This article is written by Cécile Gréboval, Programme Manager, Gender Mainstreaming at the Council of Europe.

The Council of Europe (CoE) was instrumental in developing the concept of gender mainstreaming from the 1990s onwards. Since then, the gender mainstreaming strategy has been an integral part of the work and activities of the Council of Europe to promote the full realisation of gender equality.

For the Council of Europe, gender mainstreaming (GM) is an approach to policymaking that takes into account both women's and men's needs and situations. The prerequisite of GM is to integrate these gender differences in policymaking, for example in terms of work and access to resources (e.g. persisting gender pay gap throughout the world), to power (74% of all national parliamentarians are men) or to physical integrity (about 35% of women worldwide have experienced domestic or sexual violence).

The win-win of gender mainstreaming

Many CoE sectors are undertaking interesting and diverse gender mainstreaming activities.

The Council of Europe cinema support fund (Eurimages) has addressed gender equality in the European film industry since 2012. Different activities are aimed at addressing the under-representation of women as directors among eligible projects for funding, leading to significant progress. These actions led to significant progress in the participation of women in projects eligible for Eurimages funding: from 23% (2012) to 30% (2018) on average and from 17% (2012) to 29% (2018) regarding women film directors. This shows that meaningful gender mainstreaming leads to a more equal distribution of public funds.

Applying the same policies to different situations implies that policies that seem “gender neutral” are often instead “gender blind” and risk not being efficient for the whole population or worsening existing inequalities

The Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe has pioneered the integration of a gender equality dimension into drug policies for almost two decades. This will allow the provision of concrete guidance for implementing a gender approach in planning and delivering prevention, care and treatment services for the persons who use drugs or belong to a risk group, as well as guidance for law enforcement agencies on the practical integration of a gender approach in their work domain.

A range of activities were undertaken by the media sector, looking at the gender equality dimension of media policies, including issues of representation, safety of women journalists or media coverage of elections.

Applying the same policies to different situations implies that policies that seem “gender neutral” are often instead “gender blind” and risk not being efficient for the whole population or worsening existing inequalities.

The Council of Europe has developed strategies, recommendations, tools and an institutional setting on gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The aim is to improve policymaking with a practical approach, thereby creating a win-win situation.

How does it work?

In our experience, a few conditions must be in place in order for gender mainstreaming efforts to have an effect:

  • Political will and commitment: this often translates into a gender equality/gender mainstreaming strategy, endorsed ideally at the highest level.

  • Adequate resources including time, financial and human resources and expertise: a dedicated gender equality/mainstreaming department providing advice and coordination, and advisers in different sectors.

  • Knowledge: training, studies, research and sex-disaggregated data.

  • The equal presence and contribution of women and men.

We try to work in a way that allows for capacity building and ownership of the gender mainstreaming work by the different sectors of the organisation. It is a question of capacity — our small Gender Equality Division does not have the time and staff to carry all the gender mainstreaming work for all sectors. It’s also a question of expertise — the topics addressed are often rather technical, so there’s a bigger impact if the specialists in a given subject area are trained and encouraged to "do gender".

Having such an institutional framework that is at the same time rather light and decentralised, but still anchored in the terms of reference of the different bodies, allows for more ownership and sustainability, even if it is therefore sometimes less easy to monitor and it relies on the commitment of the different sectors. The hope is to gradually make gender mainstreaming a natural part of the work.

Gender mainstreaming challenges the assumption that policies are gender neutral — which they never are — and reveals the hidden assumptions about reality and values

At the Council of Europe, three main bodies are tasked with the implementation of gender mainstreaming: The Gender Equality Commission (GEC) and its secretariat the Gender Equality Division; the Gender Mainstreaming Team, and Gender Equality Rapporteurs. The GEC, gathering representatives of the 47 member states, oversees all activities on gender equality and gender mainstreaming. The Gender Mainstreaming Team, composed of staff members from all sectors, provides a forum for coordination and information sharing. Gender Equality Rapporteurs (GERs), which are an innovative feature of the Council of Europe, are appointed amongst the members of the different structures of the Organisation.

The 45 existing GERs are “gender equality ambassadors” working in a wide range of domains (justice, terrorism, bioethics, corruption, children’s rights, education and more). Their role is to initiate discussions and activities on gender equality and to ensure the effective integration of a gender equality perspective in the work of their committee. The Council of Europe provides regular training to GERs and has developed a practical handbook for GERs and other stakeholders.

Why does it work?

Gender mainstreaming leads to more informed policymaking and therefore better government. It challenges the assumption that policies are gender-neutral — which they never are — and reveals the hidden assumptions about reality and values. Gender mainstreaming leads to a fairer allocation of resources and greater transparency in the policy process. This leads to designing policies that benefit girls and boys, women and men equally. Gender mainstreaming also includes considering other structuring factors such as age, (dis)ability, ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, social status, etc, and therefore leads to more inclusive policies.

Furthermore, GM introduces among policy makers and the public a learning process leading to higher attention to the broad effects of policies on citizens’ lives, aiming at the well-being of both women and men in their diversity.

In conclusion

Gender mainstreaming has led to significant progress at the Council of Europe in a wide range of fields. Gender mainstreaming alone, however, is not enough to achieve gender equality: a dual approach of gender mainstreaming and specific policies for the advancement of women, including positive actions is needed.

The recent Covid-19 crisis has shed new light on existing gender inequalities compounded by other forms of inequalities, including higher levels of violence against women and challenges around women’s economic independence. This makes inclusive strategies, such as gender mainstreaming in all areas and notably in crisis management and recovery measures, even more necessary to ensure there is no backtrack on the progress made on gender equality. — Cécile Gréboval

(Picture credit: Unsplash)