Institutionalising Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming is not an end itself but a tool to achieve gender equality. As a tool, it has four functions of analysis, education, consultation/participation and legislation. In Germany, the four categories are implemented as follows: Laws and rulings have been produced to promote gender mainstreaming as top-down process. Several analytical tools such as ‘gender impact assessment’ were developed to assess the gender impact of the outputs of core fields of the administration. Training workshops were conducted for administration staff and on the federal level, there is an ongoing project within the Public Service Academy to bring gender-aspects in the courses for public servants. In Berlin, an inter-ministerial commission on gender mainstreaming with a working group on gender budgeting is in control of the implementation process. Gender mainstreaming is a promising tool, however, to incorporate it into the everyday process of institutions requires time and perseverance.