities on equality and co ordination of publicity.
Training: training courses on equality issues are offered to all ministers, commissioners (of government appointed committees) and their officials.

Although the responsibility for the development of ‘mainstreaming’ tools and procedures to ensure that the gender impact of policy making is considered lies with the State Secretary of each ministry, the Equality Affairs Division has overall responsibility for developing tools and mechanisms for ‘mainstreaming’.

At regional level, the County Administrative Boards, which are government authorities, are responsible for ‘mainstreaming’ the gender perspective into all policy fields. The County Administrative Boards have employed gender experts to initiate, support and monitor the process of ‘mainstreaming’ a gender perspective in normal work in all policy fields. A medium-term strategic plan (1997-2000) for the work on promoting equality has been designed by each Board and submitted to the Government.

In 1995, the Government allocated funds to the Swedish Association of Local Authorities in order to stimulate the development of ‘mainstreaming’ a gender perspective in local policy processes. A two-year programme was launched, JAMKOM, with the aim of examining how a committee or board can work systematically for gender equality in its own field of operation. In order to put ‘mainstreaming’ into operation, JAMKOM tried out a method, the 3R method, the main purpose of which is to systematise a gender equality analysis. (A description of the programme can be found in the local government section of this report).

Methods: training seminars, gender experts

Awareness-raising and training seminars for top-level management were first organised in 1994 and are still high on the agenda. The Equality Affairs Division has developed a three-hour training course/seminar on equality issues for Ministers, senior civil servants, political advisors, special commissioners and the top management of public authorities. The main aim of the seminars is to provide statistics and facts on the situation of women and men in Swedish society. Other important topics raised at the seminars are how to implement the national goals for equality policy and what tools and mechanisms could be used in a ‘mainstreaming’ strategy. To meet the need for gender training in the Government and the public administration, the Equality Affairs Division employs 10 gender trainers, together with a gender expert and a representative from Statistics Sweden. The Government has also employed a ‘flying gender expert’ (see inset) who has joined some of the ministries in order to help develop methods and routines which ensure a gender perspective in policy processes.

In the ministries, the seminars are followed up by regular meetings with the senior civil servant responsible for equality policy and the head of the Equality Affairs Division. Points discussed at these meetings include active measures to promote equality, gender impact analyses, the gender perspective of the budget and the representation of women on government boards and committees.

The Equality Affairs Division has developed an analytical tool to assess the different effects of policy proposals on women and men, which is being piloted. However, the government acknowledges that there is still a lack of experience on the use of gender impact assessment tools, both in the Government and in public administration. A ‘mainstreaming’ working group of ministers, civil servants and local government politicians and practitioners has been set up which will sponsor seminars, hearings, research and pilot projects.

Figure 9: Sweden’s ‘Flying Experts’

An educational tool: flying experts

The Swedish government has pioneered the use of ‘flying experts’ who are temporarily seconded to various ministries and departments in order to help develop methods and routines which ensure a gender perspective in policy processes. The ‘flying experts’ are usually specialists from the Equality Affairs Division, but could also be outside experts.

In 1995, the ‘flying gender expert’ joined the division for youth policy at the Ministry of the Interior. Later the same year, she turned to the Ministry of Labour and later on, in 1996, she worked as an expert at the Ministry of Justice. When the ‘flying gender expert’ started her work in a ministry she made agreements with the heads of a few divisions to attend meetings and to help officials integrate a gender perspective in their normal work. With a little help from the gender expert it was possible for many of the officials to see what kind of information they needed in order to be able to take the gender perspective into account. Swedish commentators note that the success of ‘mainstreaming’ relies, in part, upon its legitimisation and upon the ability of experts top demonstrate to other policy makers that a gender perspective adds knowledge to all kinds of work.

Since 1997, the Ministry for Health and Social Affairs has employed a ‘flying expert’ to provide training and guidance to staff to mainstream a gender perspective in their normal work, such as the preparation of bills for Parliament and the budget dialogue with public authorities. The gender expert in the Ministry for Health and Social Affairs has collaborated with the State Secretary of the ministry and a working group and developed a Gender Programme for Social Welfare. The first phase of the programme will be finished on 30 June 1999. The target is that all divisions in the ministry and all public authorities, connected to the ministry, will have developed action plans for ‘mainstreaming’ and started to put those plans into action.

The gender expert has presented an action programme for 1998 in order to support the development of the ‘mainstreaming’ work in the ministry and the authorities. Key elements include:

1. Training

Introductory training of leaders, officials, committees of inquiry
Further training of the officials
Seminars on different subjects
Identification of the need for training in a long-term perspective

2. Information

Newsletter
Seminars in order to exchange experience
Networks

3. The development of methods

Analytical tools
Evaluation systems

4. Follow-up

5. Support to public authorities and public companies

(abridged from the Swedish government’s report to the Council of Europe Rapporteur Group on Equality between Women and Men (1998) and the EOC (1997) ‘mainstreaming’ gender equality in local government: Synthesis Report.)

Monitoring and follow-up

The Equality Affairs Division scrutinises, inter alia, budget documents which are crucial for progress towards equality between women and men. A gender perspective must also be taken into account in the budget dialogue between the Government and public authorities. In order to monitor the development of the ‘mainstreaming’ process in government from 1994 to 1996, all ministries had to review the equality work in their own ministry and present a report to the Minister for Labour Law, Working Hours and Equality Affairs. The reports were compiled and presented to Parliament. In 1997 the ministries were asked to assess the effects of the special terms of reference (1994), stating that all government committees of inquiry should analyse and discuss their proposals from a gender perspective. An analysis has been made of the reports and it shows that 33 per cent of a total of 193 committees of inquiry had discussed their results from a gender perspective, although very few of them presented a comprehensive gender analysis.

Discussion

Evaluations of the Swedish ‘mainstreaming’ strategy are probably premature. Experts from the Equality Affairs Division of the Swedish government have noted that implementing a ‘mainstreaming’ strategy is a long-term procedure. They identify a number of key issues and problems. Firstly, they argue that political will at the highest level and strategic work over a long period is vital in order to successfully implement ‘mainstreaming’. The declaration (repeated every year since 1994) of the Prime Minister in the annual statement of government policy, that the gender equality perspective should be taken into account in the preparatory proceedings of all decisions by the Cabinet, has been an important base for the legitimation of ‘mainstreaming’ strategies. It is a written declaration which is often referred to in the dialogue on gender issues between the Equality Affairs Division and the ministries.

Two main difficulties are presented. A lack of knowledge of gender issues among both politicians and officials in the ministries is still a problem. The Equality Affairs Division reports that many do not understand what is expected of them or what it means (in a concrete way) to take a gender perspective into account in their normal work. A common misunderstanding is that work on promoting equality only deals with staff policy, for example, by setting targets for the recruitment of women, training of women managers, and so on. Therefore the division sees the organisation of seminars on gender issues and the development of methods for continuous training as important. Equally important is the development of monitoring and assessment tools. So far, Sweden lacks experience in using analytical tools to assess gender relevance or the gender impact on policy proposals and such work will, in future, have a high priority.

Mainstreaming experience in European Bodies and Institutions

The Committee of the Regions

The Committee of the Regions (COR) is an advisory body. Members are nominated by the individual member states through the Council of Ministers. It is consulted on draft legislation by other European institutions and produces opinions on its own initiative. The working group on equal opportunities was created by COR in 1997 and focused on three main issues, all elements of ‘mainstreaming’:

Promoting a gender balance in the decision making within the COR. Only 10% of the first mandate of the COR were women, this has risen to 15% in the second mandate. This still falls far short of women’s representation in local government parity.
Integrating equal opportunities concepts and practices into the COR personnel policy
Creating a process for including equal opportunities views into all COR opinions

Figure 10: Addressing Equality Issues in the Committee of the Regions

A process for addressing equality issues in the work of the Committee of the Regions (COR)

Each COR commission systematically takes into account the equal opportunity dimension when drafting each opinion

The rapporteur is supported by the member of his/her Commission, made responsible for equal opportunity aspects in the documents produced

Each draft opinion includes a paragraph outlining the results of the equal opportunity assessment

Source: COR, Equal Opportunities, EU, 1997

A document Guidance to Rapportuers on incorporating an equalities impact analysis into COR Opinions gives details of the procedure to follow in order to ‘mainstream’ equal opportunities dimension into opinions.¹⁷

Figure 11: Including the Equal Opportunities Perspective in COR Opinions

Including the Equal Opportunities Perspective in COR Opinions

Equal Opportunities issues for rapporteurs to consider in the course of drafting their opinions

Is there an existing policy? Does it have a differential impact on certain target groups? - if so this should be highlighted.

Watch for unfavourable treatment. Will the policy proposals result in the treatment of a target group less favourably than others? By explicitly referring unfavourably to gender, race, marital status? Or implicitly - by including unjustifiable criteria which applies to everyone but has disproportionate impacts on a given target group?

Meet the needs of all target groups. Will certain groups be alienated by the policy - in areas such as access to buildings or transport, obtaining certain information, child care possibilities, flexible hours etc.?

Broad consultation. have a wide variety of sources been included when gathering information to formulate the opinion and does this include as much existing information on the gender perspective as possible? A useful starting point is to assume that there is a gender impact then look for information to prove or disprove that assumption.

Consulting minority groups. Has there been consultation with organisations representing women’s views - or the views of other minority groups - to highlight possible areas of gender inequality¹⁸

Impact on ‘high risk’ groups. Has the impact on groups traditionally discriminated against on the grounds of ethnic origin, disability etc. been considered.

Further analysis. Is further data or analysis needed? Is it possible to achieve this in the required time frame with the resources available? If not, has this fact been noted as an issue to be discussed?

The COR equal opportunities working group has recommended a series of measures to embed ‘mainstreaming’. These include: regular monitoring of the gender balance of COR members with a view to taking measures to encourage Member States to address women’s right to equal participation in decision making; preparation of an annual equal opportunities report; the appointment of a senior member of staff to co ordinate, monitor and report on equalities initiatives; training and awareness raising workshops for COR members and officers; targeted research; the development of monitoring and evaluation criteria.

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions

We want a Europe which reflects the aspirations of women. We have a particular responsibility to ensure that the aspirations and concerns of women, who comprise at least half of all European citizens, are fully addressed. In this regard, we consider it essential that women have full access to the political process, and to ensure that they have the opportunity to participate equally in decision-making at all levels, in fulfilment of the principle of parity democracy.

The above quotation is taken from the declaration of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) adopted at the General Assembly in Thessaloniki in May 1996.

It has been a major advocate of gender balance in decision making. In particular, it has initiated and commissioned research which has mapped the under representation of women in local government in Europe. Because of the relative absence of data at local level, women representatives took steps to initiate a debate on the topic at conferences held during the 1980s and 1990s, forming a Committee of Women Elected Representatives of Local and Regional Authorities. At the fifth conference for women elected representatives held in Dublin the concept of parity democracy was substantiated and at CEMR’s 20th General Meeting in Thessaloniki in 1996, the declaration quoted above was supported.

In 1996 the European Network of Women Elected Representatives was set up and its work has been developed with the help of funding from the European Commission and the implementation of the 4th medium-term Action Programme on equal opportunities between men and women. The objectives are to provide statistical information concerning elected representatives, by gender; to try to understand the reasons which help explain differences in representation across countries and to identity strategies to achieve more equality and representation; and to address the question of whether or not an increased presence of women in municipal councils results in a difference in how decisions are taken.

In 1997, the CEMR adopted a Resolution which supported the mainstreaming principle and which called upon the European bodies and institutions, national government and local and regional authorities to take into account the application of the mainstreaming principle in their policies in order to attain a balanced participation of women and men in the decision making process.¹⁹

Gender ‘mainstreaming’ policies of the European Commission

As noted earlier in the report, the Commission of the European Union has played a leading role in promoting the strategy of ‘mainstreaming’. ‘Mainstreaming’ was first mentioned in the Third Medium-Term Community Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for women and men (1991-1995), as the integration of a gender perspective into the different branches of the administration. It became a central issue in the current Fourth Action Programme (1996-2000). The European Commission published a Communication on ‘mainstreaming’ in 1996 and, in parallel, began to implement the strategy within its own organisation including:

the creation of The Group of Commissioners on Equal Opportunities, chaired by the President of the Commission, a move intended to signal the commission’s support for the policy at the highest level. The Commission considers this expression of political will to be the most important instrument for implementing gender ‘mainstreaming’.
permanent evaluation processes implemented in the form of a yearly assessment of the progress achieved.
each Directorate has nominated an official who is in charge of gender proofing/assessing each programme or document of the Directorate.
the establishment of an inter-service group to support the Group of Commissioners on Equal Opportunities, and the Directorates in terms of training and awareness raising, specialist knowledge and expertise, and facilitating follow-up actions. This Group has considerably increased awareness in the Commission services about Community policies on equal opportunities and further serves as a forum for exchange of information and best practices in the field and for discussion on equality-relevant Community policies.
a special focus on certain policy areas, such as the employment area, the structural funds, awareness-raising programmes.
the training of staff members in key positions and the development of ‘mainstreaming’ tools.
The financing of gender ‘mainstreaming’ is mostly based on the reallocation of funds.

The European Commission argues that it demonstrates several necessary prerequisites and facilitating conditions for gender ‘mainstreaming’. It has a long-standing tradition of gender equality policies, and is specifically concerned with the goal of a balanced participation of both sexes in decision-making. However it concedes that ‘mainstreaming’ is a long term strategy which will not yield quick results. In particular the Commission notes that development of concrete implementation strategies lags behind the development of awareness of the need for new methods and approaches to equal opportunities.²⁰

Evaluation of equal opportunities policies in the EU

Professor Teresa Rees has recently completed an evaluation of equal opportunities policies and programmes in the European Union.²¹ Evidence drawn from successive waves of European Union training and education initiatives demonstrates that the liberal approach to equal treatment has typically characterised most provision, and continues to characterise much policy-making. The resulting ‘gender neutral’ approach to policy and practice produces at best slow change in the disadvantaged position of many women. The limitations of this approach was recognised in the creation of a series of positive action measures (Medium Term Community Action Programmes on the Promotion of equal opportunities for Women and Men). The first two Action Programmes (1982-85; 1986-90) sought to address the specific situation of women in the labour market, and hence sought to make special provision for women by recognising their differences from men.

As in other areas, the attempt to evaluate the impact of policies and provisions on women is hampered by the lack of routinely available, gender-disaggregated statistics. Poor project documentation also limits the scope for qualitative assessment of curricula, the ideology behind provisions or routes into training or education schemes. Overall however, Teresa Rees argues, the net effect of European programmes up to the mid-1990's was to reinforce the status quo, with men having better access to the more substantial, more prestigious training. Predominantly reactive policies were also unresponsive to differences between different member states, regions, age groups, sectors and so on. Positive action initiatives were far more effective in reaching women and responding to their particular situations, but remain piecemeal, small scale, experimental and unintegrated in mainstream provision.

The Third (1991-95) and Fourth (1996-2000) Community Action programmes on equal opportunities took a step further by seeking to integrate, or mainstream, the objective of gender equality into all policy areas, in the context of the single market in Europe. The Fourth Action Programme focuses on the exchange and development of information and experience of good practice, studies and research and dissemination of information. The ‘mainstreaming’ framework derives from the 4th UN World Conference on the Status of Women, Beijing 1995, and seeks to incorporate equal opportunities issues into all actions, programmes and policies from the outset.

In a European context, wider interest in ‘mainstreaming’ has been stimulated by the perception that it would make more effective use of women as an economic resource and therefore enhance competitiveness, reduce unemployment, social exclusion and skill shortages. This implies primarily a concern with 'mainstreaming equality' within existing institutional norms and structures, rather than 'transforming the mainstream'. The former could be conceived of as the 'short agenda' of ‘mainstreaming’, because it continues to focus on fitting women into labour market institutions without considering women's lives and patterns of unpaid work and caring. It continues to orient policy to the economic sphere, and assumes a gender-neutral labour market, ignoring the wider social and political context where women carry the greater responsibility for domestic and caring work, and are less likely to have access to welfare benefits in their own right. Teresa Rees argues for a shift in focus to encompass women as political and economic citizens, which would entail far more radical policy-shifts to create a 'gender contract' based on taxation and social insurance measures to support sex equality in welfare, caring work, and citizenship. She therefore distinguishes ‘mainstreaming’ from other recent concepts such as gender impact assessment, which is post-hoc and reactive, and gender -proofing of documents which she regards as predominantly cosmetic. Gender monitoring, on the other hand, is treated as essential, but also needs to be cross-tabulated with other variables, such as ethnicity, class, parental status and disability, to enable more effective policy-development and targeting of resources on the poorest. Monitoring itself is not sufficient, but it provides a valuable tool to support ‘mainstreaming’ and should assist in the review of performance and new policy development.

She is cautiously optimistic about the potential for the EU ‘mainstreaming’ mechanism to advance the 'longer agenda' of transformation of mainstream institutions. She argues that ‘mainstreaming’ is essentially about identifying the 'hidden, unrecognised and unremarked ways in which systems and structures are biased in favour of men' and redressing the balance. 'It involves lateral thinking to see how apparently gender-neutral practices, which appear to offer equal access to all, in fact act as exclusionary mechanisms for women'.²² Above all, she suggests, it has to tackle the tacit 'gender contract', by harmonising education, training and labour market policies with caring, taxation and welfare systems. She is critical however of the continuing failure of the EU to tackle issues of multiple discrimination. ‘mainstreaming’, despite being flavour of the month, is at present poorly conceptualised, and little understood. ‘Moreover there is a danger that many of the hard won mechanisms which are designed to shore up equal opportunities may be dismantled in the name of ‘mainstreaming’’.²³

Local Government Experience

Local government in Europe and Britain has played a leading role in equalities work and innovation and is currently developing practice in ‘mainstreaming’. It is therefore important to look at experience at the local level, although it is not within the scope of this report to provide more than a brief overview, outline some selected case studies and raise some issues for further consideration. This section draws upon three main sources: comparative transnational research co ordinated by the EOC (Britain) as part of the European Commisssion’s Fourth Action Programme on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (1996-2000); research by a University of Edinburgh team into gender and local government reorganisation which is currently near completion; and the final report of the Council of Europe’s expert group on ‘mainstreaming’ which has been referred to previously. Guidance on ‘Mainstreaming’ is currently being prepared by a joint CoSLA/EOC Task force which involves other equalities agencies and partner organisations in Scotland.

Local Government and equal opportunities in Britain: an overview

In the British context, local government has been more proactive and open than central government in promoting more equal opportunities for women and other disadvantaged groups in respect of both employment practices and ‘gender-proofing’ service delivery. Indeed, local government is seen to have pioneered many progressive employment practices in the 1980s; and councils are commonly characterised as model employers of the 1990s ²⁴ ; Scotland is no exception to this trend.²⁵ By the early 1990s, more than half of all British local authorities had devised policies which fell within the broad remit of equal opportunities, although a far smaller proportion had specific structures such as women's or equal opportunities committees, or had specialist staff. Susan Halford, who has researched and written about equal opportunities and women's issues in British local government, flags the widespread existence of equal opportunities policies, albeit varying enormously in content and commitment, as signalling a recognition by local councils of the gendered nature of local authority policy and practice. Equal Opportunities statements carry an implicit commitment on the part of those authorities to promote positive change for women.²⁶

Women's and Equal Opportunities Committees have been a distinctive feature of British local government for a decade or so and have made some significant advances in ensuring the representation of previously excluded or underrepresented groups. The first full standing women's committee and women's unit was in Greater London Council in 1982. It was abolished in 1986, but in its short life distributed £30 million to various groups and projects, almost half of that money for child care provision.

The first Women's Committee in Scotland was set up by Stirling District Council in 1984. As elsewhere in Britain, women's equal opportunities committees in Scotland have had a difficult history.²⁷ Few women's committees and units were adequately staffed or resourced, and most had to struggle in marginalised positions both politically and organisationally. The media, particularly in the 1980s, was frequently hostile and seldom sympathetic. Several women's committees did not survive, including Stirling's. In addition, women's and equal opportunities committees have had to operate within a deeply macho political and organisational culture.²⁸ Many officers appointed to women's initiatives in the early days were 'outsiders' and found themselves floundering in the unfamiliar and unfriendly structures of local authority bureaucracy.

However despite real tensions and difficulties, there was a steady growth of women's and equal opportunities initiatives in Scotland prior to local government restructuring in 1996 which may be contrasted with the position in England where development has been more uneven.²⁹ Julia Edwards in her recent examination of local authority women's committees talks about the 'cohesiveness' of Scottish local government women's committees in contrast to those in England.³⁰ In Scotland there has been cautious optimism, women's equal opportunities committees in Scotland have been seen as having had a limited but marked impact as agents of change.

In England, many specialist committees have now been disbanded, although specialist officers remain in the administration, often based within larger corporate policy divisions. In Scotland, there is some evidence of a correlation between the existence of specialist committees and staff and the proportion of women in senior posts both as politicians and as managers. It also seems to be the case that the existence of specialist committees and staff has helped to promote a systematic and thoroughgoing approach to the development and implementation of policies, not just for women, and other disadvantaged groups as employees, but also in terms of service provision.³¹ For example all the lead authorities which ran the Zero Tolerance anti-violence campaign had specialist staff, and some form of equalities structure in place.

Post local government reorganisation, although there are a number of different approaches to managing equality issues in operation in Scotland, it is still the case that the dominant model is to have specialist officers at the centre, linked to an equal opportunities committee structure. In Wales, there is a tendency to create new specialist posts and in some cases equality issues have become part of corporate policy making. There appears to be a pattern of historical development in policies with employment issues being addressed first and subsequently service provision. Characteristically, where authorities are developing equal opportunities policies for the first time, they do so in employment-related matters and locate responsibility in Personnel or Human Resources departments; authorities inheriting a track record in equal opportunities work are likely to have specialist staff both in personnel and in central policy making departments and may also have specialists within some service departments.

In addition to their work in employment, service delivery and community empowerment areas, local government women’s and equal opportunities committees have performed the following important functions:

an expression of political will and political support for equal opportunities
education and awareness raising in terms of:

(i) lessons learned and knowledge gained by individual councillors

(ii) the work of the committee in raising awareness within the council and the community

a co ordinating and monitoring mechanism although effectiveness has depended upon the status and legitimacy of the committee
an important link between council and community facilitating two-way communication

In the context of progressing equal opportunities work in local government the EOC argues that there is widespread agreement that equal opportunities need to be ‘built into’ the policy process through ‘mainstreaming’. The integration of an equalities perspective into everyday policy making and service delivery in local government has been pioneered over a number of years by a relatively few progressive local authorities, although they have seldom referred to such initiatives as ‘mainstreaming’. Such authorities have developed a comprehensive and even-handed approach to equalities, involving an systematic examination of the needs and concerns of different groups in relation to different areas of service provision, and accompanied by mechanisms for consulting these groups, which go beyond tokenism. These arrangements are likely to imply specialist advisers, inter departmental co-operation, strategic equality action plans and targets, multi-agency approaches and partnership initiatives. Hounslow, Islington and Edinburgh would be examples of authorities who have developed such strategies.

The following figure outlines the EOC framework of essential elements for implementing ‘mainstreaming’ in local government. Although some local authorities have built up expertise and good practice in this respect, it is unlikely that any one authority has fully implemented this holistic model. In particular, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are under developed although both the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (CoSLA) and the Local Government Management Board (LGMB) have piloted equality performance indicators. A number of authorities, for example Fife, have recently pioneered the use of Equality Audits in service departments³² .

Explicit links are increasingly being made between ‘mainstreaming’ and other key issues currently facing local government, in particular community involvement, service delivery and ‘Best Value’, councils as employers, civic governance and democratic renewal, and social inclusion.

Figure 12: Mainstreaming Local Government: EOC Framework of Key Components

Source: EOC (1997) Mainstreaming Gender Equality in Local Government: A Framework, p.8

Sweden - local government experience - the R method

An overview of the Swedish government’s ‘mainstreaming’ strategy was outlined earlier in the report. At local level, six councils and boards have taken part in a pilot project co ordinated by the Swedish local government association SALA to develop and test a method, the R Method, for incorporating gender equality considerations into their work. It is part of the JAMKOM initiative which seeks to establish methods of analysing and promoting equalities work in local government and to share and publicise good practice.

The R method stands for Representation, Resources and Realia. Representation and Resources are quantitative variables, whereas Realia is qualitative. The idea behind the method is that a systematic review of men's and women's representation in different places and positions within the council department’s or public board's field of operations, and of the distribution and utilisation of resources, would trigger discussions about why the ‘products’ of local councils i.e. - goods, services and jobs - are as they are, and raise questions about who gets what, and under what conditions?

According to project co ordinators based at SALA, the tests that have been carried out by the councils/boards have shown that the method has been successful in raising awareness. The surveys and analyses that have been carried out have led to the rethinking of gender equality in the councils’ or boards’ spheres of operation, including the writing of specific gender equality objectives into their normal guidelines. Some have also decided to include gender equality in their budgets, to collect new and continuous information in the form of statistics and different types of customer surveys, and to actively monitor the impact of the different measures. The R method has been adopted, and some municipalities have decided to spread the method to other committees and administrative authorities.

The method, in brief, consists of the following elements:

Representation

The council departments or boards must map the levels of representation of men and women in decision making positions, starting with the composition of the committee/board itself and the administration. From this initial plan, the study of representation moves on to other committees, working groups, permanent reference groups, ad hoc reference groups, the committees of associations and organisations within the field of operations and with which the board/committee and administration have dealings. Contact lists are made which break down service users etc. by sex. These mapping exercises are all designed to raise awareness of gender imbalances of representation.

Resources

The resources analysed by the R test are money, time and space. The main idea is that the results obtained under the Representation section can be supplemented by statistics regarding the distribution of resources. One example of this is that certain committees/boards have constructed ‘salary trees’ showing the total number of women and men and their position on the salary scale. One committee studied the gender distribution among artists exhibiting at the local art gallery, and the information was completed under the resources section of the test by recording how much money was paid to the female and male artists respectively. The amount of funding distributed to different cases, subject areas, and organisations has also been studied.

All the committees/boards have timed some of their meetings. As well as recording how much women and men talked at the meetings, more detailed analyses of the measurements were carried out.

Realia

Realia is qualitative, and is concerned with exposing and challenging the norms and values embedded within local authority structures and practices which may reinforce gender inequality. Some committees/boards have looked at the Realia by studying, together with the staff, such things as morning assembly at day-nurseries, and classroom situations. Others have visited different establishments for which they are responsible. The politicians have formed multi-party groups and gone to places like sports centres and made note of such things as lighting, hair-dryers and sauna space. They have also interviewed employees about the amount of attention they give to girls and boys, women and men.

One town planning committee that took part in JAMKOM has used ‘mental maps’ to help build up an understanding of how different categories of citizens felt about a particular urban renewal area. This involved groups and individuals who could not be reached through the types of groups and organisations that the committee routinely consulted.

‘Politicians who have been involved in different studies have expressed their satisfaction. Some have said that they have received greater insight into their field of operations and that they understand better what gender equality really means and how they can specifically work for it’. ³³

Discussion

Many local authorities in both Britain and Europe have experience of some elements of what is regarded as ‘mainstreaming’ or integrated equality good practice: training, information, action plans, gender perspective assessment, specialist support and co ordination, and specialist advisers within departments. Furthermore it is at local government level that some of the innovative consultation methods have been pioneered, for example, women’s surveys, information and consultative road shows, specialist and community forums.

However ‘mainstreaming’ as a new strategy has been interpreted in different ways and in some cases has resulted in local authorities disbanding specialist structures and staffing, or not establishing equalities machinery in the first place. This sort of ‘mainstreaming’ does not appear to fulfil the conditions put forward by in ‘mainstreaming’ guidelines drawn up by organisations such as the EOC, the EC and the Council of Europe. There are concerns that it results in ineffectual tokenism, in the absence of adequate knowledge, resources and structures; and without the strong presence of women in senior management and as elected members.

A recent study of local government in Scotland and Wales has commented that equal opportunities policy is increasingly constructed as a managerial rather than a political issue. ‘Mainstreaming’ as a concept and policy objective has become of increasing importance but is not well understood. Equal opportunities initiatives in employment have continued, but the dominant rhetoric has switched to service delivery, as part of a move from a ‘producerist’ to a ‘consumerist’ agenda. The researchers found that, although senior managers in service departments were formally responsible for ‘mainstreaming’ equal opportunities, there was uncertainty as to the relationship between equal opportunities and service delivery - beyond the expressed need to improve the profile of women in the management structures. Senior officers seemed defensive and generally reluctant to talk about gender issues and tended to discuss equal opportunities without reference to women. This mirrors the findings in the Swedish case study. Furthermore, despite the extension of equal opportunities policy, monitoring and evaluation systems remain underdeveloped. Where monitoring information is collected there is generally limited understanding of how it could be used to review policies and plan appropriate interventions.

These shortfalls in knowledge, awareness and techniques appear common to the experience of ‘mainstreaming’ in most countries and suggests ‘mainstreaming’ is a long term strategy requiring substantial investment in training and specialist support and which is also dependent upon consistent and high profile political commitment.