EG-ATH (1999) 9
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Conference “Gender mainstreaming: a step into the 21st century”
Athens, 16-18 September 1999
Proceedings
Table of contents
Introduction
Opening speech by Ms Eva Garajova, Permanent Representative of Slovakia
to the Council of Europe
KEYNOTE SPEECHES
Ms Efi Beckou-Balta, Secretary General for Equality of the Sexes, Greece
Ms Margareta Winberg, Minister for Gender Equality, Sweden
Ms Marina Gordeeva, on behalf of Ms Galina Karelova, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Development, Russian Federation
Ms Annelies Verstand-Bogaert, State Secretary for Social Affairs and Employment, the Netherlands
Tinkering, tailoring, transforming: Principles and tools of gender mainstreaming
By Teresa Rees, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
Gender statistics: a fundamental tool for gender mainstreaming
By Linda Laura Sabbadini, Istat Research Manager, Italy
Gender Equality as a Basic Value of Democracy
An Integrated Approach
By Walter Van Dongen, Scientific Institute of the Flemish Community, Belgium and
Martha Franken, Equal Opportunities, Ministry of the Flemish Community, Belgium
GENDER MAINSTREAMING PROJECTS
Guidelines for elderly people - Ms Mireille Fillion, Canada
Taxation of private individuals - Mr Luc Meunier, Canada
Mainstreaming in local and regional development - Ms Liisa Horelli, Finland
"Trans-faire" - Ms Laurence Ternisien d'Ouville, France
Mainstreaming youth policy - Ms Stefanía Traustadóttir, Iceland
Mainstreaming recipes - Ms Roberta Messina, Italy
Gender in "BALANCE" - Ms Mieke Verloo, Netherlands
"It is fun to be nice" - Ms Wenche Bjørkly and Ms Ingrid Hernes, Norway
Mainstreaming into all policy fields - Ms Jorun Hertø, Norway
Gender mainstreaming at local level - Ms Luísa França, Portugal
Gender mainstreaming in Slovenian government policy development
- Ms Vera Kozmik, Slovenia
Action plan against domestic violence - Ms Paloma Durán y Lalaguna, Spain
Nordic mainstreaming project - Ms Monica Silvell, Sweden
The web of institutionalisation - Ms Caren Levy, United Kingdom
ADDITIONAL PAPERS ON THE ABOVE PROJECTS
Mainstreaming gender in Human Resource Management:Gender in Balance in the Flemish State Administration - Dr Mieke Verloo and Dr Yvonne Benschop
The Plan on Domestic Violence - presented by Mr González Barba
The web of institutionalisation - Ms Caren Levy, United Kingdom
* * *
Recommendations of the Working Groups
Conclusions by the General Rapporteur
Closing speech by Jane Dinsdale, Deputy Director of Human Rights
APPENDICES
Statement on integrating the gender perspective in the south eastern Europe stabilisation process
List of participants
Introduction
Gender mainstreaming appears today as being one of the most important strategies to reach the goal of gender equality. Explicitly endorsed by the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995), gender mainstreaming is still a strategy in full development. There is, however, not always a clear understanding of what is meant by this concept. By way of example, it has often been mixed up with specific gender equality policies and plans of action to redress inequalities.
Conscious of this, the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men (CDEG) set up a Group of Specialists on mainstreaming in 1996. The idea was to define the concept of gender mainstreaming and propose a methodology for its implementation. This Group produced, in 1998, a report setting out the conceptual framework for gender mainstreaming, a methodology for its implementation as well as examples of good practice. The report gives the following definition of gender mainstreaming:
“Gender mainstreaming is the (re)organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making.”1
In concrete terms, this implies taking into account the needs, interests, competence and skills of both women and men at all stages of policy development and implementation. It also means that any policy project must be evaluated from the point of view of gender equality in order to find out the possible impact on women and men.
On 7 October 1998, the Committee of Ministers. having taken note of the report, adopted Recommendation No R (98) 14 to member States on gender mainstreaming. The adoption of this recommendation proved that there is clearly a political consensus among the member States regarding the usefulness of gender mainstreaming.
However, even if the theoretical framework exists, and structures to implement the strategy have been set up, gender mainstreaming is still relatively little used in member States. The CDEG felt therefore that the next step to be taken should be to look into how to implement mainstreaming in practice, through the organisation of this Conference. One of the main objectives of the Conference was to explain what is not always understood: that gender mainstreaming has clearly an added value compared to “traditional” equality policies and that it will, if well implemented, put people at the heart of policy-making, lead to better government and make full use of human resources, involving both women and men.
The Conference “Gender mainstreaming: a step into the 21st century” was organised by the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men at the invitation of the Greek authorities (Secretariat General for Equality of the Sexes). It was held in Athens on 16-18 September 1999. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Council of Europe, the Conference constituted an appropriate forum not only to spread knowledge about gender mainstreaming but to show, in concrete terms, how it can be put into practice. Therefore, a strong focus was put on practical and concrete projects.
The Conference was attended by some 150 participants: gender equality experts, politicians, NGO representatives, people involved in gender mainstreaming. At the end of the Conference, a number of recommendations were agreed upon by participants on how to facilitate gender mainstreaming, the resources needed, the obstacles to be overcome, as well as on the added value of gender mainstreaming. These recommendations are set out at the end of this book, together with the conclusions of the General Rapporteur.
* * *
A Statement on integrating the gender perspective in the South Eastern Europe stabilisation process, presented by the Greek authorities and accepted by the participants, appears in Appendix.
Opening Address by Ms Eva GARAJOVA
Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to the Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers’ Rapporteur on Equality between Women and Men
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is a great honour for me to open this conference here in Athens today. You wanted this conference to go ahead despite the recent events here, and I would like to assure the Greek authorities of the depth of our sympathy. I would also like to assure the Turkish representatives of our complete sympathy and support in connection with the terrible disaster which recently struck Turkey.
As a representative of the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s decision-making body, I would first of all like to thank the Greek authorities for having taken the initiative of hosting a Council of Europe conference on this topic, and for providing us with such a magnificent setting for our discussions.
* * *
I am happy to see the large number of people who accepted this invitation. I hope this is evidence of the fact that equality between women and men is becoming recognised as a major issue of our time which concerns the whole of society. Personally speaking, I have always been convinced of this.
This is why I was delighted to accept responsibility for this issue, recently assigned to me by the Committee of Ministers. It is in this capacity that I am present here today and as Committee of Ministers rapporteur on gender equality I intend to play my role to the full upon my return to Strasbourg by reporting to ambassadors on your discussions and recommendations.
* * *
Mainstreaming is today one of the Council of Europe’s priority topics in the field of equality between women and men. As you will be aware, it is a somewhat new approach to promoting equality, and has been developed primarily in the course of the last decade of this century. It is an approach providing a new vision of equality which could, as the title of this conference indicates, be a step into the 21st century.
I am happy to be able to say that the Council of Europe has played a significant role in providing the conceptual framework for, and disseminating, this approach. I should therefore like to pay tribute to the Steering Committee for Equality between Women and Men which has made such a major contribution to this field. It finalised a methodology for mainstreaming in a report with which some of you will be familiar and which was unanimously approved by the Committee of Ministers. This was the first step. The next will be for this approach to be put into practice. I therefore welcome the fact that the Steering Committee would like this conference to focus primarily on concrete projects. You will be presenting the necessary conditions and the instruments to be set up to ensure that mainstreaming is implemented in the best possible way. I am certain that you will also be discussing the added value of mainstreaming, its usefulness in our societies.
* * *
A new strategy is often viewed with scepticism and apprehension, and is often misinterpreted. Personally, I am convinced that gender mainstreaming is the path leading to de facto equality. It carries with it the promise of a better society.
Without wishing to anticipate your conclusions, I would like to refer to a number of points which show that gender mainstreaming will have a significant impact on the positive development of our societies and on promoting equality between men and women.
Implementing the mainstreaming approach, in my view, will show that equality issues are of concern to everyone – the whole of society, both men and women. Almost all questions being asked in our society affect women and men, girls and boys differently. Taking the gender dimension into account will make it possible to address such issues more fully, more effectively and more fairly and improve the political decision-making process.
Next, mainstreaming will make it possible to gain a better understanding of and address the needs and interests of different groups of women, as well as those of different groups of men. This will be in response to the criticism often made to those working in the field of equality that it is not possible to speak of women as though they were a homogenous group: women, like men, comprise a variety of groups having specific needs and interests.
Lastly, I believe that this new vision of equality between the sexes will make it possible to view it as being part of a positive future, and not solely in terms of fighting discrimination against women. Clearly, such discrimination remains and it is still necessary to fight against it. In order to take part in public life, women still have to conform to the male approach. I am sure that you will develop all these and other ideas during this conference.
Gender mainstreaming builds on all the experience and competence brought by both women and men to society, and which enables men to play a greater role in family life and the life of their children. In this way, men will perhaps realise that there are advantages for them too in a society in which the sexes are placed on an equal footing. It is my hope that this will also lead to men playing a greater part in work on equality. Too often, they think that this question does not concern them.
As the former Swedish Minister for Equality, Bengt Westerberg, said in a Council of Europe seminar:
“we must merely state that men have not found gender equality to be in their interest, and no wonder about that: few groups voluntarily refuse privileges, especially if they feel they get nothing else in exchange.”
* * *
Combating discrimination against women and ensuring equal opportunities and equal treatment between the sexes are part of the basic principles of the Council of Europe, the principles and values of human rights and democracy. The Council of Europe has been working for a long time on consolidating and promoting these values. Gender mainstreaming cannot exist without traditional equality policies: as the Council of Europe’s report confirms, these two approaches constitute a dual and complementary strategy. We have to continue setting up and improving institutional mechanisms for equality, consolidating legal bases, adopting and implementing action plans, and putting in place positive measures. All these are necessary if we are to achieve de facto equality during the next century. In particular, we must seek to ensure that women play a greater part in the decision-making process.
This was asserted by the Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe at their 2nd summit two years ago, in autumn 1997. They set out two priority areas: (i) the participation of women in political and public life and (ii) the need to combat all forms of violence against women, including sexual exploitation.
We are here today in south-eastern Europe, a region which has been, even recently, the scene of so many conflicts and so much suffering. It is important to remember this in the context of equality. Pictures of refugee women and women suffering the consequences of hostilities are engraved on our minds. Yet, we have heard less of what they have to say and the suggestions they have, including those for resolving conflicts. Moreover, this is very often the case.
We also know that south-eastern Europe is severely affected by trafficking in human beings for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The criminals who organise this modern form of slavery and flout the integrity and dignity of human beings target young girls in particular. It is essential that in the process of constructing a new south-eastern Europe, women are given the opportunity to express their views, that they are able to take part in the decision-making process, benefit from economic measures as much as men and participate in the development of democracy. Above all, women must contribute to conflict resolution and negotiations.
A very long time ago, a writer from this country, the cradle of our civilisation, Aristophanes, described in one of his plays, Lysistrata, the means used by women to stop the war. Exasperated by the bellicose behaviour of their husbands, they refused to allow them into their beds. This idea of Aristophanes, instead of depicting the emancipation or public recognition of women, showed the fear men could have of such a development. As we approach the 21st century it is high time we dismissed such ideas once and for all. No solution will be a perfect one if women are not consulted, or if they are sidelined. It is now time for men and women to begin working together for a better society.
Thank you for your attention.
