Gender Mainstreaming

June 20 – The UN Conference on Sustainable Development officially began today in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and coincides with the Gender Mainstreaming Day, officially recognised by the UN.

Delegates in Rio are aware of the need for gender diversity in international policymaking, but many have no idea what “gender mainstreaming” actually is.

Here’s a cheat sheet.

What is it, exactly?

Gender mainstreaming is the practice of including women’s perspectives and voices in every aspect of policy and decision making.

It means requiring an equal (or at least similar) number of women and men to be involved in decision making processes.

It also refers to the practice of considering the impacts on women for all policy decisions, rather than only the decisions directly involving women.

Essentially, it means broadening the standard interpretation of gender inclusiveness, which has previously been focused only on increasing women’s representation.

Does it matter?

Gender mainstreaming recognises that most policy neutral is not neutral because they predominately represent male perspectives and concerns. Women’s voices must not only be present and heard, but equally considered given women are over half the world’s population.

The UN has recognised the rights and importance of women partaking in global negotiations. The focus has primarily been on increasing women’s participation which is only half of the solution.

Gender mainstreaming addresses the assumption that the male perspective is considered the norm and all other views are special or alternative.

Realising that the effects of all policies can be very different for women, and integrating this into decision-making will increase the rate at which true equality is achieved.

How was gender mainstreaming at Rio+20?

Not great.

While there were a large number of women delegates in all negotiations, and women were well-represented amongst media and civil society participants, the outcomes in the policy itself at lacklustre at best.

All mention of reproductive rights were cut from the text – hardly a good start. Current mentions of women in health and education aspects are reiterations of previous agreements.

Women will continue to go without access to contraception and family planning, pre- and ante-natal care, literacy and numeracy, and existing general inequality.

Today should be seen as a chance to think about the root problems in the way of achieving gender equality and how we can create a more inclusive and sustainable world with and for women.

By Genevieve Stewart, photo by Getty Images.