What are the objectives of Gender Mainstreaming?

According to the Council of Europe, Gender mainstreaming is the (re) organization, improvement, development and evaluation of decision-making processes, with the aim of incorporating the perspective of equality between women and men in all fields and at all levels, by the actors generally involved in the implementation of policies.

Socio-economic disparities between men and women are notably

conditioned by the following elements:

• different specific needs;
• different living conditions;
• direct or indirect discrimination;
• gender roles and stereotypes.

The objectives of a gender mainstreaming strategy are as follows:

• identify the causes of direct and indirect inequalities between the sexes;
• solve the causes of these inequalities;
• set up gender equality in terms of access conditions (equal rights);
• achieve gender equality in terms of results.

Gender mainstreaming is a strategy that aims to strengthen equality women and men in society, by integrating the gender dimension into the content of public policies. Certain political choices based on stereotypes regarding the expectations, skills and roles of men and women, can indeed unconsciously reinforce inequalities between men and women.

Examples of policy choices that maintain or reinforce the inequality of women and men:

• Determining that one receives a full pension after 40 years of full-time work disadvantages women who, given the traditional distribution of tasks, have more often than men, part-time or non-continuous careers.

• It is the “head of the family”, a man in the majority of cases, who is called upon to fulfill family inquiries. This type of survey therefore rarely takes into account the point of view of women.

• Failure to promote the provision of care services dependent people (reception of the elderly, day care centers, nurseries accessible) have a negative influence on the participation of women in professional life.

• Providing for a tax deduction in favor of the highest income of the “Household” provides an indirect benefit to men.