Gender Mainstreaming

Gender Mainstreaming is a way of thinking and acting geared to creating gender equality in day-to-day working life.

The meaning of Gender and mainstream can be defined more exactly.
Gender Mainstreaming is a strategy which pursues a certain goal and works with certain tools.

Gender Mainstreaming is therefore a process-oriented cross-sectional task. Comprising systematic stages of analysis, implementation and controlling, it relates to all decision-making processes in all subject areas and impacts on all policy fields at all levels.

GM elevates gender equality between women and men to a task for everyone and the implementation of GM is a task for management. “Top down” GM requires clear responsibilities and steering functions. Success cannot, however, be achieved without active cooperation from below, or “Bottom up”. So it is especially important to make employees aware of GM and to involve those actors who are responsible for gender equality policy, such as women’s or gender equality representatives.

Gender Mainstreaming is based on the production and systematic use of Gender knowledge. In the course of Gender Mainstreaming, specific gender equality goals are then defined and efficiently implemented.