Gender Impact Assessment

Up to now, what has been assessed with a systematic IA is mostly just the intended and unintended impact for industry, especially for medium-sized firms, on individual prices and the price level, etc.
Gender Mainstreaming (GM) within the framework of an IA means determining, showing and assessing the anticipated impact in terms of gender equality as well. Nearly all proposed legislation, even if it is apparently neutral, has an impact, whether intended or unintended, on existing gender relations and can therefore be assessed as being positive or negative for gender equality. With legislation addressing people directly this is mostly obvious, as in the case of the taking into account of a partner’s income under the new Hartz social security legislation.

But there are also gender aspects to consider with technical regulations that are designed to protect people, e.g. building materials regulations. Materials can cause various health risks, so there must be, among other things, specific safety clothing for women and for men. Another example is legislation with a financial impact. Tax on goods can affect the genders more or less heavily; conditions for receiving State subsidies can be fulfilled by women and men to a different degree, etc.

The gender impact assessment is used to identify the impact of proposed legislation on gender equality and to counter any unintended impact on women and on men. This method not only promotes the implementation of real gender equality within the meaning of the Constitution, but also improves the quality of legislation as a whole. The State tries by means of legislation to control social developments and solve existing problems. When legislation is being drafted, therefore, the various life situations of the addressees should be taken into account. “The unemployed”, “the illegal workers”, “youth”, etc. simply do not exist as homogeneous groups. For instance, the reasons for long-term unemployment among older unemployed men in North Rhine-Westphalia with an immigrant background are radically different from those of young unemployed women in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. And in particular, women and men also differ among themselves in terms of age, origin, level of education, etc. A piece of legislation which pays no regard to these various different life situations of the women and men affected will not have the desired effect and frequently require costly revisions and improvements.

A gender impact assessment makes it possible to plan and implement a piece of legislation in a more tailor-made and concrete fashion by means of assessing impact in a way that differentiates between target groups. In this sense, GM not only encourages gender equality in legislation, but is furthermore effective and saves costs.

For those people who are familiar with the subject of legislation, the German Federal Government has developed a Working Aid Gender Impact Assessment - Gender Mainstreaming in the Preparation of Legislation. This Working Aid supports the responsible people in presenting the impact of the legislation on women and on men in a differentiated and understandable way in the statement of reasons for the legislation. You can find a detailed description of this GM tool in the explanation of prospective impact assessment. You can find more information on tools within the context of the implementation of GM here.

Gender aspects play an important part in accompanying and retrospective IA as well.

The Federal Ministry for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) has carried out an IA of the Law concerning the Structure of Assistance for the Elderly as part of a pilot project in Gender Mainstreaming in impact assessment. And the Federal Ministry of the Environment has revised the X-Ray Protection Ordinance with the aid of a gender impact assessment

Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ): Working Aid Gender Impact Assessment - “Gender Mainstreaming in the Preparation of Legislation” (2007).