|
Introduction
The European
Union has officially adopted a two-fold strategy for equal opportunities and
gender equality: Positive actions and Gender Mainstreaming.
Positive Actions are promoted to foster equal opportunities suited to
specific situations and implemented to solve a specific case of discrimination.
Gender Mainstreaming is strategy intended to transform culture and policies in
order to introduce broad-ranging and sustainable changes; it is a long-term strategy
to bring substantial changes inside systems and processes whereas Positive Actions,
targeted for specific cases, bring about more immediate effects, which are
nevertheless limited to those areas.
Positive actions
In Italy Positive
Actions are defined by law L.125/1991 and by Legislative Decree no. 196/2000 in order to promote women’s employment and to remove obstacles that
hinder the implementation of equal opportunities. The law makes reference to
‘substantial quality’, and to a whole set of goals that can be reached through
funding (starting from October 1st and by November 30th
every year it is possible to apply to the Labour Ministry for the funding of Positive
Actions projects).
Gender Mainstreaming
Gender Mainstreaming is the
English definition that is also used in Italian, usually without any
translation because it would require a long sentence. The ‘Gender perspective’
definition grasps only part of its meaning.
Mainstreaming is a compound noun, composed of main and stream; the
-ing ending stands for movement, hence the meaning is: gender within a
moving society, namely included inside policy making and actions and not
outside them.
It is a relevant strategy that aims at bringing about cultural changes
involving all the system components. The possible impact on men and women is
assessed before decisions are made. It aims at highlighting the quality of
policies and shifts the attention from women to society as a whole.
Here
the reasons why gender mainstreaming is important, taken from: ‘Gender Mainstreaming
conceptual framework, methodology and presentation of good practices, Final
Report of Activities of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming, Council of
Europe, Strasburg, February 1999.
|
Why is gender mainstreaming so important?
Five
reasons can be identified:
Because
it puts people at the centre of policy-making
Because it leads to a better governance
Because it involves both men and women and it uses human resources fully
Because it makes gender equality visible in society mainstream
Because it takes into consideration the diversity between men and women
|
The
important factors underlying gender mainstreaming are: awareness of
gender discrimination and mechanisms underlying it; political will and
commitment by decision-makers; availability of specific plans, facilities
and mechanisms, data, information and research, participation, and
dedicated resources.
|
