GIA Report - Manchester Business School

EGGE – EC’s Expert Group on Gender and Employment
Title: Gender Impact Assessment and European Employment Policy
Authors: Jill Rubery and Colette Fagan
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Expert Group on Gender and Employment (EGGE) and was funded by the European Commission. The
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opinions and views expressed in this report remain the responsibility of the authors and authors alone,
and should not be taken to be representative of the views of the European Commission.
Gender Impact Assessment and European
Employment Policy
Jill Rubery
Colette Fagan
European Work and Employment Research Centre
(EWERC)
Manchester School of Management
UMIST
Final Version 2000
EU experts group on gender and employment*
Danièle Meulders, Belgium
Ruth Emerek, Denmark
Friederike Maier, Germany
Maria-Luisa Moltó, Spain
Rachel Silvera, France
Maria Karamessini, Greece
Ursula Barry, Ireland
Paola Villa, Italy
Robert Plasman, Luxembourg
Janneke Plantenga, The Netherlands
Ulli Pastner, Austria
Maria do Pilar González, Portugal
Reija Hannele Lilja, Finland
Lena Gonäs, Sweden
Jill Rubery, UK
CONTENTS
Summary
Page No.
English
French
1. Gender Impact Assessment and European Employment Policy
1.1
1.2
1.3
Employment Policy, Gender Mainstreaming and gender Impact
Assessment Guidelines
Examples of Employment Policy Evaluations and Impact assessments
Barriers that need to be overcome in the development and
implementation of gender Impact Assessment
2. Gender Impact Assessment of Measures included in the NAPs
2.1
2.2
2.3
The seven stage gender impact assessment process
Towards the development of a checklist for gender impact assessment?
Employment Policy summary tables
4
17
31
31
58
79
85
87
102
107
References
138
Appendix tables
142
Summary
1.1 EMPLOYMENT POLICY, GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT
GUIDELINES
Gender mainstreaming (GM) s a policy approach in which efforts to promote gender equality are not
restricted to the implementation of specific measures, but rather to
'mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality'
(European Commission 1998).
Gender Impact (GI) assessment is an important tool for implementing mainstreaming. A systematically
conducted GI assessment identifies whether the policy under scrutiny has positive or negative
outcomes in terms of promoting gender equality and can be used to improve the quality and efficacy of
policy design (see Box S.1). GI assessments should be carried out at an early stage in the policy
decision-making process so that the policy can be adapted or reorientated as required.
Gender impact assessment is in its early stages in most countries and is developing at an
uneven rate across the Member States
Three broad conclusions can be drawn about the recent initiatives in GM/GIA in employment policy in
the European Union. Firstly, the development of gender mainstreaming in policy is in its early stages in
most countries including those countries where the political commitment to gender equality has been
established for many years.
Secondly, the European Employment Strategy is providing an important stimulus to the development of
debate and initiatives around gender mainstreaming and gender impact assessment in national policy
in a number of countries. Thirdly, the adoption of GIA instruments for gender mainstreaming policy
design and evaluation is proceeding unevenly between countries, between different national and subnational tiers of government, and between different policy areas.
The Nordic countries have a longer track record of political commitment and policy action to promote
equal opportunities than most other member states. However, while Sweden and Finland both have
political commitments to mainstreaming and have developed or are developing requirements to
undertake GIA of national policy there has been little activity to develop gender mainstreaming and
impact assessments in Denmark despite the fact that the principle of promoting gender equality has
long been embedded in Danish politics and policy making and that Denmark has an extensive track
record of equality initiatives. Another early starter in the area of gender impact assessment is the
Netherlands. At the beginning of the 1990s the Netherlands was one of the few countries where a
gender impact assessment instrument (EER) for gender mainstreaming was developed at the national
level. Since 1996, 11 GIAs have been made at a national government level in the Netherlands.
Developments around gender mainstreaming and impact assessments in employment policy are at
earlier stages in the rest of the European Union. Several countries have taken initial steps to develop
gender mainstreaming in the policy making process by making explicit political commitments in the last
year or so. These developments may provide the institutional mechanisms for the development of more
concerted gender mainstreaming procedures, including the design and implementation of gender
impact assessments in the immediate future. GI assessment guidelines have either been adopted very
recently or are in the process of being drawn up by government in five member states in relation to
national employment and/or economic development policy (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Ireland, UK).
General guidelines have not been issued by the government in France or Austria, although in both
countries there are examples of official GI assessments being undertaken. In France a GIA evaluation
has been undertaken for employment policy and the Structural Fund Programme, while in Austria the
GM/GIA initiatives have been more narrowly focused on European Structural Funds. GI assessment
guidelines have also been drawn up to assess the Portuguese NAP for 2000 and in Italy the Ministry for
Equal Opportunities has drawn up GIA guidelines for the European Structural Funds, but there are no
examples of these having been applied yet. There are some reports published that provide a limited
gender sensitive evaluation of policy in Spain, but no GI assessment guidelines have been developed
by the government.
Further conceptual and practical elaboration of the gender impact assessment methodology is
required
It is important for the guidelines to be elaborated in two directions: 'upwards' in a more conceptual
sense and 'downwards' in the practical application. The 'upwards' direction is in the sense that the
policy guidelines need to be located in a broader and explicit theoretical statement of how gender
inequality is reproduced within society and clarification about the conception of equality that is to be
adopted. According to Verloo and Roggeband (1994) the operationalisation of GIA involves three
questions:
• Where are the structures (institutions and organisations) that reproduce unequal power relations
between men and women?
• What are the processes that reproduce gender inequalities (access to resources; the social rules
and norms about gender roles and responsibilities)?
• Which evaluation criteria of 'equality' are to be used for policy assessment?
This framework requires an explicit consideration of evaluation criteria. Verloo and Roggeband
advocate two evaluation criteria. The first is equality in the sense of equal treatment in similar
circumstances, which is the concept of equality embedded in the legislative system. To prevent equality
being implicitly measured against the male norm or 'sameness', the concept of enhancing women's
autonomy is incorporated. The second criterion is 'pluriformity'; or the promotion of a society where
differences are not hierarchically valued. The 'downward' elaboration of the gender impact assessment
tools follows from this conceptual framing of gender relations and inequality. This refers to the need for
precision in the GIA guidelines in terms of the checklist of questions to ask and information to gather
and assess, and the policy stages of design, implementation and evaluation.
Within countries the content and application of GIA is more developed in some regions and
government agencies than in others
An uneven development in GIAs is to be expected when the process of gender mainstreaming is just
starting. Ensuring diffusion between different levels of government is particularly critical in countries
where policy design and implementation is devolved. Examples from member states illustrate the need
for national level guidelines and monitoring procedures that provide a co-ordinating framework for
regional and local initiatives, combined with systematic mechanisms for the dissemination of good
practice developments in mainstreaming and impact assessment .
Integrating gender impact assessment with other forms of impact assessment raises additional
methodological considerations
The development of gender impact assessment raises the question of how to combine this with other
forms of equality impact assessments. This question will gain increasing prominence because the new
European Social Policy Agenda sets out a number of proposed actions on discrimination on grounds
other than gender. This issue is already being grappled with in a number of member states. As impact
assessment becomes more complex but without precise guidelines, the results may be too general or
vague to provide adequate guidance for policy. Where the political commitment and equality expertise
is more advanced in relation to gender than other issues of discrimination, the development of concrete
and specific impact assessment guidelines for gender may inform the process of developing impact
assessment tools for other identified groups.
1.2. EXAMPLES OF EMPLOYMENT POLICY EVALUATIONS AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS
The assessment of the development of gender-aware policy evaluation in the member states has to
take into account the overall level of expertise with respect to policy evaluation. Government-led policy
evaluation in some member states still focuses primarily on descriptive statistics and does not develop
a systematic analysis of ‘additionality’, that is the net impact of the policy taking into account trends in
the labour market and other variables. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that there is little
evidence of the development of full gender impact assessment. In other member states, for example
Sweden, there is both more development of sophisticated methods of policy evaluation and a greater
awareness of gender issues.
Examples of ‘gender blind’ evaluations
The need for further promotion of the gender perspective is demonstrated by examples from a range of
member states of employment policy evaluations which fail to make any reference to gender issues,
even when there are clear a priori expectations that such effects will not only be significant but that
ignoring these effects will result in a misleading analysis. In France a recent example of gender
blindness amongst economists led to a protest. More than 300 social science researchers signed a
petition, pointing both to the failure to identify gender issues at a conference on the working poor and to
the fact that not a single woman was invited to speak at the symposium. The problem of gender
blindness also occurs in government policymaking circles. Even when policy programmes are subject to
very detailed scrutiny - for example the UK New Deal programmes - many the evaluations make no
explicit reference to gender or provide gender disaggregated statistics. In some Southern countries
gender blindness is perhaps even more of a problem: for example an evaluation of vocational guidance
in Greece only devoted seven lines in 108 pages to gender and in Italy there is an absence of analysis
of gender issues related to problems with data collection and publication.
Examples of gender sensitive evaluations
Policy evaluations which pay attention to gender issues range from those that merely make gender
visible (that is break down some statistics by gender but fail to analyse the gender issues) to gender
sensitive evaluations which provide a full gender impact assessment. Gender visibility is clearly more
common than gender sensitivity in policy evaluation. Even gender visible analyses can be shown to
provide useful and important information, in comparison to the gender blind approaches identified
above. But sometimes if a policy is subject to gender impact assessment but based on a flawed
methodology, the impact may be to provide the policy with unwarranted credibility.
Gender sensitive evaluations of policy options.
Gender impact assessments can reveal factors which may increase gender equality, not all of which are
self evident or intuitive. For example, a review of supplementary pensions in the Netherlands indicated a
need for policy programmes to be inclusive and revealed gender differences according to the methods
used to calculate pension entitlement. Comparative analysis can also open up the debate on policy options
for improving equal opportunities: for example a comparison of part-time employment in Europe and Spain
provided a point of departure for improving the social protection of part-time contracts in Spain. Gender
impact assessment may be used to suggest policy amendments and modifications to enhance both
quantitative and qualitative equality measures for policies already in place.
Contradictions and tensions between gender equality objectives and employment policies.
The gender impact assessment of the Dutch working hours act identified both pessimistic and optimistic
scenarios which may emerge from this policy; under the pessimistic scenario women will be forced to
work in short part-time jobs while under the optimistic scenario there is more sharing of care work and
more responsiveness by employers to care needs. Overall the GIA clearly brings out the internal
tension between deregulation of working times on the one hand and protection and reconciliation on the
other. In some member states well known and well documented gender sensitive evaluations of current
policy measures are effectively ignored or disregarded by government policymakers, despite their
apparent commitment to gender mainstreaming. For example, the new French ‘APE’ policy which now
provides an allowance for childraisers after the second child instead of the third has been shown to
have major negative consequences for gender equality. Similarly in the UK a long voiced criticism of the
lower earnings threshold for national insurance contributions by the Equal Opportunities Commission
has had little impact on policy.
Differences in the application of equal opportunities within policy programmes
Gender sensitive evaluations of employment policies are important in revealing current strengths and
current weaknesses in the gender mainstreaming approach within the National Action Plans.
Evaluations in Austria have revealed both a neglect within the NAP of gender issues within the third
adaptability pillar compared to the first two pillars and, within the structural funds, a tendency for a
good record of equal opportunities within Objective 3 not to be matched by success in Objective 4. In
Germany evaluations have shown that women to be underrepresented in some key areas of labour
market programmes, particularly those involving placements with a private sector employer.
Unanticipated or unintended gender outcomes.
Unanticipated gender differences may emerge from evaluations: for example in Finland. policy measures
that promote direct labour market entry were found to be more beneficial for women than training
measures. Introducing gender into the Spanish evaluation of the Employment Agreement 1997 revealed
how women, despite being given priority under the policy, remained underrepresented among those
transferring from temporary to permanent contracts. This was a consequence of a low rate of increase in
participation in the scheme from women under 30.
Evaluating the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Another function of evaluation is to attempt to identify the concrete measures and concrete realities
behind policymakers’ commitments to equal opportunities policies. Much of the European employment
debate is conducted at a rather rhetorical level with policy commitment not followed up either by
concrete measures or by new initiatives. These problems are also found in the area of equal
opportunities as the example of the evaluation of the Portuguese global plan on equal opportunities
revealed.
Using gender evaluation to promote good practice.
Gender sensitive evaluations can be used not only to assess the specific policy but to generate ideas
and principles for good practice which can be utilised in other policy environments. For example, in
Spain a pioneer study on local gender equality policies in Catalonia was used to develop a guide to identify
good practices.
1.3 BARRIERS THAT NEED TO BE OVERCOME IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION
OF GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT
Gender impact assessment is still in the early stages of development in most member states. The
implementation and improvement of this tool may be undermined or prevented by a number of barriers
or obstacles.
A recent Dutch evaluation concluded that GI assessment is a useful tool, and showed that some
frequently made criticisms concerning the complexity and value of the policy instrument were largely
unfounded. However a number of recommendations can be made about how to develop the GIA
procedures:
• Practical and specific guidelines about the purpose and procedural steps of GI assessment are
needed to make it manageable
• GI assessment must be introduced at an early stage in the policy making process otherwise it has
little effect on the policy plans and focus
• Clear political commitment and institutional procedures are needed
• Public accountability is essential for GI assessment to be effective
Similar requirements were identified in every national report, and most countries also mentioned the
need for:
• Information, expertise and financial resources to build the capacity of policy makers to undertake GI
assessments
Practical and specific guidelines about the purpose and procedural steps of GI assessment are
needed to make it manageable
Systematic and practical guidelines are required but guidelines have yet to be systematically adopted in
all countries or policy making areas and where guidelines they do exist they are often too vague or too
complex. The guidelines should identify how to implement impact assessment at each step in the policy
making process, and build in a requirement for monitoring and evaluation of the actual policy impact.
They need to be supported with toolkits which identify simple benchmark indicators plus methodological
procedures for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the policy being scrutinised at the various
policy stages (design, implementation, monitoring). Where GIA is being carried out alongside other
impact assessments (race/ethnicity, disability, anti-poverty, etc.) additional methodological issues need
to be addressed. 'Best practice' examples will demonstrate the value of GI assessments and may help
to persuade those who are unconvinced of the merits of this tool to reconsider.
GI assessment must be introduced at an early stage in the policy making process, otherwise it
has little effect on the policy plans and focus
GI assessments need to be introduced at the outset of the policy planning to have maximum effect.
Impact assessments should be an integral part of policy monitoring and evaluation, with the results
systematically fed back into the start of the next cycle of policy making. Procedures need to be
specified to ensure that this feed back takes place.
Clear political commitment and institutional procedures are needed
Without a clear political commitment and defined institutional procedures and functional responsibilities
the use of this tool is likely to be uneven and largely dependent on the goodwill and motivation of
individuals. In a number of member states there was no obligation on policymaking organisations to
undertake GI assessment. In others the assessments were the responsibility of advisory bodies, such
as Equality Units, that had little formal power of sanction or ability to enforce policy revision. Even
where GI assessment is a requirement, such as in Sweden, the use of the instrument may in practice
be uneven or half-hearted in policy making units without a clear commitment to gender mainstreaming.
Clear functional lines of responsibility, reporting and accountability are required.
Competing political priorities or other reforms may also create a barrier to the effective use of GI
assessments. For example, public sector reform programmes or public sector budget cuts may be
given priority over gender impacts. GI assessments may also expose the internal tensions in a policy
that require further political resolution: for example tensions between the competing objectives of trying
to deregulate working time while also providing protection and work-family reconciliation. Impact
assessments are one means of exposing these tensions so that priorities are explicitly debated and
selected.
Improving the representation of women in decision-making may be one means of helping to promote
political commitment. Research has shown that the presence of women in decision-making does help to
keep equal opportunities on the agenda.
Public accountability is essential for GI assessment to be effective
Public accountability will help to tackle some of the procedural and political barriers to the effective
implementation of GI assessments that have been discussed above.
Public accountability can be increased in various ways. One way is to recommend the use of external
independent (non-government) experts to carry out GI assessments. A second is the public
dissemination of database and methodological toolkits, and the full reports of GI assessments. An
effective and low cost means is through web sites. The third way is to build in explicit requirements for
consultation with the policy target groups in both the policy design and evaluation.
Information, expertise and financial resources to build the capacity of policy makers to
undertake GI assessments
Impact assessment has to be adequately resourced if it is to be effective. In some countries there is a
pressing need for more comprehensive statistics and other information sources. The need for
benchmark indicators to be developed and for statistics to be routinely disaggregated by gender is a
widespread concern. A major limitation is the lack of information on individual earnings and other
income, and the lack of longitudinal data to track transitions of target groups between different labour
market situations and so forth. A related information issue is the problem of using units of analysis or
categories that obscure gender effects. The most important of these is the use of the household rather
than the individual as a unit of analysis.
A second resource constraint is a lack of expertise in policy evaluation generally, or in mainstreaming
specifically. Training to redress the lack of gender mainstreaming skills has begun in a number of
member states. A related consideration is whether the acquisition of this expertise should be
concentrated on a few experts or dispersed to become a general competency. Finally, financial
resources and incentives are critical for the successful promotion of Gender Impact Assessments and
mainstreaming generally.
2. GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENTS OF MEASURES INCLUDED IN THE NAPS
Gender impact assessment of policy measures included in the National Action Plans has hardly begun:
employment policy measures are still often presented without a detailed gender analysis. It is in this
context that the expert group has undertaken to evaluate employment policy measures according to a
seven stage gender impact assessment methodology. For each member state two policy measures
have been selected. We have grouped the policies under the headings active labour market policies,
training and lifelong learning policies, tax and benefit policies, entrepreneurship, the information society,
the social economy, working time, flexibility and reconciliation of work and family life, and segregation
policies. The key points to arise out of these evaluations can be summarised as follows.
2.1 THE SEVEN STAGE GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROCESS
1. Initial starting point
The first stage in applying the GIA methodology is to determine the initial position by gender with
respect to four dimensions: namely, participation, resources, norms and values and rights. This initial
assessment should determine the intensity of the gender equality deficit and provide a benchmark
against which to assess the policy outcomes.
Participation
Participation rates depend in part upon definitions of eligibility for programme measures. For example,
the definitions of the target unemployed population determines potential participation rates by gender in
policy measures. Gender impact assessments need to identify the impact on target populations of
changing eligibility criteria: for example age limitations. Gender impact assessments should also
translate apparently gender neutral policy targets - such as, for example, the low waged - into target
populations clearly identified by gender.
Resources
Gender differences in access to resources include not only differences in earnings but also differences
in access to state benefits, and to resources to facilitate entry and participation in the labour market,
such as transport and childcare.
Availability of childcare resources is critical in determining
opportunities for women to participate in active labour market programmes, as are transportation
arrangements. Evaluations of policies should take into account not only the impact on household
resources but also the impact on individual resources. Gender equality deficits in access to resources
also relate to education and training, for example access to IT education and training. Differences in
returns from labour market and training activities also need to be identified. Employment policy is
focusing on raising the female employment rate but reducing the gender deficit in resources also
requires action to reduce the gender pay gap and improve the quality of jobs.
Norms and values
Gender impact assessments need to identify the role of policy measures in reinforcing social norms and
values which maintain gender inequality. For example, tax and benefit policies are not gender neutral
policies but are often based on the principle of a male breadwinner household model. A move towards
individual tax assessment may have important symbolic value, indicating a recognition of women’s right
to economic independence. In the area of benefits the need for individualisation is even greater as the
women affected by household means testing often have very limited opportunities for labour market
entry.
Social norms and values also limit the potential effectiveness of policy options: strong social norms in
favour of mothers providing care may restrict the development of a childcare infrastructure. Norms and
values also underpin gender segregation: women's underrepresentation in information technology
reflects societal norms and values which define men as more comfortable with or suitable for technical
work.
Rights
Women's rights as citizens to have equal access to the labour market and to earnings opportunities
may be compromised by, for example, eligibility criteria based on tax and benefit norms. Even where
women have formal rights on the same basis as men, lack of childcare facilities may restrict women
exercise of these rights. Establishing formal rights for men to participate in reconciliation measures will
not necessarily be sufficient to promote gender equality in domestic work.
2. Direction of trends
The initial situation needs to be considered from a dynamic and not solely a static perspective to avoid
attributing too much to the impact of policy measures. Women have been increasing their participation
in the labour market often despite rather because of supportive tax, benefit and labour market policies.
Trends in gender deficits may also be operating in contradictory directions. Future risks as well as past
trends must also be taken into account.
3. Priority to gender equality
The policy measures evaluated included some where gender equality issues were a main or a
subsidiary objective and others that had no specific commitment to gender equality. The priority
attached to gender equality was not necessarily related to the initial gender equality deficit, nor was it
always the case that the gender impact of the policy was clearly identified at the time of policy design.
Moreover policies with specific gender equality objectives do not necessarily act to reduce gender
equality deficits.
Commitment to gender equality must be questioned when the budget attached is limited. In some cases
limited funds can be used in strategic way to achieve equality objectives, for example through the
adoption of specific gender targets or the establishment of a training programmes in equal opportunities
for officials. Nevertheless where a clear relationship between expenditure and impact can be expected,
the budget must be considered an indication of policy priority.
Even where the policy is explicitly not directed at gender equality, the principle of gender mainstreaming
requires the gender impact to be evaluated. In practice many employment policies are simply presented
as gender neutral. Member states do not actively defend policies which may have negative gender
equality effects but instead prefer to leave the gender impacts invisible.
There are sometimes problems in determining what promoting gender equality actually means. In some
cases promoting women’s employment may compromise women’s right to care. Policies which prioritise
employment over improving access to education and training may not close the gender equality deficit.
Segregation policies may impact negatively on aggregate employment opportunities for women.
Whether reconciliation measures or the promotion of part-time work is aiding gender equality depends
upon the inclusion or not of measures to promote men’s involvement in care work or to reduce the
labour market disadvantages associated with leave arrangements or part-time work.
4. Impact on gender equality
Evaluation of the impact of the programmes again requires an assessment of the effects with reference
to participation, resources, norms and values and rights.
Participation
Evaluation of participation in labour market programmes requires disaggregated statistics at the
detailed programme or occupational level to reveal representation levels in the more or less effective
parts of the programme and the relationship between participation and gender segregation. The
prevailing pattern of segregation may also in part explain different rates of participation in the
programme. A further evaluation stage is required to assess the impact on long-term prospects but as
yet there is limited information on long-term consequences. Some programmes do not seem to have a
commitment to collecting this longitudinal information, thereby preventing an effective evaluation of
gender impacts. Evaluation of policies across different countries may reveal that some policy measures
may promote women’s labour market participation in some contexts but not in others.
Resources
GIAs reveal in some cases major differences in expenditure on female–dominated versus maledominated parts of the policy programme. Moreover labour market policies which do not assist with
childcare are unlikely to have significant impacts on women’s behaviour. Access to a range of
resources,- for example training, technical assistance and financial subsidies- may be critical to
overcoming gender disadvantage, for example in setting up small businesses.
Norms and values
Labour market programmes may reinforce or break down traditional social norms and values.
Programmes to reduce employment or education gaps may still not break down traditional segregation
in the labour market or in choice of educational subjects. Programmes for the unemployed which focus
on citizenship training including equal opportunities issues may do more to change social norms. But
policies for example in the IT area which fail to address issues of working cultures are unlikely to be
successful in increasing women’s share of the sector.
Rights
Most of the policy measures evaluated only have indirect implications for rights, related to eligibility
criteria or through tax and benefit reform affecting rights to independent income and to privacy. More
direct effects come from measures which combine flexibility with new employment rights but these
policies often involve increasing rights in some areas while reducing them in others. Moreover
apparently positive policies - providing increased security or reduced working time - could have
negative effects, in particular by increasing personal and family stress as a consequence of the greater
flexibility.
5. Effects on specific groups
Women’s relationship to policy programmes are often determined by their household position, as lone
parents or as mothers in couple households, for example. Some groups of women are often effectively
invisible in policy programmes- for example partners of the unemployed. Policies apparently aimed at
the unemployed and disadvantaged may effectively exclude some of the most disadvantaged women.
Policies may have contradictory effects, for example favouring employment for lone parent groups or
workless households but discouraging women’s employment in couple households with employed
partners.
6. Indirect effects
Changes to gender relations outside as well as inside work may be one of the positive indirect effects to
be looked for in evaluating employment policies from a gender mainstreaming perspective. Some
indirect effects may be negative, including potential negative effects on child welfare and family life,
arising for example from policies to integrate women into jobs with long hours working cultures, without
change to those working cultures.
7. Modifications to policies
Modifications already introduced into policies
The increasing awareness of gender mainstreaming issues has led to some modification of policies.
These changes have come about in response to the increased availability of gender specific information
or because of political pressure, through lobby groups or parliament.
Suggestions for further modification
A wide range of proposals are made for further modification, rethinking or monitoring of the policies
chosen for evaluation. These proposals can be categorised into some general principles which point to
potential pitfalls in employment policies which policymakers across Europe should consider when
designing, implementing and evaluating employment policies.
• Policies need redesigning to remove any potential discrimination due to eligibility tests based on
household position, employment record tests which match male rather than female work histories,
etc.
•
Issues of segregation as well as participation need to be addressed and monitored
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Attention needs to be paid to improving the quality of women’s jobs, not simply to raising the short
term employment rate
Policies need to protect rights to care, not only right to access employment
More attention needs to be paid to how to reduce discrimination by private firms against women
Policies need to include ways of reconciling work and family life constraints, but reconciliation
policies must include addressing men’s involvement in domestic labour
Consideration should be given to new policies to promote family friendly working time policies for
men and women instead of promoting women-only policies such as part-time work
Attention needs to be paid to changing working cultures and education systems
Policies, for example to support IT, need to be broad, taking into account a wide range of jobs and
not solely focused on the most technical areas
An integrated approach to policymaking is required to reduce gender inequality (e.g. training,
technical advice, childcare as well as financial help to women entrepreneurs)
Policies need to be designed to help the most vulnerable and the most invisible groups of women
Social partners need to be encouraged to include gender equality issues on their bargaining
agendas but this encouragement may also need to be backed up by basic equality rights, not
dependent on the bargaining agreement
Evaluations of policies need to be carried out on an individual and not solely a household basis.
Women’s rights to employment and to independent income should be considered an independent
policy objective and not merely a means to reduce welfare expenditure or to reduce household
poverty
More monitoring and evaluation by gender is required, including more longitudinal analysis.
2.2 TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CHECKLIST FOR GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT?
This long list of gender recommendations and principles needs to be applied in specific policy and
indeed country contexts. The development of effective and a priori checklists for gender impact
assessment must ideally be carried out at the national level, where the specificities of the gender
equality deficits, the employment practices and the social and labour market institutions can be fully
taken into account. However, on the basis of this discussion of gender impact assessment across the
15 member states it is nevertheless possible to develop a set of issues to be looked at in assessing the
extent to which gender issues have been taken into account in policy design and evaluation (see table
S.1).
Box S.1 Steps in a Gender Impact Assessment
1. Describe the current situation
Are there gender differences in the policy field with regard to differences in participation, resources,
gender norms and values, rights?
Participation
• Sex composition of the target group/population
• Representation of women and men in decision-making positions
Resources
• Gender differences in the distribution of resources such as time, space, information and money,
political and economic power, qualifications, transport, use of public services
Norms and Values
• Norms and values which influence gender roles and the gender division of labour, the attitudes and
behaviour of women and men, and inequalities in the value attached to men and women or to
masculine and feminine characteristics
Rights
• pertaining to direct or indirect sex discrimination, human rights, and access to justice in the legal,
political or socioeconomic environment
2. Evaluate the probable developments without policy intervention
Assess the trends in men and women's position independently of the effects of the proposed policy.
3. Determine the priority to be attached to adopting policies which actively promote gender
equality (as opposed to policies which are simply gender neutral), according to an assessment
of the current degree of inequality and its impact on men and women's lives.
4. Assess the potential gender impact of the policy with reference to participation, resources, norms and values
and rights.
• Pay attention to qualitative as well as quantitative impacts, for example the quality of jobs or
promotion as well as the number of jobs.
• The impact on different types of resources, for example the quality of home and work life.
• Rights include the right to care as well as to undertake employment.
• Long term and lifecycle impacts as well as the short term costs and benefits.
5. Assess the impact of the policy on particular groups of women and men.
• Ethnic minority groups, parents and childless, age, educational groups, the employed and non
employed, regional groups etc.
• Interpretation of these differential impacts requires an assessment of the priority attached to the
different groups which should reflect, at least in part, the contribution of these dimensions of
difference to the current overall level of gender inequality
6. Assess the indirect impacts of the current state of gender inequalities and the proposed policies, paying
particular attention to the indirect impact on children
7. Where the policy is assessed to have a negative impact on gender equality or to be broadly
gender neutral, identify ways in which the policy could be redesigned to promote gender
equality
Source: Rubery et al. 1999, European Commission 1998
Table S.1 :Checklist for Gender Impact Assessment of Employment Policies
Policy area
Active labour
market
policies
Eligibility/access criteria
and/or policy orientation
Equality
Equality
positive
negative
Returners;
Benefit
spouses of
claimants
the
unemployed
Training and
lifelong
learning
Unemployed
and inactive;
those on
atypical
contracts.
Full-time
permanent
employees.
Unemployed
benefit
claimants.
Tax and
benefit
policies
Individual
basis;
citizenship
rather than
employment
record
Household
basis; means
testing
Integrated policy approach
Budgets/finance
Areas of likely weakness
and possible remedies
Monitoring and evaluation
Childcare provision required
Attention to segregation as
well as employment
effects. Need to preserve
the right to care as well
as rights to work.
Childcare facilities for those
both inside and outside the
labour market
Attention to segregation in
subjects chosen for
education/training.
Attention to be paid to new
and expanding sectors
where opportunity for
gender equality strong.
Provisions for costs of
childcare in tax and benefit
system. But making work
pay has to be addressed by
ensuring equal pay in the
labour market and not just
through household tax and
benefit systems.
Women to have equal
or greater access to
training and skills
development
programmes
Discrimination by private
sector firms; specific
attention paid to ensuring
equitably represented on
programmes involving
private firm placements.
Discrimination by private
sector firms in both hiring
and training. Changes to
working culture required
in some male dominated
sectors.
Longitudinal monitoring of
outcomes required.
Potential conflicts
between gender equality
and poverty/social
inclusion programmes e.g.
in work benefit systems
Monitoring not only of
employment participation
but also of individual
access to income and
resources required.
Financial incentives
to ensure employers
include those on
atypical contracts etc
in training
programmes
Tax
credits/allowances for
cost of childcare.
Spouses of benefit
claimants to be
allowed a reasonable
independent income.
Monitoring by subject as
well as by programme
required. Evaluation of
impact of education,
training on initial and
longer term employment
prospects. Monitoring of
access to further training
also necessary.
Entrepreneurs
hip
Inactive as
well as
unemployed
and
employed;
cooperatives
as well as
independent
self
employed
Benefit
claimants;
prior access
to finance/
credit.
Need to provide access not
only to finance but also to
training, technical advice,
childcare etc. Attention
needs to be paid to gender
segregation in areas of start
ups.
Need to ensure
women-only
measures receive fair
share of budget
and/or that women
receive fair share
within mainstreamed
programmes
Attention needs to be paid
to fragility of start ups;
women may be in more
competitive areas, face
more constraints in start
ups.
Monitoring not only of
enter into self employment
but also of duration of start
ups and long term
profitability of women’s
start up companies
required.
The
information
society
Wide range
of jobs;
school
students
Focused on
technical job
area and
post higher
education
entrants
Need to address male techno
culture in education system
and in work system. Need to
pay attention to job design
to expand range of types of
jobs within IT area.
Need to consider
linking budgets
and
financial
incentives
to
meeting specific
targets on female
recruitment
The social
economy
Returners ,
spouses of
unemployed
Benefit
claimants
only
Need sufficient
budget to provide for
high quality
employment
experience including
training etc.
Working
time,
flexibility
and
Targeted at
men as well
as women;
family
Promotion
of women
only
working
Need to consider
displacement effects of
policies to promote the
social economy. Also need
to provide childcare for
participants, access to
formal training and
credentials, fair wage levels
and to consider impact on
gender segregation.
Leave arrangements need to
be paid and need to consider
specific entitlements for
men to encourage
Both gender segregation
in education and in work
cultures may be resistant
to change. Positive action
policies may be required,
including policies in
which women are more
involved in shaping the
information society..
Need to consider how to
assist movement out of
social economy
programmes into longer
term secure employment
e.g. through training and
access to credentials .
Monitoring of women’s’
participation in education,
training and in jobs
associated with IT
required. Particular
attention should be paid to
evaluating positive actions,
e.g. women only training
programmes etc.
Monitoring not only of
participation in social
economy programme but of
longer term effects in
making transitions to the
regular labour market.
Evaluation of the impact on
the availability and quality
of social economy services
is also required.
Monitoring by gender of
access to and participation
in working time and
reconciliation measures
Budget needs to
provide for paid
leave. Incentives
needed for general
Resistance by private
sector to employee driven
flexibility, especially if
applied to men as well as
reconciliation
policies
friendly
working
time for all;
all forms of
flexible
work
provided
with some
level of
security/
employment
rights
time and
leave
arrangement
s. Exclusion
of those in
marginal/
flexible jobs
participation. General
working time reduction or
flexibility programmes need
to be devised, not specific
programmes aimed
primarily at women. Need
to improve rights for those
on atypical working time
contracts.
working time
changes, for the
provision of security
and to encourage
changes to domestic
division of labour.
women. Protection for
those taking leave or
reducing hours required
and specific incentives
needed for employers to
participate in scheme.
Security provision may
reduce some forms of
flexible work in the short
term but may have longer
term more positive effects
Segregation
policies
Values
difference
and
heterogeneit
y; makes
skills visible
Promote
desegregatio
n but at
expense of
women’s
employment
opportunitie
s.
Segregation policies need to
be set in general context of
maintaining and improving
employment opportunities
for women. Main focus
should be on vertical rather
than horizontal segregation.
Training
opportunities will not
be sufficient to break
down segregation;
need incentives etc to
encourage employers
to hire the
underrepresented sex.
Special measures may be
needed for the private
sector.
compatible with a better
work-life balance. Impact
of participation on
subsequent career options
also needs to be evaluated.
Careful monitoring of
policies offering flexibility
in return for security or
reduced working hours
required; possible increase
in personal and family
stress needs to be
considered.
Aspirations for skill and
career development need to
be investigated through
personnel audits/gender
audits.
Résumé
1.1 LIGNES DIRECTRICES EN MATIERE DE POLITIQUE DE L'EMPLOI, D'INTEGRATION DU GENRE
ET D'ETUDE DE L'IMPACT DU GENRE
L'intégration du genre est une approche dans le cadre duquel les efforts en faveur de l'égalité entre les
hommes et les femmes ne se limitent pas à la mise en application de mesures spécifiques mais visent à
‘mobiliser toutes les politiques et les mesures générales de manière spécifique afin de réaliser l'égalité’
(Commission européenne 1998).
L'étude de l'impact du genre est un outil important en matière d'intégration. Une étude d'impact du genre
systématique permet d'éclairer dans quelle mesure la politique examinée a des résultats positifs ou
négatifs pour promouvoir l'égalité entre les sexes et peut servir à améliorer la qualité et l'efficacité des
politiques élaborées (voir l'encadré S.1). Les études de l'impact du genre doivent être effectuées aux
premiers stades du processus de décision de sorte que la politique proposée puisse être adaptée ou
infléchie si nécessaire.
L'étude de l'impact du genre en est seulement à ses débuts dans la plupart des pays et progresse à un
rythme différent d'un Etat membre à un autre
Trois conclusions d'ensemble se dégagent des récentes initiatives en matière d'intégration et d'étude de
l'impact du genre dans la politique de l'emploi de l'Union européenne. Premièrement, l'intégration du genre
dans les politiques n'en est qu'à ses premiers stades dans la majorité des pays, y compris dans les pays
qui enregistrent depuis plusieurs années un engagement politique en faveur de l'égalité entre les sexes.
En deuxième lieu la stratégie européenne de l'emploi encourage le débat et les initiatives dans le domaine
de l'intégration du genre et des études de l'impact du genre dans les politiques nationales, et cela dans un
certain nombre de pays. Troisièmement, l'adoption d'instruments d'impact du genre pour l'élaboration et
l'évaluation de politiques d'intégration ne se fait pas au même rythme d'un pays à un autre, d'un niveau à
un autre, d'un domaine à un autre.
Les pays nordiques ont été les premiers à s'engager et à agir en faveur de l'égalité des chances. Mais
alors que la Suède et la Finlande se sont engagées politiquement en faveur de l'intégration et qu'elles
prévoient d'entreprendre une étude de l'impact du genre sur les politiques nationales, l'activité au
Danemark est faible dans ce domaine bien que l'égalité des chances fasse depuis longtemps partie
intégrante des politiques danoises et que le Danemark enregistre un bilan très positif en matière d'actions
pour l'égalité des chances. Les Pays-Bas font eux aussi figure de pionniers pour l'étude de l'impact du
genre. Au début des années 1990 les Pays-Bas étaient l'un des rares pays à mettre au point, sur le plan
national, un instrument d'étude de l'impact du genre (EER) pour l'intégration de la dimension sexuée.
Depuis 1996 11 études ont été réalisées à l'échelle du gouvernement.
Dans le reste de l'Union européenne les développements en matière d'intégration et d'étude de l'impact
dans les politiques de l'emploi sont moins avancés. Plusieurs pays ont pris des mesures initiales afin de
développer l'intégration du genre dans le processus de décision, en s'engageant explicitement sur le plan
politique au cours des douze derniers mois. De tels développements fourniront peut-être les mécanismes
institutionnels nécessaires à l'élaboration de procédures d'intégration plus concertées, y compris la
conception et la mise en application d'études d'impact du genre dans un avenir très proche. Les lignes
directrices des études ont été adoptées tout récemment ou sont sur le point d'être élaborées par les
pouvoirs publics dans cinq Etats membres, en rapport avec les politiques nationales de l'emploi ou du
développement économique (Allemagne, Belgique, Grèce, Irlande, Royaume-Uni). Des lignes directrices
générales ont été émises par les gouvernements français et autrichien bien que des cas d'études officielles
soient enregistrés. En France, une étude de l'impact du genre a été réalisée pour la politique d'emploi et le
programme de fonds structurels. En Autriche, les initiatives d'intégration et d'évaluation se focalisent plus
sur les Fonds structurels européens. Des lignes directrices d'étude d'impact du genre ont été formulées
pour évaluer le PAN portugais pour l'année 2000 et le Ministère italien de l'Egalité des Chances a établi
des lignes directrices d'étude d'impact du genre pour les Fonds structurels mais ces lignes ne semblent
pas encore avoir été appliquées. Certaines études fournissent une évaluation sexuée limitée des politiques
en Espagne mais les pouvoirs publics n'ont pas élaboré de lignes directrices d'évaluation.
La méthodologie d'étude d'impact du genre doit être perfectionnée sur les plans conceptuel et pratique
Il est essentiel que les lignes directrices soient doublement orientées: ‘vers le haut’ pour une plus grande
conceptualisation, et ‘vers le bas’ dans leur mise en pratique. Dans le premier cas, les lignes directrices
doivent se situer dans le cadre d'un exposé théorique explicite sur la manière dont les inégalités entre les
sexes se reproduisent dans la société et d'une clarification du concept d'égalité adopté. Selon Verloo et
Roggeband (1994) la mise en opération de l'étude d'impact du genre soulève trois questions:
Où sont les structures (institutions et organisations) qui
reproduisent des rapports de force inégaux entre les hommes et les femmes?
Quels sont les processus qui reproduisent les inégalités sexuées(accès aux ressources; règles et normes
sociales en matière de rôles et de responsabilités ‘de genre’)?
Quels sont les critères d'évaluation de l'’égalité’ qui devront être utilisés pour évaluer les politiques suivies?
Ce cadre impose une prise en compte explicite des critères d'évaluation. Verloo et Roggeband suggèrent
deux critères. Le premier est le critère d'égalité dans le sens de traitement égal dans de mêmes
circonstances, ce qui correspond au critère d'égalité tel qu'il figure dans le système législatif. Pour
empêcher que l'égalité ne soit implicitement mesurée en fonction de la norme masculine ou ‘identité’, la
notion de valorisation de l'autonomie féminine est incorporée. Le deuxième critère est celui de ‘pluriformité’,
à savoir la promotion d'une société où les différences ne sont pas hiérarchisées. L'élaboration ‘vers le bas
des outils d'étude d'impact du genre part de ce cadre conceptuel des rapports et de l'inégalité entre les
sexes. Cela se rapporte au besoin de préciser dans les lignes directrices les questions à poser et les
données à obtenir et à évaluer, ainsi que les étapes d'élaboration, de mise en oeuvre et d'évaluation des
politiques.
Sur le plan national, le contenu et l'application de l'étude d'impact de genre sont plus développés dans
certaines régions et dans certaines agences gouvernementales que dans d'autres
L'on peut s'attendre à un développement irrégulier des études puisque le processus d'intégration du genre
ne fait que débuter. Il est essentiel que la dissémination s'effectue entre divers échelons des pouvoirs
publics dans les pays où l'élaboration et la mise en oeuvre des mesures sont décentralisées. La situation
enregistrée dans les Etats membres montre qu'il est nécessaire de disposer de lignes directrices et de
procédures de contrôle nationales qui permettent de coordonner initiatives régionales et locales, et de
mécanismes systématiques pour disséminer les instances de bonne pratique en matière d'intégration et
d'études d'impact.
Intégrer l'étude d'impact du genre aux autres formes d'évaluation d'impact soulève des questions d'ordre
méthodologique
L'élaboration de l'étude d'impact du genre soulève la question de savoir comment concilier cette forme
d'évaluation avec les autres évaluations de l'impact de l'égalité. Cette question va prendre une importance
accrue du fait que le nouveau programme européen de politique sociale propose un certain nombre
d'initiatives contre la discrimination pour des raisons autres que le genre. Un certain nombre d'Etats
membres sont déjà aux prises avec cette question. L'étude d'impact devient alors plus complexe mais en
l'absence de lignes directrices bien définies les résultats obtenus risquent d'être trop généraux ou trop
vagues pour servir à guider les politiques. Lorsque l'engagement politique et les connaissances en matière
d'égalité sont plus poussés en ce qui concerne la dimension sexuée que pour les autres domaines de
discrimination, l'établissement de lignes directrices d'étude d'impact concrètes et spécifiques pour les
questions de genre pourra aider à élaborer des outils d'étude d'impact pour les autres groupes.
1.2 EXEMPLES D'EVALUATIONS DE POLITIQUES D'EMPLOI ET D'EVALUATIONS D'IMPACT
Pour examiner le développement de l'évaluation des politiques sexuées dans les Etats membres il
convient de tenir compte des compétences disponibles en matière d'évaluation des politiques. Dans
certains pays, les études réalisées par les pouvoirs publics continuent de porter sur des statistiques
descriptives et n'élaborent pas d'analyse systématique de la supplémentarité, à savoir le net impact de la
politique en tenant compte des tendances du marché de l'emploi et autres variables. On ne peut donc
s'étonner qu'il y ait peu de preuves du développement des études d'impact du genre. Dans d'autres pays
membres, comme la Suède par exemple, on peut observer une élaboration plus poussée de méthodes
d'évaluation perfectionnées ainsi qu'une plus grande sensibilisation aux questions de genre.
Exemples d'études non sexuées
Qu'il soit indispensable de promouvoir encore plus la perspective sexuée est confirmé par les exemples
fournis par plusieurs Etats membres où les études des politiques d'emploi ne font aucune référence aux
questions de genre même lorsque l'on s'attend a priori que les effets seront significatifs et que le fait de ne
pas prendre en compte de tels effets entraînerait une analyse trompeuse. Un cas récent de nonsensibilisation au genre parmi les économistes en France a donné lieu à des protestations. Plus de 300
chercheurs en sciences sociales ont signé une pétition, indiquant que les questions sexuées n'avaient pas
été mises en évidence lors d'un colloque sur les travailleurs pauvres, et qu'aucune femme n'avait été
conviée à faire une communication. Le problème se retrouve également parmi les décideurs. Même
lorsque les ensembles de mesures font l'objet d'un examen approfondi - comme c'est le cas pour les
programmes New Deal britanniques - rares sont les études qui font une référence explicite au genre ou qui
fournissent des statistiques désagrégées selon le sexe. Dans certains pays du Sud, l'insensibilisation au
genre représente encore plus un problème: c'est ainsi qu'une étude sur les services d'orientation
professionnelle en Grèce ne consacrait que sept lignes (sur 108 pages) au genre et qu'en Italie il n'y a pas
d'analyse des questions sexuées, du fait de difficultés liées à la collecte et à la publication des données.
Exemples d'évaluations sensibles au genre
Les évaluations de politique qui tiennent compte des questions sexuées vont de celles qui rendent
simplement le genre visible (en ventilant certains chiffres en fonction du sexe sans pour cela analyser les
questions sexuées) aux études sensibles au genre qui permettent d'effectuer un bilan effectif de l'impact du
genre. La visibilité du genre est plus courante que la sensibilité au genre dans l'évaluation des politiques.
Les études où le genre est visible s'avèrent plus utiles que les approches non sexuées mentionnées cidessus. Mais si une politique est soumise à une étude d'impact du genre sur la base d'une méthodologie
défectueuse, cela risque de fournir une crédibilité non fondée à cette politique.
Etudes sexuées des options politiques
Ces études peuvent mettre en évidence des facteurs qui permettent de renforcer l'égalité entre les sexes
et qui ne sont pas toujours évidents ou basés sur l'intuition. C'est ainsi qu'une étude des retraites
complémentaires aux Pays-Bas a montré que les initiatives politiques devaient être inclusives et a aussi
mis en évidence des différence entre les hommes et les femmes selon les méthodes utilisées pour
calculer les droits à la retraite. Les études comparatives permettent également d'élargir le débat sur les
options politiques en faveur de l'égalité des chances: à titre d'exemple, une étude comparative de l'emploi
à temps partiel en Europe et en Espagne a servi de point de départ pour améliorer la protection sociale
des contrats de travail à temps partiel en Espagne. L'étude d'impact du genre peut suggérer des
amendements ou des modifications aux politiques en vigueur qui renforceront les mesures en faveur de
l'égalité, sur le plan quantitatif comme sur le plan qualitatif.
Contradictions et tensions entre les objectifs de l'égalité entre les sexes et les politiques de l'emploi
Les études d'impact du genre sur les heures de travail aux Pays-Bas amènent à des conclusions
pessimistes mais aussi optimistes. Dans le premier cas, les femmes seront contraintes d'occuper des
emplois à temps partiel réduit tandis que dans le deuxième cas, les responsabilités de garde sont mieux
réparties et les employeurs sont plus sensibles aux besoins de garde. De manière générale, l'étude
d'impact du genre fait ressortir clairement la tension interne qui existe entre la déréglementation du temps
de travail, d'une part, et la protection et conciliation des responsabilités de l'autre. Dans certains Etats
membres des études bien connues et documentées des mesures en vigueur ne sont pas prises en compte
ou négligées par les décideurs bien que ces derniers se soient manifestement engagés en faveur de
l'intégration. C'est ainsi qu'en France les nouvelles mesures qui prévoient des allocations parentales après
la naissance du deuxième enfant, au lieu du troisième, ont un impact négatif majeur sur l'égalité entre les
sexes. De la même manière, au Royaume-Uni, les critiques formulées depuis un certain temps par la
Commission pour l'Egalité des Chances contre la baisse du seuil des revenus pour les cotisations sociales
n'ont pas affecté les mesures appliquées.
Disparités dans l'application de l'égalité des chances au sein des politiques
Les études sexuées des politiques de l'emploi servent à dégager les forces et les faiblesses des approches
visant à l'intégration au sein des Plans d'action nationaux. Des études entreprises en Autriche montrent
que les questions sexuées sont négligées dans les PAN, au niveau du troisième pilier de l'adaptabilité par
rapport aux deux autres piliers, et que dans les fonds structurels le bilan généralement positif de l'Egalité
des Chances dans l'Objectif 3 ne s'accompagne pas de résultats aussi positifs pour l'Objectif 4. Des études
allemandes montrent que les femmes sont sous-représentées dans certains secteurs clés de programmes
pour le marché du travail, en particulier pour les secteurs où un stage en entreprise privée est prévu.
Résultats de genre inattendus ou non voulus
Les études d'impact peuvent faire apparaître des disparités sexuées inattendues, comme par exemple en
Finlande où les actions engagées en faveur de l'entrée directe sur le marché du travail s'avèrent plus utiles
pour les femmes que les initiatives de formation. La prise en compte du genre dans l'étude espagnole de
l'Accord sur l'Emploi de 1997 montre qu'en dépit de la priorité accordée aux femmes dans ce programme,
celles-ci demeurent sous-représentées parmi les travailleurs passant de contrats de travail à durée
déterminée à des contrats à durée indéterminée du fait du faible taux de croissance de la participation des
femmes de moins de 30 ans.
Comment mesurer l'écart entre rhétorique et réalité
Ces études visent également à définir les mesures pratiques et les réalités au-delà de l'engagement des
décideurs en faveur des politiques d'Egalité des Chances. Le débat européen sur l'emploi est souvent
mené sur un plan théorique et les engagements politiques ne sont pas nécessairement suivis de mesures
pratiques ou de nouvelles initiatives. Ces problèmes se retrouvent également dans le domaine de l'égalité
des chances, comme le montre l'exemple de l'étude du plan portugais global sur l'égalité des chances.
L'évaluation sexuée et les bonnes pratiques
Les études sexuées peuvent servir non seulement à évaluer une politique donnée mais aussi à générer
idées et principes de bonne pratique applicables dans d'autres domaines. C'est ainsi qu'en Espagne une
étude pionnière sur les politiques locales d'égalité entre les sexes en Catalogne a servi de guide pour
mettre en évidence les bonnes pratiques.
1.3 OBSTACLES A FRANCHIR POUR ELABORER ET METTRE EN OEUVRE LES ETUDES
D'IMPACT DE GENRE
L'étude d'impact de genre en est à ses premiers stades dans la majorité des Etats membres. La mise en
oeuvre et le perfectionnement de cet instrument peuvent être érodés ou empêchés par un certain nombre
d'obstacles.
Un rapport néerlandais récent conclut que l'étude d'impact de genre est un instrument utile et montre que
dans l'ensemble les fréquentes critiques portant sur la complexité et la valeur même de cet instrument
manquent de fondement. Mais on peut faire un certain nombre de recommandations quant à l'élaboration
de procédures d'études d'impact de genre:
Des lignes directrices pratiques et spécifiques sur l'objectif et les étapes de procédure des études
d'impact de genre s'imposent pour que ces dernières puissent s'effectuer.
Si les études d'impact de genre n'interviennent pas dès les premiers stades du processus de
décision elles n'auront qu'un effet négligeable sur les projets et objectifs politiques.
Un engagement politique et des procédures institutionnelles claires s'imposent.
Pour être effectives, les études d'impact de genre doivent être liées à la responsabilité dans le
domaine public.
Des demandes similaires sont mises en évidence dans chacun des rapports nationaux et la
majorité des Etats membres ont fait état du besoin d'information, de compétences et de
ressources financières pour permettre aux décideurs de réaliser des études d'impact de genre.
Des lignes directrices pratiques et spécifiques sur l'objectif et les étapes de procédure des études d'impact
de genre s'imposent pour que ces dernières puissent s'effectuer.
Des lignes directrices systématiques et pratiques sont requises mais elles restent à être adoptées de
manière systématique dans tous les pays ou tous les domaines d'application. Lorsque des lignes
directrices existent effectivement elles sont souvent trop vagues ou trop complexes. Ces lignes directrices
doivent définir comment faire intervenir l'étude d'impact lors de chaque étape du processus de décision, et
prévoir le contrôle et l'évaluation de l'impact réel d'une politique. Elles doivent s'accompagner d'instruments
permettant de définir de simple indicateurs de repère ainsi que de procédures méthodologiques pour une
évaluation quantitative et qualitative des politiques examinées à leurs divers stades (conception, mise en
application, contrôle). Lorsque les études d'impact de genre sont réalisées en parallèle avec d'autres
études d'impact (race/ethnicité, handicap, lutte contre la pauvreté, etc), des questions supplémentaires
d'ordre méthodologique se posent. Les exemples de ‘meilleures pratiques’ démontreront la valeur des
études d'impact de genre et donneront matière à réflexion à ceux qui ne sont pas convaincus des mérites
de cet instrument.
Si les études d'impact de genre n'interviennent pas aux premiers stades du processus de décision elles
n'auront qu'un effet négligeable sur les projets et objectifs politiques.
Il convient d'introduire les études d'impact de genre en début de planification des politiques pour un effet
maximal. Les études devraient faire partie intégrante du contrôle et de l’évaluation des politiques et les
résultats doivent être systématiquement pris en compte au premier stade du prochain cycle de décision. Il
faut spécifier les procédures applicables pour assurer cette prise en compte.
Un engagement politique et des procédures institutionnelles claires s'imposent
En l'absence d'un engagement politique clair et de procédures institutionnelles et responsabilités
fonctionnelles bien définies, l'emploi de cet outil risque d'être incohérent et de dépendre en grande partie
de la bonne volonté et de la motivation des individus. Dans un certain nombre d'Etats membres, les
organismes décideurs ne sont pas tenus de se soumettre à des études d'impact. Dans d'autres les études
d'impact relevaient de la responsabilité d'organes consultatifs, comme les Unités d'égalité des chances, qui
ne disposaient pas de pouvoirs formels de sanction et n'étaient pas habilités à imposer une révision des
politiques. Même lorsque les études d'impact de genre sont obligatoires, comme c'est le cas en Suède,
leur application, dans la pratique, peut être irrégulière ou hésitante au niveau des décideurs, sans
engagement clair en faveur de l'intégration du genre. Des normes claires et fonctionnelles de
responsabilité et d'information sont requises.
La concurrence que se font diverses priorités politiques ou l'existence d'autres réformes peuvent
également entraver un emploi effectif des études d'impact de genre. Par exemple, on peut privilégier des
programmes de réformes ou des réductions budgétaires dans le secteur public sur les études d'impact du
genre. Ces études peuvent également de faire ressortir les tensions internes de programmes de mesures
nécessitant une solution politique, par exemple entre les objectifs contradictoires de la déréglementation du
temps de travail d'une part, et de la protection sociale et du besoin de concilier emploi et vie familiale
d'autre part. Les études d'impact sont un moyen de mettre en lumière de telles tensions de sorte que les
priorités soient explicitement discutées et définies.
Une représentation accrue des femmes dans le processus de décision peut permettre d'encourager un
engagement politique. Les études menées montrent que la participation féminine au processus de décision
aide effectivement à maintenir l'égalité des chances à l'ordre du jour.
Pour être effectives, les études d'impact de genre doivent être liées à la responsabilité dans le domaine
public.
La responsabilité publique aidera à éliminer certains obstacles politiques et de procédure pour une mise en
application effective des études d'impact de genre discutées ci-dessus.
La responsabilité publique peut être renforcée de diverses manières. Il est possible de recommander que
les études d'impact soient réalisées par des experts indépendants (non-gouvernementaux). Une deuxième
méthode consiste à diffuser des bases de données et des instruments méthodologiques, ainsi que les
rapports intégraux issus des études d'impact. Les sites internet constituent un outil peu onéreux. La
troisième méthode est d'intégrer un processus de consultation avec les groupes visés par les programmes
de mesures aux stades d'élaboration et d'évaluation.
Information, compétences et de ressources
financières pour permettre aux décideurs de réaliser
des études d'impact de genre.
Des ressources suffisantes doivent être allouées aux études d'impact pour que celles-ci soient effectives.
Dans certains pays il y a un besoin urgent de données statistiques et autres sources d'information plus
complètes. La nécessité de mettre au point des indicateurs de repère et de fournir systématiquement des
statistiques sexuées est généralisée. Le manque d'informations sur les salaires et autres revenus
individuels, et l'absence de données longitudinales qui permettraient de suivre les parcours des divers
groupes ciblés d'une situation à une autre sur le marché du travail, etc, constituent un obstacle majeur. Un
problème connexe est l'emploi d'unités d'analyse ou de catégories qui masquent les effets du genre, en
prenant notamment le ménage plutôt que l'individu comme unité d'analyse.
Une deuxième contrainte, sur le plan des ressources, est le manque de compétences qui existe en matière
d'évaluation des politiques de manière générale, ou dans l'intégration en particulier. Une formation
destinée à compenser l'absence de compétences d'intégration du genre a commencé dans un certain
nombre d'Etats membres. La question se pose également de savoir si l'acquisition de ces compétences
doit être réservée à quelques experts ou disséminée de sorte à devenir une compétence générale. Et enfin
les ressources et incitatifs financiers jouent un rôle crucial pour promouvoir efficacement les études
d'impact de genre et l'intégration de manière générale.
2. ETUDES D'IMPACT DE GENRE SUR LES MESURES PREVUES PAR LES PLANS D'ACTION
NATIONAUX
L'étude d'impact de genre des mesures politiques prévues dans les PAN n'en est qu'à ses débuts: les
politiques de l'emploi sont souvent encore présentées sans analyse sexuée détaillée. C'est dans ce
contexte que le groupe d'experts s'est engagé à évaluer les politiques de l'emploi en fonction d'une
méthodologie à sept étapes. Deux programmes de mesures ont été sélectionnés pour chacun des Etats
membres. Nous avons regroupé les programmes en fonction des rubriques suivantes: marché du travail,
formation professionnelle et continue, fiscalité et protection sociale, entrepreneuriat, informatisation de la
société, économie sociale, temps de travail, flexibilité et conciliation de la vie professionnelle et de la vie
familiale, et ségrégation. Il est possible de résumer comme suit les points clés qui se dégagent de ces
études.
2.1 PROCESSUS DE L'ETUDE D'IMPACT DE GENRE EN SEPT ETAPES
1.Point de départ
La première étape d'application de l'étude d'impact de genre consiste à définir la position de départ en
fonction de quatre dimensions: participation, ressources, normes et valeurs et droits. L'étude initiale doit
permettre de définir l'importance du déficit égalitaire et de fournir un repère pour évaluer les résultats des
politiques menées.
Participation
Les taux de participation dépendent en partie des définitions d'éligibilité pour les mesures proposées. C'est
ainsi que les définitions de la population sans emploi ciblée déterminent les taux de participation possibles
selon le sexe dans les programmes de mesures. Les études d'impact du genre doivent mettre en évidence
l'impact des critères d'éligibilité changeants sur les populations ciblées: comme par exemple les limites
d'âge. Les études d'impact du genre devraient aussi traduire des cibles de mesures en apparence non
sexuées - comme dans le cas des bas salaires - en populations ciblées clairement définies selon le genre.
Ressources
Les disparités de genre dans l'accès aux ressources comprennent non seulement les écarts salariaux mais
aussi les disparités en matière d'accès à l'aide étatique, et aux ressources qui facilitent l'entrée et la
participation sur le marché du travail, telles que les moyens de transport et les dispositifs de garde des
enfants. La disponibilité des dispositifs d'accueil est un facteur majeur en ce qui concerne la participation
active des femmes au marché du travail. Il en est de même pour les moyens de transport. Les études des
programmes de mesures doivent tenir compte non seulement de l'impact sur les ressources du ménage,
mais également de l'impact sur les ressources individuelles. Les déficits de l'égalité entre les sexes dans
l'accès aux ressources sont liés aussi à l'instruction et à la formation, par exemple l'accès à la formation
informatique. Les disparités des résultats obtenus sur le marché du travail et dans les activités de
formation doivent être mises en évidence. La politique de l'emploi se focalise sur la progression du taux
d'emploi féminin mais pour réduire l'inégalité entre les sexes, en ce qui concerne l'accès aux ressources, il
est nécessaire de réduire l'écart salarial entre les hommes et les femmes et d'améliorer la qualité des
emplois.
Normes et valeurs
Les études d'impact de genre doivent mettre en évidence le rôle que jouent les programmes de mesures
pour renforcer les normes et valeurs sociales qui maintiennent l'inégalité entre les sexes. C'est ainsi que
les politiques fiscales et de protection sociale ne sont pas neutres par rapport au genre mais se fondent
souvent sur le principe du soutien de famille masculin. S'orienter vers une imposition individuelle peut
avoir une valeur symbolique importante, comme signe de reconnaissance du droit des femmes à
l'indépendance économique. Dans le domaine de la protection sociale, le besoin d'individualisation est
encore plus prononcé étant donné que les femmes affectées par les allocations liées aux ressources ont
généralement peu de possibilités d'entrer sur le marché du travail.
Les normes et les valeurs sociales limitent le potentiel d'efficacité des choix politiques: l'existence de fortes
normes sociales encourageant les mères à se charger de la garde des enfants peut restreindre la mise en
place d'une infrastructure d'accueil. Normes et valeurs sous-tendent également la ségrégation entre les
sexes: la sous-représentation des femmes en informatique reflète des normes et des valeurs sociétales qui
définissent les hommes comme étant mieux adaptés au travail technique.
Droits
Les droits des femmes, en tant que citoyennes, à l'égalité d'accès au marché du travail et aux salaires
peuvent être compromis, par exemple, par les critères d'éligibilité basés sur les normes fiscales et de
couverture sociale. Même lorsque les femmes disposent de droits formels sur la même base que les
hommes, l'inadéquation des dispositifs de garde des enfants peut restreindre l'exercice de ces droits pour
les mères. Le fait de prévoir pour les hommes des droits formels de participation aux mesures de
conciliation emploi-famille ne suffira pas nécessairement à promouvoir l'égalité entre les sexes au niveau
du travail domestique.
2. Orientation des tendances
Il convient d'examiner la situation de départ dans une perspective dynamique et non seulement statique,
afin de ne pas surestimer l'impact des politiques suivies. La participation des femmes au marché du travail
progresse en dépit des politiques fiscales, sociales et de l'emploi plutôt que grâce à ces politiques. Les
tendances en matière de déficits de genre peuvent être contradictoires. Il convient également de tenir
compte des risques futurs aussi bien que des tendances passées.
3. Priorité à l'égalité entre les sexes
Les mesures évaluées pouvaient avoir comme objectif principal ou secondaire les questions d'égalité entre
les sexes, ou ne pas concerner directement ces questions. La priorité attribuée à l'égalité entre les sexes
n'était pas nécessairement liée au déficit égalitaire initial, et l'impact de genre d'une politique donnée n'était
pas toujours clairement mis en évidence au stade de conception. Par ailleurs, les politiques à objectifs
d'égalité spécifiques n'agissent pas nécessairement pour réduire les déficits égalitaires.
L'engagement pris en matière d'égalité entre les sexes doit être remis en question lorsque le budget prévu
est limité. Dans certains cas, des fonds limités peuvent être utilisés, de manière stratégique, pour réaliser
des objectifs d'égalité, en adoptant, par exemple, des cibles sexuées spécifiques ou en mettant sur peid
des programmes de formation sur l'égalité des chances pour les responsables. Néanmoins, lorsque l'on
peut s'attendre à un rapport net entre dépenses et impact, le budget doit être considéré comme un
indicateur des priorités politiques.
Même lorsque les politiques menées ne visent pas explicitement l'égalité des sexes, le principe de
l'intégration de la dimension sexuée impose l'évaluation de l'impact du genre. Dans la pratique, de
nombreuses politiques de l'emploi sont présentées comme non sexuées. Les Etats membres ne défendent
pas activement de politiques qui pourraient avoir des effets négatifs sur l'égalité des sexes mais, par
contre, ils préfèrent garder invisibles les impacts du genre.
Des problèmes se posent parfois pour définir ce que promouvoir l'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes
signifie vraiment. Dans certains cas, encourager l'emploi féminin peut compromettre le droit des femmes à
la garde des enfants. Les politiques qui accordent la priorité à l'emploi plutôt qu'à l'accès à l'instruction et à
la formation ne combleront peut-être pas le déficit égalitaire. Les politiques de ségrégation peuvent avoir
un impact négatif sur les possibilités d'emplois agrégées pour les femmes. La part des mesures de
conciliation ou de l'encouragement du travail à temps partiel dans l'égalité entre les hommes et les femmes
dépend de l'inclusion ou non de mesures destinées à encourager la participation masculine aux activités
de garde, ou à réduire les désavantages sur le marché du travail liés aux congés ou à l'emploi à temps
partiel.
4. L'impact sur l'égalité entre les sexes
Les études d'impact du genre nécessitent une évaluation des effets par rapport à la participation, aux
ressources, aux normes, aux valeurs et aux droits.
Participation
L'évaluation de la participation aux programmes du marché du travail requiert des statistiques désagrégées
au niveau du programme ou de la profession afin de mettre en évidence des niveaux de représentation
dans les aspects les plus ou les moins effectifs du programme et le rapport entre participation et
ségrégation entre les sexes. Les modalités de ségrégation dominantes peuvent elles aussi expliquer en
partie la diversité des taux de participation. Un stade d'étude ultérieur s'impose pour évaluer l'impact sur les
perspectives à long terme mais l'on ne dispose encore que d'informations limitées sur les conséquences à
long terme. Certains programmes ne semblent pas prévoir le rassemblement de ces données
longitudinales, ce qui empêche d'évaluer effectivement les impacts de genre. L'évaluation des politiques
menées dans les différents pays peut montrer que certaines mesures encouragent la participation des
femmes à l'emploi dans certains contextes mais pas dans d'autres.
Ressources
Les études d'impact de genre font apparaître des disparités parfois considérables en ce qui concerne les
dépenses entre les volets à prédominance féminine et ceux à prédominance masculine
dans un programme de mesures. Par ailleurs, les politiques de l'emploi qui ne soutiennent pas les
responsabilités de garde des enfants sont peu susceptibles d'avoir un impact significatif sur le
comportement féminin. L'accès à une gamme de ressources - formation, soutien technique et financier peut jouer un rôle majeur dans la lutte contre les désavantages liés au sexe, par exemple pour
l'établissement de petites entreprises.
Normes et valeurs
Les programmes relatifs au marché du travail peuvent renforcer ou au contraire infléchir les normes et
valeurs sociales traditionnelles. Les programmes destinés à réduire les disparités d'emploi ou d'instruction
ne parviennent pas nécessairement à démanteler la ségrégation traditionnelle du marché de l'emploi, ni à
infléchir le choix des filières de formation. Les programmes visant les chômeurs qui se focalisent sur la
formation de citoyenneté, y compris les questions d'égalité des chances, contribueront peut-être plus à la
transformation des normes sociales. Mais les mesures appliquées par exemple dans le domaine
informatique qui ne prennent pas en compte les mentalités du lieu de travail ont peu de chances
d'augmenter la participation féminine dans ce secteur.
Droits
La plupart des politiques évaluées n'ont que des implications indirectes pour les droits, par rapport aux
critères d'éligibilité ou aux réformes fiscales et de protection sociale
qui affectent les droits à un revenu indépendant et à la vie privée. Des effets plus directs résultent des
mesures qui allient flexibilité et nouveaux droits du travail mais ces mesures s'accompagnent souvent d'un
renforcement des droits dans certains domaines et d'une réduction dans d'autres. En outre, des actions
manifestement positives, assurant une plus grande sécurité ou une réduction du temps de travail,
pourraient avoir des effets négatifs sur les autres, en particulier en augmentant les niveaux de stress
personnels et familiaux du fait d'une plus grande flexibilité.
5. Effets sur des groupes donnés
Les rapports qui existent entre les femmes et les ensembles de mesures sont souvent déterminés par leur
position dans le ménage, en tant que parents isolés ou comme mères vivant en couple, par exemple.
Certaines catégories de femmes sont souvent invisibles dans les programmes de mesures, c'est le cas
des partenaires de chômeurs. Les politiques qui semblent cibler les chômeurs et les groupes défavorisés
risquent en fait d'exclure certaines des femmes les plus défavorisées. Les politiques mises en oeuvre
peuvent aussi avoir des effets contradictoires, comme de favoriser l'emploi pour les parents isolés ou les
ménages sans activité mais de décourager l'emploi féminin dans les ménages de couples où le partenaire
est occupé.
6. Effets indirects
La modification des rapports entre les sexes, à l'extérieur et à l'intérieur du monde du travail représente
peut-être l'un des effets indirects positifs à relever lors de l'évaluation des politiques de l'emploi, dans une
optique d'intégration du genre. Certains effets indirects peuvent être négatifs, y compris des effets négatifs
possibles sur le bien-être des enfants et la vie familiale, dus par exemple à des mesures visant à intégrer
les femmes dans des emplois à horaires lourds, sans chercher à modifier ces mentalités de travail.
7. Modifications apportées aux politiques
Modifications déjà introduites dans les politiques
La sensibilisation accrue aux questions d'intégration du genre a entraîné une certaine modification des
politiques. Ces changements se sont produits du fait d'une plus grande disponibilité des données sexuées,
ou sous l'effet d'une pression politique, par l'intermédiaire de groupes de pression ou parlementaires.
Suggestions pour des modifications supplémentaires
Il existe toute une gamme de propositions pour modifier encore plus, repenser ou contrôler les politiques à
évaluer. Il est possible de classer ces propositions selon quelques principes généraux qui mettent en
évidence les écueils possibles des politiques d'emploi que les décideurs européens devraient prendre en
compte lors de la conception, de la mise en oeuvre et de l'évaluation des politiques d'emploi.
.
Il est nécessaire de concevoir de nouveau les programmes de mesures afin d'éliminer toute
discrimination possible qui serait due à des tests d'éligibilité fondés sur la position dans le ménage,
le dossier d'emploi qui correspondent plus au parcours masculin qu'au parcours féminin.
.
Il convient d'examiner et de contrôler les questions de ségrégation ainsi que de participation.
.
L'attention doit porter sur l'amélioration de la qualité même des emplois féminins et non pas
uniquement sur la progression à court terme du taux d'emploi.
.
Les politiques suivies doivent protéger le droit d'assurer des responsabilités de garde, et non
seulement le droit d'accéder à l'emploi.
.
Il convient d'accorder une plus grande importance au besoin de réduire la discrimination des
entreprises privées à l'égard des femmes.
.
Les politiques suivies doivent fournir des moyens pour concilier contraintes professionnelles et
familiales, mais les politiques de conciliation se doivent d'inclure la participation des hommes au
travail domestique.
.
Il convient d'envisager de nouveaux programmes de mesures qui encourageront des temps de
travail masculin et féminin favorables à la vie de famille, plutôt que d'encourager des mesures qui
ne visent que les femmes comme c'est le cas pour le travail à temps partiel
.
Il convient de tenir compte de l'évolution des mentalités dans le monde du travail et dans les
systèmes éducatifs.
.
Les politiques suivies doivent tenir compte de toute une gamme d'emplois, par exemple pour le
soutien informatique, et ne pas se concentrer uniquement sur les domaines les plus techniques.
.
Une approche intégrée s'impose dans la prise de décisions afin de réduire l'inégalité entre les
sexes (par exemple pour la formation, le soutien technique, la garde des enfants, ainsi qu'une aide
financière pour les femmes entrepreneurs)
.
Les politiques doivent être conçues dans le but d'aider les catégories de femmes les
plus vulnérables et les plus invisibles.
.
.
.
Il convient d'encourager les partenaires sociaux à inclure les questions d'égalité entre les hommes
et les femmes à l'ordre du jour de leurs négociations. Cet encouragement devra partir de droits à
l'égalité de base et ne pas dépendre des accords conclus.
L'évaluation des politiques doit s'effectuer sur a
l base de l'individu et non pas seulement du
ménage. Les droits des femmes à l'emploi et à un revenu indépendant doivent constituer un
objectif précis et non pas seulement un moyen de réduire les dépenses sociales ou de lutter
contre la pauvreté des ménages.
Plus de contrôles et d'évaluations sexuées s'imposent, comprenant plus d'études longitudinales.
2.2 VERS L'ETABLISSEMENT D'UNE LISTE DE CONTROLE POUR LES ETUDES D'IMPACT DU
GENRE
Cette longue liste de recommandations et de principes en ce qui concerne les questions de genre doit être
appliquée aux mesures spécifiques et aux contextes nationaux. L'établissement a priori de listes de
contrôle effectives pour les études d'impact du genre devrait de préférence s'effectuer à l'échelle nationale,
ce qui permettrait de prendre pleinement en compte les particularités des déficits de l'égalité entre les
sexes, les pratiques de l'emploi et les institutions sociales et du marché du travail. Pourtant, sur la base de
cette discussion de l'étude d'impact du genre dans les 15 Etats membres, il est possible de formuler un
ensemble de questions pour évaluer la dans quelle mesure les questions du genre ont été prises en
compte dans la conception et l'évaluation des politiques (voir le tableau S.2).
Tableau R.1: Liste de contrôle pour évaluer l'impact du genre dans les politiques de l'emploi
Error! Bookmark not
defined.Domaine
d'application
Critères d'éligibilité/d'accès
et/ou orientation des politiques
Aspects
positifs pour
l'égalité
Retour sur le
marché du
travail;
conjointes des
chômeurs
Aspects
négatifs pour
l'égalité
Demandeurs
d'allocations
Formation professionnelle et
continue
Chômeurs et
inactifs;
travailleurs
atypiques.
salariés à plein
temps et à
contrat de
travail à durée
indéterminée;
Chômeurs
allocataires
Politiques fiscales et
protection sociale
Base
individuelle;cit
oyenneté
plutôt que
parcours
d'emploi.
Base du
ménage;
évaluation des
ressources.
Initiatives sur le marché du
travail
Approche politique
intégrée
Budgets/finance
Domaines critiques et
solutions possibles
Contrôle et évaluation
Infrastructure de garde
requise. Attention portée
aux effets de la ségrégation
et de l'emploi. Besoin de
préserver le droit à assurer
la garde des enfants ainsi
que le droit à l'emploi.
Dispositifs d'accueil des
enfants des actifs et
inactifs. Attention portée à
la ségrégation dans les
filières d'enseignement/de
formation. Importance
accordée aux secteurs
nouveaux et en expansion à
fortes possibilités d'égalité
entre les sexes.
Assurer aux femmes
un accès égal ou
accru à la formation
et aux programmes
de perfectionnement
des compétences.
Discrimination dans les
entreprises privées; veiller
particulièrement à une
représentation équitable
dans les stages en
entreprise privée
Contrôle longitudinal
des résultats.
Incitatifs financiers
pour que les
employeurs incluent
les salariés
atypiques dans les
programmes de
formation
Discrimination dans les
entreprises privées au
niveau de l'embauche et de
la formation. Changements
des mentalités requis dans
certains secteurs à
prédominance masculine.
Prise en compte des coûts
de garde dans les systèmes
fiscaux et de protection
sociale. Pour que l'activité
soit financièrement viable,
il faut assurer l'égalité des
salaires sur le marché du
travail, pas seulement par
le biais de l'imposition des
ménages et de la protection
sociale.
Crédits
fiscaux/allocations
pour la garde des
enfants. Les
conjoint(e)s des
allocataires doivent
avoir droit à un
niveau acceptable de
revenus
indépendants.
Conflits possibles entre les
mesures en faveur de
l'égalité et les programmes
de lutte contre la
pauvreté/mesures
d'inclusion sociale, par
exemple dans les
allocations chômage.
Contrôle par domaine
ainsi que par
programme.
Evaluation de l'impact
de l'éducation et de la
formation sur les
perspectives d'emploi
immédiates et à long
terme. Un contrôle de
l'accès à la formation
plus poussée s'impose
également.
Contrôler la
participation à l'emploi
ainsi que l'accès
individuel au revenu et
aux ressources.
Entrepreneuriat
Personnes
inactives mais
aussi au
chômage ou
occupées;
coopéraTives ainsi
qu'indépendant
s
Allocataires;
accès
préalable aux
crédits.
Permettre l'accès au
financement ainsi qu'à la
formation, au soutien
technique, aux dispositifs
de garde. L'attention doit
porter sur la ségrégation
hommes-femmes dans les
domaines d'entrepreneuriat.
Assurer que les
mesures ciblant
uniquement les
femmes soient
équitablement
financées et/ou que
les femmes soient
équitablement
traitées dans les
programmes
intégrés.
Tenir compte de la fragilité
des nouvelles entreprises ;
les femmes risquent de se
retrouver dans des secteurs
plus compétitifs et face à
plus de contraintes.
Contrôler non
seulement le recours
au travail indépendant
mais aussi la durée des
périodes
d'établissement et la
rentabilité à long
terme des entreprises
féminines.
Informatique et société
Large gamme
d'emplois;
établissements
scolaires
Focalisation
sur les emplois
techniques et
les candidats
diplômés
Besoin de se pencher sur la
cuture techno-masculine
dans l'enseignement et le
système du travail.
L'attention doit porter sur
la conception des emplois
afin d'élargir la gamme
d'emplois dans le secteur
informatique.
Lier budgets et
incitatifs financiers
à la réalisation
d'objectifs donnés
en matière de
recrutement
féminin.
La ségrégation sexuelle au
niveau des mentalités dans
le monde de
l'enseignement et dans
l'emploi risque de résister à
toute évolution. Des
actions positives pourront
s'imposer, comprenant des
mesures permettant aux
femmes de mieux
participer à l'évolution de
la société informatique.
Economie sociale
Retour sur le
marché du
travail;
conjoint(e)s de
chômeurs
Allocataires
uniquement
Prendre en compte les
effets de déplacement des
politiques en faveur de
l'économie sociale. Prévoir
des infrastructures de garde
pour les participants,
l'accès à une formation
reconnue et aux
qualifications, des niveaux
de salaire justes et tenir
compte de l'impact sur la
ségrégation sexuelle.
Prévoir un budget
suffisant permettant
une expérience
professionnelle de
qualité, incluant une
formation.
Comment faciliter le
passage des programmes
d'économie sociale à
l'emploi sûr à long terme,
par exemple par le biais de
la formation et l'accès aux
qualifications.
Contrôle de la
participation féminine
dans l'enseignement, la
formation et les
emplois informatisés.
Une attention
particulière doit être
accordée à l'évaluation
des actions positives,
par exemple les
programmes de
formation réservés aux
femmes.
Contrôler non
seulement la
participation au
programme
d'économie sociale
mais aussi les effets à
long terme en passant
au marché du travail
normal. Evaluer
l'impact sur la
disponibilité et la
qualité des services
socio-économiques.
Temps de travail, flexibilité et
mesures de conciliation
Cible les
hommes
comme les
femmes; temps
de travail
adapté aux
familles pour
tous; toute
forme de
travail flexible
s'accompagnan
t d'un certain
degré de
protection de
l'emploi
Ne
promouvoir
que le temps
de travail et
les modalités
de congé des
femmes.
Exclusion des
travailleurs à
emplois
précaires/
flexibles
Les congés doivent être
rémunérés et des droits
prévus pour les hommes
pour encourager leur
participation. Prévoir une
réduction du temps de
travail ou des programmes
d'aménagement qui ne
visent pas exclusivement
les femmes. Renforcer les
droits des travailleurs à
contrat d'emploi atypique.
Congés rémunérés
pris en compte dans
le financement. Des
incitatifs s'imposent
pour l'aménagement
du temps de travail,
l'octroi de sécurité et
pour encourager une
évolution de la
division du travail
domestique.
Résistance opposée par le
secteur privé à la flexibilité
menée par les salariés,
particulièrement si elle
s'applique aux hommes
comme aux femmes.
Prtoection des travailleurs
demandant l'octroi de
congés ou des horaires
réduits et mesures
incitatives pour encourager
les employeurs à participer
aux ensembles de mesures.
Assurer une sécurité de
l'emploi peut réduire
certaines formes d'emploi
flexible à court terme mais
peut aussi avoir des effets
durables plus positifs.
Contrôle sexué de
l'accès aux
programmes
d'aménagement du
temps de travail et de
conciliation, ainsi que
de la participation à
ces programmes.
L'impact de la
participation sur les
choix de carrière
futurs doit également
être évalué. Contrôler
soigneusement les
politiques en faveur de
la flexibilité par
rapport à la sécurité ou
des horaires réduits;
Tenir compte de la
possibilité d'une
augmentation du
niveau de stress
personnel et familial.
Politique de Ségrégation
Valorise les
différences et
l'hétérogénéité
; rend les
compétences
visibles.
Promouvoir la
déségrégatima
is aux dépens
des possibilité
d'emploi des
femmes.
Les politiques relatives à la
ségrégationm doivent se
situer dans le contexte du
maintien et de
l'amélioration des
possibilités d'emploi
féminin. L'attention doit
porter principalement sur la
ségrégation verticale plutôt
que sur la ségrégation
horizontale.
Les possibilités de
formation ne
suffisent pas à
démanteler la
ségrégation; des
mesures incitatives
s'imposent pour
encourager les
employeurs à
embaucher le sexe
qui est sousreprésenté.
Des mesures spéciales
pourront être nécessaires
dans le secteur privé.
Examiner la demande
de progression de
carrière et des
qualifications par le
biais d'audits du
personnel/d'audits
sexués.
Encadré R. 1 Etapes d'une étude d'impact du genre
1. Décrire la situation en cours
Le domaine des mesures présente-t-il des disparités sexuées en matière de participation, ressources, normes et valeurs de
genre, droits?
Participation
La composition hommes-femmes du groupe ou de la population ciblés
La représentation des femmes et des hommes aux postes de décideurs
Ressources
Les disparités sexuées dans la répartition des ressources telles que le temps, l'espace, l'information et les fonds, la
puissance politique et économique, les qualifications, les moyens de transport, l'utilisation des services publics.
Normes et valeurs
Les normes et les valeurs qui influencent les rôles de genre et la division sexuée du travail, les attitudes et le comportement
des femmes et des hommes, et les inégalités quant à la valeur accordée aux hommes et aux femmes ou aux caractéristiques
masculines et féminines
Droits
Par rapport à une discrimination sexuelle directe ou indirecte, aux droits de l'homme, et à l'accès à la justice dans le milieu
juridique, politique et socio-économique
2. Evaluer les développements possibles sans intervention politique
Evaluer les tendances de la situation des hommes et des femmes indépendamment des effets des mesures proposées.
3. Définir la priorité à accorder à l'adoption de politiques qui encouragent activement l'égalité entre les sexes (par
opposition à des politiques qui sont simplement neutres par rapport au genre), en fonction d'une évaluation du
niveau actuel d'inégalité et de son impact sur la vie des hommes et des femmes.
4. Evaluer l'impact possible du genre de la politique suivie par rapport à la participation, aux ressources, aux
normes, aux valeurs et aux droits.
Tenir compte des impacts qualitatifs ainsi que quantitatifs, par exemple la qualité des emplois ou de l'avancement de
carrière ainsi que le nombre d'emplois
L'impact sur les différents types de ressources, par exemple la qualité de la vie dans les domaines domestique et
professionnel.
Les droits incluent le droit à assurer des responsabilités de garde tout comme le droit d'avoir un emploi.
Les impacts à long terme et sur le cycle de vie ainsi que les coûts et bénéfices à court terme.
5. Evaluer l'impact de la politique suivie sur des groupes spécifiques de femmes et d'hommes
Les minorités ethniques, les parents comme les personnes sans enfants, l'âge, le niveau d'instruction, les personnes
occupées et non occupées, les groupes régionaux, etc.
L'interprétation de ces impacts différentiels nécessite que l'on évalue la priorité donnée aux différents groupes, ce qui
devrait refléter, du moins en partie, la contribution de ces dimensions de disparité au niveau général actuel d'inégalité entre
les sexes.
6. Evaluer les impacts indirects de la situation courante en matière d'inégalités entre les sexes et les politiques
proposées, en accordant une attention particulière à l'impact indirect sur les enfants
7. Lorsqu'il est estimé que la politique suivie a un impact négatif sur l'égalité entre les sexes ou est dans l'ensemble
neutre par rapport au genre, définir les manières qui permettraient de reconcevoir cette politique afin de
promouvoir l'égalité entre les sexes
Source: Rubery et al. 1999, Commission européenne 1998
GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND EUROPEAN EMPLOYMENT POLICY
The purpose of this report is twofold. The first part of the report provides an overview of the
state of play with respect to gender impact assessment in the member states relating to
employment policy and to identify continuing barriers and obstacles to that development. The
overview starts by surveying the development, publication and application of gender impact
assessment guidelines.
This is followed by an analysis of some examples of existing
evaluations and impact assessments. These examples fall into two categories: those where
failure to identify gender issues has led to an impoverished and inadequate evaluation process;
and those where gender has been taken into account in the evaluation, and interesting
differences revealed. Continuing barriers to development and application of gender impact
assessment, of both a statistical and a political nature, are then identified. The second part of
the report provides specific examples of gender impact assessments of specific employment
policies, drawing examples from the policies included in the National Action Plans of the
member states. These examples indicate - to the extent that is possible in a context of
continuing gaps in statistical information and in policy details - the current and future potential
gender impacts of these policies and suggest ways in which the policies should be modified or
developed to promote gender equality.
1.1 EMPLOYMENT POLICY, GENDER MAINSTREAMING AND GENDER
IMPACT ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES
Gender mainstreaming is a policy approach in which efforts to promote gender equality are not
restricted to the implementation of specific measures, but rather to
'mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of
achieving equality' (European Commission 1996).
Gender Impact (GI) assessment is an important tool for implementing mainstreaming. A
systematically conducted GI assessment identifies whether the policy under scrutiny has
positive or negative outcomes in terms of promoting gender equality. This information can be
used to improve the quality and efficacy of policy design. GI assessments should be carried out
at an early stage in the policy decision-making process so that the policy can be adapted as
appropriate, including major reorientation where required. The steps to take in a
comprehensive GI assessment are summarised in Box 1.
Box 1. Steps in a Gender Impact Assessment
1. Describe the current situation
Are there gender differences in the policy field with regard to differences in participation, resources, gender
norms and values, rights?
Participation
• Sex composition of the target group/population
• Representation of women and men in decision-making positions
Resources
• Gender differences in the distribution of resources such as time, space, information and money, political and
economic power, qualifications, transport, use of public services
Norms and Values
• Norms and values which influence gender roles and the gender division of labour, the attitudes and behaviour
of women and men, and inequalities in the value attached to men and women or to masculine and feminine
characteristics
Rights
• pertaining to direct or indirect sex discrimination, human rights, and access to justice in the legal, political or
socioeconomic environment
2. Evaluate the probable developments without policy intervention
Assess the trends in men and women's position independently of the effects of the proposed policy.
3. Determine the priority to be attached to adopting policies which actively promote gender equality (as
opposed to policies which are simply gender neutral), according to an assessment of the current degree of
inequality and its impact on men and women's lives.
4. Assess the potential gender impact of the policy with reference to participation, resources, norms and
values and rights .
• Pay attention to qualitative as well as quantitative impacts, for example the quality of jobs or promotion as
well as the number of jobs.
• The impact on different types of resources, for example the quality of home and work life.
• Rights include the right to care as well as to undertake employment.
• Long term and lifecycle impacts as well as the short term costs and benefits.
5. Assess the impact of the policy on particular groups of women and men.
• Ethnic minority groups, parents and childless, age, educational groups, the employed and non employed,
regional groups etc.
• Interpretation of these differential impacts requires an assessment of the priority attached to the different
groups which should reflect, at least in part, the contribution of these dimensions of difference to the current
overall level of gender inequality
6. Assess the indirect impacts of the current state of gender inequalities and the proposed policies, paying
particular attention to the indirect impact on children
7. Where the policy is assessed to have a negative impact on gender equality or to be broadly gender
neutral, identify ways in which the policy could be redesigned to promote gender equality
Source: Rubery et al. 1999, European Commission 1998
Gender impact assessment is in its early stages in most countries and is developing at
an uneven rate across the Member States
Three broad conclusions can be drawn about the recent initiatives in gender mainstreaming
(GM) and gender impact assessment (GIA) in employment policy in the European Union.
Firstly, the development of gender mainstreaming in policy is in its early stages in most
countries. This includes those countries where the political commitment to gender equality has
been established for many years, such as France and Denmark (Emerek 2000, Silvera 2000).
Secondly, European Employment Policy is providing an important stimulus to the development
of debate and initiatives around GM/GIA in national policy in a number of countries. For
example, the German expert concludes that ‘without the European strategy there would be no
progress in gender mainstreaming in Germany’ and in Ireland ‘EU developments have played a
central role in progressing equal opportunities policies’ (Maier 2000, Barry 2000). Similarly,
since the late 1980s there have been few specific measures targeted at women in French
employment policy, but the political emphasis has shifted so that special measures for women
in disadvantaged positions or with childcare costs have been included in the National Action
Plans (NAPs) (Silvera 2000). In Austria European employment policy and the introduction of
the NAPs has increased political awareness and ‘sensitivity towards gender-specific
differences and discriminations’ (Pastner 2000).
Thirdly, the adoption of GIA instruments for gender mainstreaming policy design and
evaluation is proceeding unevenly between countries, between different national and subnational tiers of government, and between different policy areas. Table 1.1 summarises a
number of initiatives to introduce procedures and functional responsibilities for gender
mainstreaming of employment policy that have been introduced in the member states.
Appendix table A1 contains more detail about the gender impact assessment guidelines that
have been developed in some of the member states.
The policy developments and innovations differ between countries in part because of existing
national differences in the structure and functional responsibilities of political institutions and
policy-making procedures, and these should be borne in mind when interpreting the table. In
particular we should note that:
•
the structure of political institutions vary, particularly the division of responsibilities
between national and sub-national levels of government;
•
monitoring and evaluation is more established and embedded in the policy making process
in some countries (and in some ministries) than in others;
•
some countries already had institutional arrangements for promoting equal opportunities in
place as a platform to build on for promoting gender mainstreaming and GIA initiatives
(Equal Rights bodies, Inter-ministerial working groups or committees) while others do not.
Table 1.1 Summary of the adoption of gender mainstreaming (GM) and gender impact
assessment (GI) guidelines by governments in the member states, 2000
Explicit adoption of Gender Mainstreaming (GM) and Gender Impact (GI) Assessment by
Government
B
DK
D
E
National/federal government
• Department of Equal Opportunities to be involved in evaluations of all aspects of federal employment policy
(2000-).
• GI assessment guidelines in early stage of development.
Regional government
• Flanders: Statutory requirement to produce annual evaluation of progress on equality plan (Beijing Action
Platform) and GI assessment guidelines (1997 EER - Emancipatie Effecten Rapportage). Revised guidelines to
be issued in 2000.
• Walloon: Committee on equal opportunities recently created and asked to develop proposals for GI assessment
guidelines.
• Brussels-capital: no GI assessment guidelines.
Local government
• Flanders region only: GI assessment guidelines for local government (1999 LEER - Lokale EmancipatieEffectenrapportering)
National/federal government
• No GI assessment guidelines adopted.
Regional and local government
• Equality consultant appointed in each regional labour market agency (1981-) provides limited form of GM in
implementation of employment policy. Co-ordinated by National Labour Market Council (tripartite
organisation with representatives of government and social partners).
• One form of GM evaluation is biannual reports on equal status and opportunities required from county and
municipal level since 1997
National/federal government
• Explicit political commitment to gender equality as a main aim of government policy in all areas (2000-).
Federal ministries to meet regularly to develop concrete approaches for GM for all levels of government.
• GI assessment procedures to be introduced in all legislation (July 2000 reform of common standing orders). GI
assessment guidelines already introduced into employment policy by the Federal Employment Office.
Regional government
• Each of the 17 Länder has its own GM philosophy and strategy. In 2000 some have put GM procedures and GI
assessment guidelines in place, the other Lander are in the process of developing their own procedures (a
requirement under the policy of the European Social and Structural Funds).
Local government
• No GI assessment guidelines for local government.
• Some GM initiatives: development of targets, benchmarks, checklists and procedures for monitoring and
evaluation.
National/federal government
• No GI assessment guidelines adopted.
• Economic and Social Council produces a 'gender-sensitive' annual report on economic and social policy which
provides a limited form of GM evaluation.
• Evaluation of progress on the Gender Equality Plan evaluated by the Women's Unit (Instituto de la Mujer)
contributes to GM.
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
• Some regional evaluations of gender equality policies, usually by the equality institutions that promoted the
policies.
• Extent of GM initiatives vary a lot between regions and local areas.
EL
F
IR
L
I
L
NL
A
National/federal government
• Inter-Ministerial Committee for Gender Mainstreaming to be created (decision by Prime Minister, July 2000).
Role is to prepare and monitor annual action plans for gender equality and to evaluate policies.
• Every ministry is required to implement the Action Plan for Gender Equality and reserve a portion of the
budget for this activity and to undertake GI assessment (2001-) as a contribution to GM.
• GI assessment guidelines to be prepared by the Inter-Ministerial Committee.
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• No general GI assessment guidelines adopted for government policy.
• 1998 GI assessment evaluation of French employment policy and Structural Fund Programme.
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• Explicit political comment to gender mainstreaming in Irish National Development Plan
• New equality legislation has established an Equality Authority to facilitate Equality Audits of organisations.
• GI assessment guidelines adopted by Cabinet (2000)
• Gender Equality Unit established to facilitate GM of the Irish National Development Plan.
Regional and local government
• GI assessment guidelines being developed
National/federal government
• GI assessment guidelines for the European Structural Funds produced by the Ministry for Equal Opportunities
• Role of 'parity advisors' in employment policy at national, regional and provincial level extended which will
provide a basis for some limited form of GM (Law 196, 2000)
• Enhanced role for the National Committee for Equal Opportunities in 2000 (Law 196, 2000)
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• Responsibility for GI assessment rests with the Ministry of Women's Affairs (established 1995), but no
guidelines have been developed.
• Inter-ministerial committee on equality between men and women (established 1996)
• Each private company is legally obliged to nominate an equality delegate (e-delegué) to promote gender
equality (1998-). Potentially powerful instrument for GI assessment implementation.
Regional and local government
• not applicable (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• GI Assessment guidelines developed in early 1990s (EER); no obligatory guidelines to follow in government
policy.
• Since 1996 11 GI assessments have been conducted at national level across a variety of Ministries, including 3
by the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs.
Regional and local government
•
(No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• No systematic and unified GI assessment procedures yet, but range of initiatives being developed.
• Social partners invited to comment on the NAP 2000 in a letter containing broad guidance on GM and GI
assessment, also GM evaluation of NAP commissioned from research institutes.
• Public Employment Service implementing GM procedures, including GI ASSESSMENT guidelines, following
report commissioned in 1999.
• GM evaluation has been undertaken for a number of employment and ESF policies.
• Federal co-ordination agency for implementation of GM for ESF-funded measures (2000-) and to develop GI
assessment guidelines.
Regional and local government
• A number of GM initiatives: in the Territorial Employment Pacts (TEPs); in the Employment Service Vienna;
the women's representatives of the Länder have commissioned a paper on GM which will be adapted in the
individual provinces.
P
FI
N
S
UK
National/federal government
• GM responsibility rests implicitly with the Commission for Equality and Women's Rights (CIDM) and the
Inter-ministerial Commission for Work and Employment (CITE).
• A set of indicators for GI assessment have been developed for evaluation of the NAP, but there are no detailed
guidelines for the procedures of GI assessment.
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• GM has political commitment, but no national GI Assessment guidelines adopted.
• Action programme to develop GM methodology (good practice models and guidelines) underway, linked to a
wider project on GM methodology in the Nordic countries. Interim report in 1999, final report due end 2000.
• Finnish civil servants trained in GM methodology as one part of this project.
• GM toolkit has been developed for ESF programmes (1998-)
Regional and local government
• (No information on existence of sub-national GI assessment guidelines)
National/federal government
• GM via Government commitment to equal opportunities perspective in all policy areas since 1994
• GI assessment required for all national policy proposals since 1994, new GI assessment tool developed by
Equal Opportunity Unit (1999)
• All official statistics disaggregated by sex unless specific reason for not doing so.
• All ministers, civil servants and policy advisers trained in equal opportunities so that gender perspective
permeates different fields of action
Regional and local government
• Expert on equal opportunities appointed in every regional council (1995-)
• Central government funded municipalities to develop new methods for implementing equal opportunities in
1995. The 3-R methodology was one result, subsequently disseminated via training programmes.
• Regional initiatives to introduce GM into local economic development and employment policies
National government
• 1998 Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment guidelines establishes general impact assessment.
• GI assessment framework guidelines have been drafted by the Cabinet's Women's unit, not yet adopted.
• Mainstreaming Action Plan drafted for Objective 3 regions, not yet approved. Responsibility for guidelines for
Objective 1 and 2 regions devolved to regions.
Regional government
• Scotland (Scottish Parliament), Wales (Welsh Assembly), Northern Ireland (1998 Northern Ireland Act)
Promotion of equal opportunities in all policy is an explicit priority or statutory requirement.
• Equality audit and impact assessment guidelines in place or being developed. Some have a generic focus, and
some have an explicit gender focus.
Local government
• No general GI assessment guidelines for local government adopted.
• Some GM initiatives: piloting of equality performance indicators, benchmarking measures and handbooks
being developed.
Note: The precise content and form of policy is not directly comparable between countries but is summarised for
illustrative purposes. The type of policy adopted, and whether this is focused at a central or regional level partly
reflects national differences in the structure of political institutions. Information on the sub-regional level is
indicative only and may under-estimate the number of initiatives taking place if this information is not centrally
co-ordinated.
Source: information provided in national reports, see appendix table A1 for further details.
The Nordic countries have a longer track record of political commitment and policy action to
promote equal opportunities than most other member states, but there are also differences
among the Nordic countries in the approach to gender mainstreaming and in the state of
development of gender impact assessment guidelines. The political acceptance and
implementation of gender mainstreaming and gender impact assessment first began in Sweden.
Since 1994 there has been a political commitment to mainstreaming an equal opportunities
perspective into all policy areas in Sweden, with a requirement to undertake GIA for all
national policy proposals (Gonäs 2000). In Finland there is also a political commitment to
gender mainstreaming, but so far there are no official GIA guidelines or obligations to
undertake such assessments in relation to national policy. However, as part of the
Governmental Plan of Action related to the Beijing process a comprehensive action
programme to develop a GM methodology is underway known as DMM. This is part of a
broader project on gender mainstreaming methodology and tools in labour market and youth
policy under the auspices of the Nordic Council of Ministers. The aim of the DMM project is
to develop a methodological package and approach to enhance mainstreaming in
administrative activities and procedures. The final project report is due at the end of 2000
(Lilja 2000). The DMM project will publish a web-site to disseminate a wide range of
information about gender mainstreaming (Box 2).
Box 2. Planned web-site dissemination from the Gender Mainstreaming Methodology
(DMM) project in Finland.
The planned web-site is expected to include information on the following issues:
• Why do we need gender mainstreaming?
• International policy for gender equality
• International agreements
• What is gender mainstreaming?
• Gender Glossary
• Statistics
• Capacity Building in gender issues
• Methods of gender mainstreaming
• Experiences and examples of gender mainstreaming
• Useful links
• Gender training materials, trainers and consultants
• Discussion group
Source: Lilja (2000)
In contrast to the situation in Sweden and Finland there has been little activity to develop
gender mainstreaming and impact assessments in Denmark. This is despite the fact that the
principle of promoting gender equality has long been embedded in Danish politics and policy
making and that Denmark has an extensive track record of equality initiatives. Reflecting this
commitment to gender equality, a number of institutional arrangements are in place that are
compatible with developing gender mainstreaming. For example, equality consultants have
been involved in the regional and local delivering of Danish labour market policy since 1981.
These consultants have the potential to provide some gender mainstreaming input at the policy
implementation stage and there is a growing recognition among them of the need for gender
mainstreaming partly due to the demands of EU employment policy. Also since 1997 county
and municipal governments have been required to produce biannual reports on equal status and
opportunities which provides a form of gender mainstreaming evaluation. Furthermore, the
year 2000 marks a new era in Danish equality policy. The Equality council has been replaced
with a new Equal Status Department, a Debate Forum and a Knowledge Centre for Equal
Opportunities. However, there are as yet no national level GIA guidelines to lead or stimulate
mainstreaming in these and other elements of employment policy development and
implementation, despite there being sufficient expertise and statistical information to facilitate
a concerted mainstreaming approach. The Danish national expert argues that the explanation
for this lack of new initiatives is that high female employment rates are routinely interpreted as
indicative of the apparent success of integrating women into employment and has led to
complacency or a ‘gender-blind’ approach in employment policy (Emerek 2000). This example
of Denmark illustrates the importance of guidelines that identify the range of evaluation
criteria to be adopted for gender mainstreaming employment policy that extend beyond the
employment rate and encompass indicators of gender differences in the quality of employment.
Along with Sweden, another early starter in the area of GM/GIA was the Netherlands. This
was an extension of the strategy of so-called 'facet policy' that had been developed from the
1970s onwards, which stated that equality was to be understood as a facet of all policies. At
the beginning of the 1990s the Netherlands was one of the few countries where a gender
impact assessment instrument (EER) for gender mainstreaming was developed at the national
level. More importantly 'they were the only one to actually use the instrument' (Verloo 2000a,
cited in Plantenga 2000). There is no obligation to undertake GIA in Dutch policy processes,
although the use of this policy tool is spreading (Plantenga 2000). Since 1996, 11 GIAs have
been made at a national government level in the Netherlands.
Developments around gender mainstreaming and impact assessments in employment policy are
at earlier stages in the rest of the European Union. One area of innovation is where countries
are taking initial steps to develop gender mainstreaming in the policy making process by
making explicit political commitments in the last year or so. This category of activity includes
the recent explicit adoption by the German and Irish governments of gender equality as a
priority aim or cross-cutting issue for all policy, reflecting the ‘fourth pillar’ approach of
European employment policy (Maier 2000, Barry 2000). Some countries have also introduced
new institutional arrangements in government departments to facilitate gender mainstreaming.
For example Inter-Ministerial meetings to develop gender mainstreaming are to commence in
Germany and Greece, and in Belgium the Department of Equal Opportunities is to become
involved in evaluations of all aspects of employment policy (Karamessini 2000, Maier 2000,
Meulders et al. 2000). A wide range of new government institutional arrangements have been
put in place in Ireland to gender mainstream the National Development Plan (see Box 3),
which is a comprehensive statement of the national social and economic policy and resource
allocation for the period 2000-6. In Luxembourg the most recent initiative is focused outside
government agencies, where every private company now has to nominate an equality delegate
to promote gender equality, providing a potentially powerful mechanism for GIA
implementation (Plasman 2000). In Italy the role and funding of 'parity advisors' have been
extended. These are public officials working at national, regional and provincial level to
promote equal opportunities (Villa and Bonetti 2000). Gender mainstreaming training is also
being introduced for some policy makers and administrators in certain countries (e.g.
Germany, Ireland, Finland, France and the UK) which will increase the awareness and
requisite skills for effective mainstreaming. These developments may provide the institutional
mechanisms for the development of more concerted gender mainstreaming procedures,
including the design and implementation of gender impact assessments in the immediate
future.
The other area of reform is the development of gender mainstreaming policy documents and
impact assessment guidelines. Table 1.1. shows that GI assessment guidelines have either been
adopted very recently or are in the process of being drawn up by government in five member
states in relation to national employment and/or economic development policy (Belgium,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, UK). General guidelines have not been issued by the government in
France or Austria, although in both countries there are examples of official GI assessments
being undertaken. In France a GIA evaluation has been undertaken for employment policy and
the Structural Fund Programme, while in Austria the GM/GIA initiatives have been more
narrowly focused on European Structural Funds (Silvera 2000, Pastner 2000). GI assessment
guidelines have also been drawn up to assess the Portuguese NAP for 2000 by the CITE
(Commission for the Equality on Work and Employment) (González 2000) and in Italy the
Ministry for Equal Opportunities has drawn up GIA guidelines for the European Structural
Funds, but there are no examples of these having been applied yet (Villa and Bonetti 2000).
There are some reports published that provide a limited gender sensitive evaluation of policy in
Spain, but no GI assessment guidelines have been developed by the government (Moltó 2000).
Box 3. The institutional arrangements for the Irish system of Gender Impact Assessment
Irish National Development Plan (NDP)
• Gender equality has been adopted as a horizontal principle in the Irish National
Development Plan (NDP), with gender equality objectives to be built into each policy
measure and project selection (late 1999).
• Gender Equality Unit established within the Department of Justice, Equality and Law
Reform to facilitate gender mainstreaming across the NDP.
• Gender equality interests to be represented on all monitoring committees related to the EU
Structural Funds and the NDP, including a commitment to gender balance in committee
membership. A Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion Monitoring Committee is to be
established.
• New Equality legislation which includes the establishment of the Equality Authority. The
Equality Authority has a budget funded under the NDP to carry out and facilitate Equality
Audits at company and organisational level.
• A programme of gender mainstreaming at local economic development level is underway,
co-ordinated by Area Development Management ltd.
Other government policy and procedures
• Gender Impact Assessment guidelines adopted by the Irish Cabinet (March 2000)
• Commitment to the development of equality proofing measures for gender and other issues
across the policy making process under the new Programme for Prosperity and Fairness
(new national agreement).
• Gender equality specified as a criterion for assessment of the implementation of the
National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
• Gender Monitoring Committee exists to review the implementation of the 1993 report of the
Second Commission on the Status of Women and the Beijing Platform for Action.
• Commitment to produce a National Action Plan in relation to the Beijing Platform for
Action in 2001.
• Gender mainstreaming training underway for middle and senior level policy makers in
government departments and statutory agencies.
• Gender Equality Co-ordinating Committee to be established within the civil service to
ensure gender equality in relation to staff and service delivery is built into the Strategic
Management Initiative (SMI) at departmental level.
• Research on gender equality structures, procedures and the production of a gender disaggregated data base is ongoing.
Source: Barry (2000).
Finally, there are few signs that the social partners are stepping in and taking the lead in the
development of gender mainstreaming. In Austria broad gender mainstreaming guidelines were
enclosed with a letter to the social partners inviting their comments on the NAP, but this
opportunity was not taken up by all interest groups or carried out systematically in relation to
all areas of the NAP (Pastner 2000). In Germany gender mainstreaming has been introduced
into the policy guidelines for collective bargaining by the trade union for public sector
employees (ÖTV), but other unions have followed very slowly. There is a general lack of
agreement among German unions concerning the concepts and recommendations associated
with mainstreaming which is worrying because the German trade unions form part of the
tripartite body of Employment Offices which are responsible for the implementation of all
active and passive labour market policy in Germany (Maier 2000). In Belgium and
Luxembourg the unions also have an influential role in relation to employment policy and in
these countries the unions are using GIA in an informal way but have yet to adopt a systematic
GIA procedure (Meulders et al. 2000, Plasman 2000).
The state of development in gender impact assessment guidelines across the EU highlight a
number of issues that are pertinent for further progress in refining and disseminating the use of
this tool. The first is the importance of elaborating the conceptual foundation and practical
steps in gender impact assessment guidelines. A second issue to address is that the
development and application of this tool is spreading unevenly within countries. The third
issue is the integration of gender impact assessment with impact assessments for other target
groups, such as ethnic minorities. These are discussed in turn.
Further conceptual and practical elaboration of the gender impact assessment
methodology is required
It is important for the guidelines to be elaborated in two directions: 'upwards' in a more
conceptual sense and 'downwards' in the practical application. The 'upwards' direction is in the
sense that the policy guidelines need to be located in a broader and explicit theoretical
statement of how gender inequality is reproduced within society and clarification about the
conception of equality that is to be adopted. Here the work of Verloo and Roggeband (1994) is
useful, which has been particularly influential in the development of impact assessment in the
Netherlands. They argue that the operationalisation of GIA involves three questions:
• Where are the structures (institutions and organisations) that reproduce unequal power
relations between men and women?
• What are the processes that reproduce gender inequalities (access to resources; the social
rules and norms about gender roles and responsibilities)?
• Which evaluation criteria of 'equality' are to be used for policy assessment?
This conceptual framing of the issues for gender mainstreaming is arguably an essential first
stage for policymakers to inform the design and application of GIA guidelines and checklists.
This reflection is required to inform the first steps in gender impact assessment of describing
and explaining the current situation, the likely trajectory without policy intervention and
identifying the potential policy impact (see Box 1 above). In particular this framework requires
an explicit consideration of evaluation criteria and whether the definition of equality is one of
'sameness' or whether the notion of 'difference' is also to be accommodated in the impact
assessment. It is the latter conceptualisation of gender equality that Verloo and Roggeband use,
and they advocate two evaluation criteria. The first is equality in the sense of equal treatment
in similar circumstances, which is the concept of equality embedded in the legislative system.
To prevent equality being implicitly measured against the male norm or 'sameness', the concept
of enhancing women's autonomy is incorporated. The second criterion is 'pluriformity' ; or the
promotion of a society where differences are not hierarchically valued.
The 'downward' elaboration of the gender impact assessment tools follows from this
conceptual framing of gender relations and inequality. This refers to the need for precision in
the GIA guidelines in terms of the checklist of questions to ask and information to gather and
assess, and the policy stages of design, implementation and evaluation.
The requirement for both a 'conceptual upward' and 'practical downward' specification of GIA
guidelines can be illustrated with the example of the ones being developed in the UK. The UK
government's approach to mainstreaming is a generic one that encompasses gender, race and
disability together, reflecting the existence of equal treatment legislation for these issues
(Rubery and Rake 2000). In 1998 Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment (PAET) guidelines for
equal treatment for race, sex and disability were issued to all government departments in the
UK (see Box 4). The detail of how to implement or monitor the guidelines were left to the
individual department to decide internally. While PAET is important as a first step in the
adoption of the principle of impact assessment of all policies, the actual guidelines provide a
weak interpretation of gender mainstreaming (McKay and Bilton 2000, Beveridge et al. 1999).
The emphasis of the PAET guidelines is on 'gender proofing' to ensure that policies satisfy the
legal requirement for equal treatment and where there are negative, differential impacts that
these impacts can be defended as consistent with policy objectives (and similarly for race and
disability). There is no suggestion in the guidelines that impact assessments should be used to
actively promote and mainstream equal opportunities as an objective in the design of all policy.
A second limitation is that the PAET guidelines are too general in the way that they encompass
race, gender and disability. There is no specific indication of the types of gender issues which
would need to be taken into account when applying the guidelines. The third problem is that
there is no guideline on the requirements for policy monitoring and evaluation (Rubery and
Rake 2000).
Box 4: Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment
1. Check how your policy or programme will affect, either directly or indirectly,
different groups of people - for example women and men, disabled people and
those from different ethnic groups.
You will need to be sure that the measures will not result in unlawful
discrimination
You will also need to consider the question of unequal impact on those groups
who do not enjoy specific legal protection but who, as a matter of good policy,
you wish to consider, such as older people or groups toward whom specific policy
initiatives are being directed, such as young unemployed people.
2. Identify whether there is any adverse differential impact on a particular group or
groups and then decide whether it can be justified in policy terms even if legally
permissible
3. Take action if necessary.
Source: http://www.womens-unit.gov.uk/99/equal.htm
The Gender Impact Assessment Guidelines adopted by the Irish Cabinet are to be applied to
the programmes initiated under the Irish National Development Plan with respect to almost
every area of expenditure. The strengths of these guidelines are that they contain specific
questions to be asked at the outset of policy design (Box 5). Another advantage is that there is
an explicit requirement to explain the data sources used for the assessment. However, like the
UK's PAET guidelines there are some critical omissions that may undermine the efficacy of
the guidelines (Barry 2000). The guideline on the assessment of differential impact has a
narrow focus on the relative numbers of women and men who are expected to benefit from the
policy. Yet similar numbers may benefit but to different degrees, so the guideline should be
elaborated to encompass this and other more qualitative considerations of the concept of
differential impact. There is no requirement to identify objectives, targets, timescales,
procedures for monitoring and evaluation, or to undertake public consultation. There is no
indication of the level of detail that should be provided. At Step three it is not clear on what
basis it might be 'considered appropriate' to decide whether or not to take action to remedy a
differential gender impact. There is no public access to completed GIA forms and therefore no
public accountability in relation to their content.
Box 5. Gender Impact Assessment Guidelines for the Irish National Development Plan.
Step One. Outline the current position of men and women in the area which this
expenditure activity will address.
Who are the current beneficiaries of this area of expenditure? (Beneficiaries include users of
the facility, or participants)
How many are women? How many are men?
What data source did you use to determine these figures?
Step Two. What factors lead to women and men being affected differentially in the area
being addressed by this expenditure activity?
Identify the factors which lead to the differential impact on women and men.
Step Three. How can the factors which lead to women or men being affected
differentially be addressed and changed?
How can the policy proposal/measure respond to the factors identified in Step 2 above?
Where considered appropriate, what actions do you propose in this regard?
Source: Barry (2000).
The UK Women's Unit of the Cabinet Office has drafted a more explicit and proactive
framework for gender impact assessment which is currently being piloted by a few key
departments (Box 6). This has a number of elements that are missing from the PAET
guidelines, and if adopted and implemented would introduce a more transformatory form of
GIA into policy making (Rubery and Rake 2000). These include, firstly, the recognition that
GIA should be introduced at an early stage in the decision making process so that the policy
can be re-focused and changed as appropriate. Secondly, that GIA should be used to promote
equal opportunities rather than just 'gender proof' policies in terms of the legality or
justifiability of outcomes. Thirdly, there is an explicit concept of equality in the framework that
the differences between women and men and the diverse roles they play in society should be
accepted and valued equally. Fourthly, the framework details the steps, criteria, and concrete
questions to consider when designing policy in order to promote equal opportunities, and
specifies the need for monitoring and evaluation. In Ireland a more detailed model for equality
impact assessment has also been proposed recently by a working group on equality proofing
(Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform) which included government and nongovernment representatives (Barry 2000, p14).
Box 6: A Toolkit for Gender Impact Assessment: Draft issued by Women’s Unit, Cabinet office
Step One: Define Issues and Goals Identify the goals and objectives, and analyse the problems and
concerns so that main factors affecting women and men are taken into account. Make sure the
outcomes enable women and men to make an equal contribution to the economy and to society.
Ask: What is the policy trying to achieve? Does the policy affect women and men differently? Has
previous work thrown up gender considerations for this policy? Is the policy meant to overcome
gender inequalities or eliminate barriers, if so should there be a gender equality objective? What do
men and women, including women’s organisations and those from disadvantaged groups say about
the goals and issues?
Step Two: Collect Data Consider what information is required to inform the policy-making process or
to develop policy options. Request information from national and community-based organisations and
consider consulting women’s and men’s groups, who may have information and aspects that are new
to Government. You can find them through the WNC: see Appendix B Source of Expertise or through
the Government Offices. Build in time to allow them to consult internally, as they have limited funds
and resources and probably work through volunteers. Consult departmental research and statistical
units, they will help with the design and analysis of data collection, with consultation and interpreting
the facts and findings from a gender perspective.
Ask: What is the gender make-up of the people affected by the policy? How can data be broken down
by gender? What other information apart from statistics is needed to understand the issue?
Step Three: Develop Options Use the results of the research and data collection to help develop the
policy recommendation or policy options. Present the recommendation or options in terms of impacts
and implications for giving women and men equal access to policy benefits.
Ask: How does the recommendation or each option disadvantage or benefit women or men? Does
the recommendation or any of the options reinforce or challenge traditional or stereotyped perceptions
of women and men? Which option gives men and women real choice and an opportunity to achieve
their full potential in society? Is there a need to consider mitigation where there will be a negative
impact, and what action can be taken to reduce the impact or to create a more gender balanced
policy?
Step Four: Communicate The strategy used to communicate the policies can play a significant role
in acceptance and implementation. Timing, choice of media, language, and public involvement are
important to ensure that government intent and the impacts of the policy, programme and legislation
are understood.
Ask: How does the policy reflect the government’s commitment to gender equality? Are
separate approaches necessary for communication to be effective for women and men? Have
gender-inclusive language, symbols and examples been used in the materials communicating
the policy?
Step Five: Monitor Monitoring is the continuous process of scrutiny and examination of the impact of
the policy on women and men. It helps determine how well programmes are meeting their goals and
provides opportunities for improvements.
Ask: Do plans for monitoring include a measure for gender impact? How can women’s groups and
men and women in the community help in monitoring the outputs and outcomes? Do indicators and
targets incorporate gender equality objectives? Are there measures in place to initiate an investigation
or to change the policy if it is not delivering the equality objective defined at the outset of the project or
equality of opportunity for women or men?
Step Six: Evaluate To be effective, policy-making must be a learning process that involves finding
out what works and what does not, and making sure others can learn from it too. This means lessons
learned from evaluation must be available and accessible to other policy-makers.
Ask: Is the policy delivering equality of opportunity for men and women? Has the policy achieved
equal outcomes? What lessons are there for improving future gender impact assessments, who needs
to be informed and how is the information to be presented?
Another example of a detailed, practical approach is the GIA methodological toolkit that has
been developed to assess the design, implementation, and outcomes of regional and structural
programmes and projects in Finland (Lilja 2000). The toolkit offers a choice of methods for the
various stages of assessment and implementation, which can be adapted as appropriate to the
particular policy issue in question (Box 7).
Box 7. The methodological toolkit for gender mainstreaming Finnish structural policy
The toolkit has been designed for use by politicians, government officials and administrators,
consultants, NGOs and project leaders. It comprises a range of methods for the various stages
of gender impact assessment covering the following tasks:
Programme design phase
• describing the labour market situation
• formulating targets and strategies
• financial planning as well as action plans
• setting criteria for selection
• setting up the follow-up system
• developing procedures for evaluating the results
Implementation phase
• carrying out programmes and respective projects
• selection of individual projects
• maintaining the follow-up system
• identifying preliminary results and impacts
• revising the programme
Evaluation phase
•
•
•
•
•
•
involving different participant in the programme
allocation of resources
results and impacts
fulfilling targets
applicability of strategies
learning from experiences
Source: Horrelli and Roininen (1998) cited in Lilja (2000)
A final issue to consider in the elaboration of gender mainstreaming guidelines is that these
generally focus on the policy role of organisations with little awareness of the parallel need for
gender mainstreaming in the organisation's own internal structure. ‘Femocrats’- that is women
in influential positions within the policymaking bureaucracy- have an influential role in the
promotion of equal opportunities, particularly where there is little widespread commitment to
equal opportunities (Moltó and Valiente 2000). More generally, it is important in order to
address the vertical segregation and under-representation of women in decision-making
structures, thus enhancing both their employment opportunities and their influence over policy.
Within countries the content and application of GIA is more developed in some
regions and government agencies than in others
An uneven development in gender impact assessments is to be expected when the process of
gender mainstreaming is just starting. However, progress must be monitored for it cannot be
assumed that a systematic and smooth diffusion will occur. Ensuring diffusion between
different levels of government is particularly critical in countries where policy design and
implementation is devolved.
In Belgium, for example, framework employment policies are established by the federal
government but much of the detailed formulation and implementation of policy is devolved.
More progress has been made in the development of gender impact assessment guidelines in
the Flemish region than in Wallonia or the Brussels-capital region (table 1.1). The Flemish
region is the first in Belgium to have introduced regional and now local GIA guidelines (see
Appendix table A1 and Meulders et al. 2000 for further details).
Similarly, in Germany the Länder play a major role in employment policy, particularly in the
implementation of European Social and Structural Fund policies because they control the
concrete programmes and measures (Maier 2000). Each of the 17 Länder has its own
philosophy and strategy for the gender mainstreaming concept, although all are under pressure
to make the concept more developed and concrete to meet the demands of the European
programmes. Saxony-Anhalt was one of the first to develop specific reforms to develop gender
mainstreaming. A similar concept has been developed in Lower Saxony, and reforms are also
beginning in the other Länder. GIA guidelines have been issued by the Federal Employment
office to which provide a framework for GIA of employment policy at the regional and local
level.
In the UK the recently established Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament and the Northern
Ireland Equality Commission have taken initiatives to promote equality and mainstreaming
that include more proactive elements than those adopted in the national government's 1998
Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment guidelines. Within the legislative responsibilities of the
Scottish Parliament, the 1998 Northern Ireland Act and the devolved policy responsibilities of
the Welsh Assembly there are explicit policy responsibilities to promote equality and
mechanisms are in place to ensure that the impact of policy on equal opportunities are taken
into account in every policy decision. Impact assessment statements are required for all
Executive Bills presented to the Scottish Parliament, for which a mainstreaming checklist has
been developed (Box 8), and a toolkit for Structural Fund programmes has been developed
(Box 9).
Box 8: Mainstreaming Equalities: A checklist for MSPS
1.
What is the policy for? Who is the policy for? What are the desired and
anticipated outcomes?
2.
Do we have full information and analyses about the impact of the policy upon all
equalities groups? If not, why not?
3.
Has the full range of options and their differential impacts on all equality groups
been presented?
4.
What are the outcomes and consequences of the proposals? Have the indirect, as
well as the direct, effects of proposals been taken into account?
5.
How have policy makers in the Executive demonstrated they have mainstreamed
equality?
6. How will the policy be monitored and evaluated? How will improved awareness of
equality implications be demonstrated?
Source: McKay and Bilton 2000
Box 9:Toolkit for Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities in the European Structural
Funds
Phase 1: Plan Preparation
Summary Action Plan
Preparation of the Programme
•
Establish regional profile
•
Collect Data
•
Define mainstreaming
•
Check policies and projects for potential unequal implications
a. Gender impact Assessment
•
Identify gender differences in participation, resources, norms and values, rights
•
Carry out 3 stage gender impact assessment – identifying gender dimensions of
proposals. Estimate magnitude of impacts and modify proposals to prevent negative
impacts and where possible promote positive ones
b. Develop a matrix showing the various programme priorities on one axis and the equal
opportunities objectives to be achieved on the other
Phase 2: Implementation
Project management issues
• Supportive institutional framework
•
Project generation, appraisal, selection and scoring
•
Publicity and information
•
Monitoring and evaluation
Project promoters and partners
Source: Fitzgerald (1999)Toolkit for Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities in the European
Structural Funds, Scottish Executive
The toolkit adopts the EC's gender impact assessment 'SMART' approach (Simple Method to
Assess the Relevance of policies To gender) (European Commission 1998) and the Flemish
GIA tools. In Northern Ireland public bodies are obliged to carry out equality audits and to
prepare statements about how they propose to mainstream equality, overseen by the Equality
Commission. The guidelines that have been issued emphasise the importance of considering a
range of policy options and developing alternatives if adverse impacts are predicted (Box 10),
while such detail is missing in the PAET guidelines for national government, as discussed
above. In the Welsh Assembly a baseline survey has been conducted to evaluate the current
practices of the Assembly's functional divisions and these will be used in annual reports to
monitor policy progress towards promoting equality, overseen by the Assembly's Equal
Opportunities Committee. Currently there is no plan to develop Assembly-wide guidelines on
impact assessments, monitoring or evaluation, but the divisions are being encouraged to
develop their own impact assessment procedures suitable for their own activities.
BOX 10: PROCEDURE FOR THE CONDUCT OF GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENTS IN
NORTHERN IRELAND
The Commission considers that equality impact assessment requires seven
separate elements:
1. Consideration of available data and research
Quantitative, qualitative and evaluative research should be used; where necessary research and data
collection should be commissioned and systems established for the systematic collection of information,
paying attention to consultation with relevant groups in the collection of information.
2. Assessment of impacts
The public authority must decide whether there is, or is likely to be, a differential impact, whether direct or
indirect, upon the relevant group (or groups). In the case of an adverse effect policy makers should assess
whether the policy is unlawfully discriminatory (taking into account that some policies require or permit
affirmative or positive action). Even if the policy is not unlawful, policy makers will need to consider if the
policy is justifiable, indeed necessary in order to promote the equality of opportunity of a particular group.
If this is not the case, policy makers must consider whether there is any alternative measure which would
achieve the aim desired without the differential impact identified.
3.Consideration of measures which might mitigate any adverse impact; and alternative policies which
might better achieve the promotion of equality of opportunity
The consideration of mitigation and alternatives is identified as a crucial elements of the process:
authorities must develop options which reflect different ways of delivering the policy outcome. Mitigation
can take the form of lessening the severity of the impact or providing some other remedy, where the
adverse impact cannot reasonably be reduced. Clear evidence of the mitigation of impacts must be apparent
in the policy assessments, and details of mitigation and its implementation must be included in the final
recommendations. Evidence of the consideration of mitigation must be presented during decision making.
Consideration must be given to whether separate implementation strategies are necessary for the policy to
be effective for the relevant group. Options should be assessed for: how they further or hinder equality of
opportunity; reinforce or challenge stereotypes; the consequences for the group concerned and for the
public authority of not adopting an option more favourable to equality of opportunity; the means by which
the relevant group be advised of the new or changed policy or service; the costs of implementing each
option; whether the social and economic costs and benefits to the relevant group of implementing the
option outweigh the costs to the public authority or other groups (evaluation of net social benefits for each
option); whether international obligations would be breached by, or could be furthered by each of the
options. Clear evidence of the consideration of the impacts of alternatives must be apparent in the relevant
policy documentation. The realistic consideration of the impacts of reasonable alternatives must be evident
in any final recommendation to policy makers. Justifications must be given if these alternatives have not
been accepted.
4. Formal consultation
An equality impact assessment requires consultation with relevant interest groups as well as the Equality
Commission, other public bodies, voluntary, community, trade union and other groups with a legitimate
interest in the matter. Wide publication of the consultation exercise is essential to inform the public and
relevant groups about the policy being assessed, and to invite comments on it. The information used by the
public authority in assessing the impact of the policy must be made available on request to those consulted.
This will include any quantitative and qualitative data and other documentation such as consultants’
reports.
5. Decision by public authority
The legislation requires that in making any policy decision the public authority shall take into account any
equality impact assessment and consultation carried out in relation to the policy.
6. Publication of results of equality impact assessment
The legislation requires public authorities to publish the results of equality impact assessments.
7. Monitor for adverse impact in the future and publication of the results
of such monitoring.
A system must be established to monitor the impact of the policy in order to find out its effect on the
relevant group. This must be reviewed on an annual basis and the results published. Monitoring must be
carried out in a systematic manner. If the monitoring and evaluation show that the policy results in greater
adverse impact than predicted, or if opportunities arise which would allow for greater equality of
opportunity to be promoted, the public authority must ensure that the policy is revised.
Source: Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (2000) Guide to the Statutory Duties
Sweden and the Netherlands are further along the road in the use of GIAs, but despite the
greater experience in the use of such tools in these countries problems still remain. Evaluations
of the use of GIAs in Sweden by the National Auditing Board (RRV) show that this
requirement has been unevenly implemented in different government agencies (education,
social policy and so on). The conclusion is that the government needs a clearer strategy for
promoting equal opportunities issues in different arenas, with clearer goals, monitoring and
reporting requirements for each agency. Gender mainstreaming is recommended as the main
method for achieving this goal. Similarly, the scope and content of the impact assessments that
have been carried out in the Netherlands differ greatly in their completeness, persuasiveness
and consideration of alternatives (Graf, van de, et al. 1999).
These examples illustrate the need for national level guidelines and monitoring procedures that
provide a co-ordinating framework for regional and local initiatives, combined with systematic
mechanisms for the dissemination of good practice developments in mainstreaming and impact
assessment .
Integrating gender impact assessment with other forms of impact assessment raises
additional methodological considerations
The development of gender impact assessment raises the question of how to combine this with
other forms of equality impact assessments. This question will gain increasing prominence in
the European Union because the new European Social Policy Agenda sets out a number of
proposed actions on discrimination on grounds other than gender. This includes a proposed
directive banning discrimination in employment on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin,
religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (European Commission 2000).
This issue is already being grappled with in a number of member states. For example, in
Ireland equality legislation covers gender and eight other grounds (race, disability, age, sexual
orientation etc.) (Barry 2000). The Working Group on Equality Proofing (Department of
Justice, Equality and Law reform) recommends placing equality impact assessment on all these
grounds on a legal or statutory basis and has recommended a model for Equality Impact
Assessment (EIA). This model sets out a series of stages to EIA, including the identification of
strategic equality priorities, the key questions and procedures for equality impact assessment,
including processes of consultation. It also identifies the need for training programmes and the
development of adequate databases as a foundation for successful equality impact assessments.
In the UK, if the GIA guidelines developed by the UK's Cabinet Women's Unit are adopted
this will raise the question of how to combine gender mainstreaming with impact assessment
for equal treatment on the grounds of race, disability and other target groups identified by the
government's Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment guidelines. An appraisal check list for
gender, race and disability impact is already being developed as part of the draft action plan for
mainstreaming in the UK Structural Funds. The checklist focus is on ensuring that projects
have:
• accurately assessed the position of the targeted groups prior to the design of the policy;
• identified the barriers to labour market entry and progression of the targeted groups;
• consulted with local partners;
• devoted adequate resources to equal opportunities;
• are not reinforcing stereotypes;
• promoted access through the provision for care arrangements, flexible timing and
appropriate transport;
• introduced procedures for monitoring and evaluating outcomes.
The checklist is regarded as rather ambitious, and so the immediate priority of the action plan
is training in equal opportunity awareness and appraisal plus piloting the use of the checklist
(Rubery and Rake 2000).
It is evident from both these examples that impact assessment becomes more complex when
the specific circumstances of different target groups are considered. However, as already
discussed earlier, without precise guidelines the resulting impact assessment may be too
general or vague to provide adequate guidance for policy. Where the political commitment and
equality expertise is more advanced in relation to gender than other issues of discrimination the
development of concrete and specific impact assessment guidelines for gender may inform the
process of developing impact assessment tools for other identified groups.
Where a policy is shown to have differential impacts for a number of different target groups,
according to gender or ethnicity for example, this may further add to the complexity of the
policy making process (see Box 1, point 5). One outcome may be a 'trade-off decision' where
policy makers have to be more explicit about the priority attached to addressing the
circumstances of one group more than another on the basis of the impact assessments
undertaken for the policy issue in question. An alternative outcome may be a 'win-win
decision', where the results from the different impact assessments provide the information
required to refocus the policy to accommodate the circumstances of people who are members
of more than one target group, such as minority ethnic women.
Thus the development of impact assessment for more than one target group raises
methodological issues of how to conduct impact assessments on a number of dimensions and
how to accommodate the results from different impact assessments, particularly if the results
have competing or potentially contradictory implications. Guidelines and procedures for policy
design and consultation that are sufficiently comprehensive yet manageable will be required if
the EU adopts a policy commitment to mainstreaming on grounds other than gender in the
future.
1.2. EXAMPLES OF EMPLOYMENT POLICY EVALUATIONS AND IMPACT
ASSESSMENTS
The assessment of the development of gender-aware policy evaluation in the member
states has to take into account the overall level of expertise with respect to policy
evaluation. Wide variations can be found between the member states in this respect.
These differences apply to both evaluation conducted by or on behalf of government
and the extent of development of independent, often academic, evaluations within
universities or research institutes. Government-led policy evaluation in some member
states still focuses primarily on descriptive statistics, determining whether the
measures have been implemented, the share of budgets spent or on measuring the
take up of schemes, and does not develop a systematic analysis of ‘additionality’, that
is the net impact of the policy taking into account trends in the labour market and other
variables. In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that there is little evidence of
the development of full gender impact assessment.
Where there are traditions of strong analytical policy evaluation, more progress could
be expected with respect to gender impact assessment. Moreover, government
departments, where they have an obligation to monitor and evaluate the policy impact,
often subcontract this work to universities or research institutes or engage
independent experts in the government-based policy evaluation. Thus there tends to
be a positive relationship between strong government-level evaluation and a depth of
expertise among independent or academic institutions.
However, there is no
automatic relationship between widespread expertise in policy evaluation and
widespread awareness of gender issues within either government departments or
universities and research institutes. The UK provides an example of a country where
there is a highly developed level of policy evaluation, both within government circles
and outside and where there is a real depth of gender expertise within the academic
community, the non governmental policy making and pressure group community and
within the Equal Opportunities Commission. There are formal and informal
organisations actively promoting gender impact analysis, such as the Women’s
Budget Group and the Fawcett Society. Nevertheless the UK has a poor record with
respect to developing gender analysis of employment policy as a systematic tool of
government policy as an assessment of recent policy evaluations as published in the
official Labour Market Trends reveals.
First in most areas of evaluation of employment policy there is still no
systematic introduction of a gender analysis and where gender is used as a
variable, the analysis is limited simply to an investigation of participation rates.
The links between gender difference and the operation of a gendered labour
market are often not mentioned let alone used as a basis for analysis. The
second conclusion is that where studies do reveal important gender
differences, these findings, although available to the government, are not
integrated into government thinking and policy analysis (Rubery and Rake
2000).
Thus different traditions and levels of expertise can be identified in the member states.
In Belgium the annual report on employment still does not provide a strong analytical
basis for policy evaluation, shortcomings intensified by the failure even to
disaggregate statistics by gender.
The annual report from the Ministry of Employment, the so-called “Rapport
Jadot”, gives an overview of the employment policies undertaken at a federal
level with a quantitative and qualitative “evaluation”. Actually it cannot be said
to be evaluations but more a description of number of beneficiaries and budget
used. Moreover, the statistics are not systematically disaggregated by sex,
even when it comes to part-time employment and leave from work. The tables
with the evolution of beneficiaries is given as total, and in the description of the
evolution of the beneficiaries the percentage of women is sometimes stated.
This could change as from the 2000 report, as experts from the department of
equal opportunities are present in all groups involved in writing the report.
(Meulders et al. 2000)
A similar non analytical approach has been adopted by the Women's Institute (Instituto
de la Mujer) in Spain in evaluating the Second Equality Plan (Instituto de la Mujer, 1996).
It is worth noting that this is the institution responsible for promoting the plan, although it
lacks both the power and the budget to enforce it but instead relies on convincing other
state bodies to follow its plan. Because of lack of gender expertise and indeed interest, it
is also the institution responsible for the evaluation.
The evaluation of the second gender equality plan is an important step towards
the generalisation of evaluations of public policies in Spain.
However, this
evaluation shares with other evaluations undertaken in Spain two shortcomings
that should be overcome in the future. On the one hand, the first part of the
evaluation of the second gender equality plan comprises a study on the changes
and continuities in women's status before and after the implementation of the
plan. Nevertheless, what is not assessed is which changes and continuities are
the result of the implementation of the plan, and which ones are not. Therefore,
the effects of the plan are not identified. On the other hand, the evaluation of the
second equality plan also includes an assessment of the degree of the
implementation of the measures of the plan. At times the assessment is simply
the answer to the question of whether the measures have been put in practice or
not, and whether the budget allocated to the implementation of the measures
have been spent or not. There is rarely the answer to the question about whether
the specific measures were the appropriate means to reach given objectives, or
whether unintended effects appeared. In brief, evaluations of public policies in
Spain should try to distinguish between social change produced by the public
policy under evaluation from any other social change. Evaluations should also go
much beyond the (important) task of checking that measures have been
implemented and that the monetary resources allocated to the implementation of
measures have been spent in due time (Moltó and Valiente 2000).
In Luxembourg the annual report from the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and the studies
"Women in the labour market" provide overviews of employment policies undertaken
in Luxembourg but these ‘cannot be said to be evaluations but more a description of
number of beneficiaries and, sometimes, budget allocated. Moreover, the statistics are
not systematically disaggregated by sex’. (Plasman 2000).
In other member states there is both more development of sophisticated methods of
policy evaluation and a greater awareness of gender issues. In Sweden the
requirement to evaluate by gender is built into the whole framework of policymaking.
Every ministry is responsible for the evaluation and gender assessments in its
field of action. The Unit of Equal Opportunity under the Minister of Equal
opportunity has a special role to co-ordinate and advise the different ministries.
This unit evaluates how the directives to the committees have been
implemented, the government bills, the regulation letters to the government
agencies, and the yearly accounts from the government boards and agencies.
The conclusions are being brought back to the different ministries (Gonäs
2000).
In some member states there are major gaps between the level of current interest in
gender impact assessment and the actual examples of such assessments in the
public domain. Thus in Ireland there are now a number of gender sensitive
assessments of employment policies such as the structural funds, or of mainstreaming
initiatives but these reports primarily focus on the current absence of data and
indicators. The existence of some model gender impact assessments of employment
policies - as for example in the Netherlands where there have been a number of
examples of applying gender impact assessment methodologies (Plantenga 2000) -
is, however, by no means a guarantee that these impact assessment will be used
either to modify existing policies or as inputs into future policy development. Nor is the
existence of a high level of gender equality a guarantee that gender equality issues
will be taken into account in policy design and development. The now rather famous
Danish labour market reform of 1993 which introduced leave schemes and
arrangements failed to anticipate that these schemes would have strong gender
effects (Emerek 2000).
It is not possible to provide a fully comprehensive survey of the state of employment
policy evaluation with respect to gender in all the member states. Instead here we
provide examples first of notable policy evaluations which have failed to address
gender issues, even though the policies considered must be expected a priori to have
clear gender implications; and second of policy evaluations which reveal interesting
and significant gender impacts. Some of these second type of policy evaluations have
been taken into account in government policy and policy modification. In other cases
governments have not responded to the findings of different results by gender and
may even have intensified policies identified to have negative gender equality effects.
Examples of ‘gender blind’ evaluations
The need for further promotion of the gender perspective in employment policy
evaluations is demonstrated by examples from a range of member states of policy
evaluations which fail to make any reference to gender issues even when there are
clear a priori expectations that such effects will not only be significant but that ignoring
these effects will result in a misleading analysis of the employment situation.
In France a recent example of this continuation of gender blindness amongst
economists and others involved in policy analysis led to a protest. In May 2000, for the
first time a symposium of economists was held on the theme of the ‘working poor’.
Four fifths of the working poor are women but at no point did the organisers refer to
the gender of working poor. This time the ‘silence’ of these economists `created a lot
of noise.’ (Silvera 2000) More than 300 social science researchers signed a petition,
pointing to this failure to identify gender issues and to the fact that not a single woman
was invited to speak at the symposium. This petition makes the link between the
underrepresentation of women in the profession and the failure to identify the gender
issues. This has considerable implications for the relevance of economic analysis for
real world policies and prescriptions.
It is finally - and perhaps, above all - the idea that the gender issue can only be
ignored in social sciences at the risk of profoundly betraying the description and
analysis of the real world - and at the risk of preventing the emergence of new
theoretical tools that are likely to account for the reality of our contemporary
societies more effectively. (Extracts from the petition “Is economics a male
science?” May 2000)
The problem of gender blindness occurs both in academic and in government
policymaking circles. The UK has a wealth of policy evaluations but many either only
disaggregate statistics by gender without comment or analysis of the results or even
fail to provide these basic statistical analyses. An area of remarkable ‘gender
blindness’ is the evaluation of the New Deal programmes, one of the most heavily
evaluated employment programmes of all time.
There are a large number of evaluations of the New Deal both published and in
progress. Most of these evaluations made no explicit reference to gender or
provided gender disaggregated statistics. The following examples indicate some of
the topics which were studied but where either no gender dimension was included
or it was inadequately developed:
•
Report on New Deal for ethnic minority participants (Moody February 2000) did
not provide a gender analysis even though there are major differences in the
labour market experiences by gender by ethnic minority group….
•
An evaluation of the New Deal for Lone Parents (Hamblin April 2000) focuses
primarily on satisfaction scores. …there is no general analysis of the labour
market situation facing women and female lone parents in particular.
•
An analysis of leavers from the New Deal (Walker et al. October 1999) does
state that being female is one characteristic, along with other characteristics,
which leads young people to leave the New Deal quickly. However, there is no
analysis of why this may be the case, nor of the destinations of women leavers
relative to male leavers.
•
An evaluation of New Deal pilots (Atkinson et al. April 2000) makes no
reference to gender, even though attitudes of employers were one of the
factors explored…..
•
An exploration of the New Deal leavers who have unknown destinations (Hales
and Collins 1999) was not disaggregated by gender even though there could
be expected to be significant gender aspects to leaver behaviour. (Rubery and
Rake 2000)
Greece has a weaker tradition of employment policy evaluation. It may be therefore
more expected, but no less problematic that a wide range of studies in Greece can be
identified as gender blind, even when there are strong expectations of gender effects.
For example a study of the use of voucher schemes to stimulate local services made
no mention of gender issues with respect to likely participants in the scheme or
recipients of services. An evaluation of vocational guidance only devoted seven lines
in 108 pages to gender, despite the need to challenge occupational segregation
(Karamessini 2000).
In Italy too there is an absence of analysis of gender issues in many areas. In some
cases the data are just not collected, in others they are not made available to the
public or to researchers. In some cases the national statistical office does not make
available disaggregated analyses even though the data provided to the office at a
local level are based on more informative categories. The maintenance of
inappropriate statistical categories seems to be a significant factor inhibiting the
development of gender impact analysis in Italy. For example, single parent
households with young children are aggregated alongside households where adult
children are living with one middle aged or elderly parent.
Problems with gender blind evaluations continue even in contexts where there has
been some progress made in raising gender awareness. This applies to the evaluation
of structural fund programmes in Ireland. Recent reports on the ESF have adopted a
strong gender perspective and have been highly critical of the failure in the past to
adopt either a rigorous approach to gender issues in the selection or the monitoring of
the funds. However, at the same time other reports on structural funds have continued
to be produced which fail to include any gender dimensions.
In contrast to the focus on gender equality issues in the evaluation of social
fund expenditure, a related Report on the European Social Fund and the Local
Urban and Rural Development Operational Programme paid little attention to
gender equality. (European Social Fund Programme Evaluation Unit 1999)
Other than a recognition of the serious under-representation of women on
Boards of Local Area Partnerships (32% of the total – a breach of government
guidelines of 40% minimum of each gender) and a reference to the lack of a
‘welcoming approach’ to women in County Enterprise Boards, this Report
appears to operate on the basis that local development is gender neutral in its
policies and practices. Given that ADM, the management company for the
Partnerships developed gender equality guidelines and reviewed their
implementation it is all the more surprising that the ESF Evaluation all but
ignores gender equality issues. (Barry 2000)
Examples of gender sensitive evaluations
Policy evaluations which pay attention to gender issues range from those that merely
make gender visible (that is break down some statistics by gender but fail to act on
this information to analyse either the policy intention or outcome) to gender sensitive
evaluations which provide a full gender impact assessment, either by directly adopting
a gender impact assessment approach or as a consequences of providing a through
and detailed analysis of the pre and post policy situation by gender as well as other
variables (Karamessini 2000). Gender visibility is clearly more common than gender
sensitivity in policy evaluation. The examples we provide here are disproportionately
biased towards the gender sensitive end of the spectrum, but even with this biased
sampling we will still identify many deficiencies in current methodologies. However,
even analyses which are still at the gender visible end of the spectrum can be shown
to provide useful and important information, in comparison to the gender blind
approaches identified above. Nevertheless there are some important qualifications to
this statement. It can be the case that if a policy is subject to a positive gender impact
assessment but there are methodological flaws in the assessment or the assessment
is based on scenarios but without hard supporting evidence, the impact may be to
provide the policy with unwarranted credibility. This may be the case for example with
a gender impact assessment undertaken of the new General Social Assistance Act in
the Netherlands which places pressure on lone parents to enter the labour market. While
the evaluation was useful in pointing to the possibility of positive scenarios and
suggesting that fears of lone parents that they would not be able to combine work and
care may be unjustified, the evaluation was based on hypothetical scenarios, not on
statistical evidence. Moreover, the application of the policy is decided at the local level
and the method of implementation may prove critical. In this case the gender impact
assessment may deflect attention away from serious drawbacks to the policy, including
the absence of a national care policy to complement the policy of active labour market
approaches for lone parents.
The GIA is limited in the sense that only the policy of one local authority is
analysed in detail. The analysis is also limited because no empirical study of the
effects of the policies has been undertaken. For example, there are no data on
instream or outstream of men and women within the local policy programs, increase in the availability of child care arrangements etc. The research is also
limited in scope; literature on the ambivalent position of lone mothers within the
Dutch welfare state is hardly taken into account. As a result the complicated
issues involved in the new act are largely ignored. For example, since the national
framework of a general obligation to work is not accompanied by a national
framework for care, lone mothers cannot claim access to public care or part-time
work. (Plantenga 2000)
This example serves to remind us that there are dangers in using limited tools and
insufficient data to publicly ‘gender-proof’ a policy. Nevertheless, introducing a gender
perspective, even if limited to participation rates or disaggregated statistics, often
provides a different perspective on an employment policy and can provide a new way
of viewing both the policy problem and possible policy solutions.
Gender sensitive evaluations can be identified as having a range of functions within
the general assessment of employment policy. First the evaluations, if carried out ex
ante, that is before a policy is designed, illuminate the factors that create gender
inequalities or promote gender equality. If carried out ex post they can also be used to
assess and recommend modifications to policies to reduce negative gender effects or
to generate proactive equal opportunities effects, Second they may reveal
contradictions between the objectives of gender equality or gender mainstreaming and
the employment policy. Third gender sensitive evaluations may reveal unevenness in
the application of equal opportunities within policy programmes. Fourth, gender
sensitive evaluations may reveal divergent impacts of policies by gender that are not
necessarily anticipated and underline the need for gender differentiated evaluations.
Fifthly evaluations may reveal gaps between rhetoric and reality in the equal
opportunity area. Such evaluations make clear the need for concrete measures and
objectives in the formulation of programmes. Finally gender sensitive evaluations can
be the basis for the development of general tools or approaches for the establishment
of good practice in the area of equal opportunity.
Gender sensitive evaluations of policy options.
The gender impact assessment of possible reforms to the supplementary pension
system in the Netherlands provides a strong example of an evaluation which
systematically reviews the gender impact of different policy options and reveals some
interesting results relating to the characteristics of policies which may increase gender
equality, not all of which are self evident or intuitive. The need for policy programmes
to be inclusive rather than selective perhaps could be considered self evident- but not
to all policy makers-but the fact that a system based on average earnings rather than
final salaries might be more gender equal is by no means self evident. It is also not a
firm conclusion of the policy and therefore the inclusion of this characteristic in the
final policy design would need to be looked at with great care to identify the potential
effects not only on gender equality but also on the general level and distribution of
pensions. It is significant that this policy evaluation was carried out as part of a
broader assessment of pension reform and the results are therefore perhaps more
likely to be taken into account in the final design.
To assess different changes with regard to the current system (for example:
average wage instead of last earned wage, lowering of franchise, mandatory
pension plan for all employees) a standard for gender neutrality is developed. The
standard takes into account both gender differences in the access of the pension
scheme as well as gender differences in the quality of the pension scheme.
Calculation are made on the basis of three different labour market scenarios and
ten different changes with regard to the current pension scheme. It appears that
the gender inequality with regard to pension results, would be most effectively
addressed by abolishing the exclusion of certain categories of employees. Also
the transition from a system based on last earned wages to average wages might
favour a more equal pension system for men and women, although the actual
results of this transition are less clear.(Plantenga 2000)
Comparative analysis of labour market institutions and conditions by gender can also
provide an important means of opening up the debate on policy options for improving
equal opportunities. For instance, in Spain in 1996 a special report examined part-time
employment in Europe and Spain (Consejo Económico y Social, 1996). According to
Molto and Valiente (2000) ‘This CES study should be considered one of the points of
departure for improving the social protection of part-time contracts in Spain from 1994
onwards.’
Once policies are in place one of the main functions of gender impact assessment is
to make visible gender differences and to suggest policy amendments and
modifications to enhance both quantitative and qualitative equality measures. This
was the objective of one gender sensitive evaluation in Greece of the vocational
training and employment promotion programmes published ten years ago (Demathas
et al. 1990). Unfortunately it could hardly be categorised as a normal outcome of
employment policy evaluation as it was the only evaluation in the past decade to focus
specifically on women’s employment issues.
Contradictions and tensions between gender equality objectives and employment
policies.
The gender impact assessment of the Dutch working hours act is primarily an ex post
assessment, considering the likely impact of the policy now it has been introduced into
the legislation. However, the objectives of the act were explicitly not only to focus on
'the safety, health and well-being of employees in relation to their work', but also 'to
promote the combination of work and care task, as well as other responsibilities outside
the work place'. However, the real impact of the Act in providing for reconciliation of work
and care remains unclear as the Working Time Act is mainly concerned to deregulate
working hours. Thus even when equal opportunities objectives are included explicitly in
policy agenda there is a need to evaluate the policy to identify if these objectives are
being pursued and indeed if they are compatible with other aspects of the policy. The
gender impact assessment points to both pessimistic and optimistic scenarios which
may emerge out of this policy; under the pessimistic scenario ‘women will not be able to
outsource their care responsibilities and will be forced to work in small part-time jobs.’
Under the optimistic scenario ‘some women change their attitude towards care work,
employers and employees agree upon certain working hours and partners agree upon a
certain sharing of unpaid care labour.’ (Plantenga 2000). There is also a real danger that
‘autonomy will decrease as allowances for special hours will be paid less, because
increasingly more working times are labelled 'normal'; that means more working hours
are covered by normal wage systems.’ Overall the gender impact assessment clearly
brings out ‘the internal tension within the Working Times Act, aiming at a deregulation of
working times at the one hand and aiming at protection and reconciliation at the other’,
but stops short of providing the next essential step in gender impact assessment – that
of suggesting alternative policy scenarios, policy modifications or ‘flanking policies’ to
reduce any negative impacts on gender equality (Plantenga 2000).
In some member states there are well known and well documented gender sensitive
evaluations of current policy measures which are effectively ignored or disregarded by
government
policymakers
despite
their
apparent
commitment
to
gender
mainstreaming. A very clear-cut example of this practice is found in France where
policy evaluations have suggested that the new ‘APE’ policy- that is where an
allowance for childraisers previously restricted to those with three or more children is
now available for the second child- has major negative consequences for gender
equality. Despite this evidence, only minor modifications to the policy are being
proposed, even at a conference called apparently to promote gender mainstreaming
approach to family policy.
Several assessments of APE1 beneficiaries have shown that this measure
increases occupational risks of the most disadvantaged women. Firstly, until
1994, the economic activity rate of mothers with two children was close to that
of mothers with one child. Major differences have developed since: the
economic activity rate of other family situations has continued to increase, but
that of mothers of two children has dropped by 10%. Between 200,000 and
250,000 women left the labour market out of 536,000 beneficiaries in 1999.
1
For instance the research of the National Family Allowances Agency (CNAF) presented in the review
« Recherches et prévisions, n°59, 2000.
Amongst the beneficiaries, some were already registered
unemployed and,
therefore, benefited from the opportunity of this allowance. If one looks at their
unemployment rate before and after APE, one observes that women who are
registered unemployed represent 9,2% of the active female population before
entering APE and that 13.8% are unemployed after APE. This measure
therefore increases the risk of unemployment and poses the problem of
returning to work after a break of three years. For these women, this allowance
often enables women to withdraw from a job where working conditions are
often very hard with difficult hours and low wages. Thus, major segmentations
appear amongst these mothers, according to age, level of qualifications and
difficulties of entering the labour market: the youngest, the least qualified and
those with the greatest difficulties in entering the labour market use APE most.
At the other end of the scale, there is a small group of women with stable jobs,
who can also benefit from parental leave (normally with the guarantee of finding
“their” job again) and have chosen APE, but they do so for a much shorter
period (and, therefore, it does not last 3 years) - it is more a matter of
prolonging maternity leave, in order to avoid a break in their career that would
be too long and, therefore, a disadvantage (Silvera 2000).
In the UK there has been long voiced opposition to the lower earnings threshold for
national insurance contributions, a policy which reinforces the marginalisation of parttimers and excludes many form social security. The Equal Opportunities Commission
has done much to publicise the negative effects, including a recent study of the impact
on workers in hotels and catering, but despite these well documented negative gender
effects the government has recently raised thresholds and only made marginal
concessions towards providing social protection.
An EOC report on ‘The Lower Earnings Limit in Practice: Part-time employment
in Hotels and Catering’ (Purcell et al (1999), reviewed in February 2000)
explores the impact of the National Insurance threshold whereby neither
employers nor employees pay National Insurance contributions if earnings fall
below a certain amount per week. The report found that employees had little
understanding of the link between earnings and benefits. Variations in earnings
on a weekly basis often led to employees making contributions on an irregular
basis. These contributions failed to help them build up benefit credits as
contributions only count if they are paid or credited regularly over the year. The
report recommended the lowering of the threshold; this has not been followed
through in government policy. Indeed the threshold has been raised since the
research was carried out and only those affected by the rise in the threshold
have had their benefit entitlements protected through contribution credits
(Rubery and Rake 2000)
There is also widely documented evidence on the very strong negative effects of
parenthood on women’s earnings in the UK. This has recently been reaffirmed by a
seven country study of the family pay gap conducted by researchers at the LSE
(Harkness and Waldfogel 1999). This study shows that the cost of having children- the
family pay gap is largest in the UK. Again these findings have not been acted upon in
developing the NAP or introduced into the assessment of the situation with respect to
gender equality in the UK.
Differences in the application of equal opportunities within policy programmes
In Sweden, as mentioned in section 1.1., the investigations of the National Audit Office
found that the policy of gender mainstreaming had been applied in an uneven manner,
with no clear relationship to any principles of gender mainstreaming. This reveals the
importance of monitoring an apparently universal policy for consistency of application.
The aim of the mapping (by the National Audit Office-RRV) was to find out how
many governmental agencies really had been commissioned to report back to
government on equal opportunities measures. About half of all governmental
agencies had a demand to report back on the external equal opportunities
activities. RRV found that it was very unclear on what grounds the government
or the ministries had selected certain agencies to report on these issues. The
connections are very unclear between the overall formulations of the goals of
equal opportunities as they are formulated in the governmental declarations
and the formulations of the goals by the ministries to their agencies. As a result
it is very difficult to see to what extent the goals of equal opportunity really have
been fulfilled. RRV’s conclusion is that the government needs a clearer strategy
for the external work on equal opportunities, that is in promoting these issues in
the policies performed by the different agencies like education, social policy,
labour market policy and so on. (Gonäs 2000)
Gender sensitive evaluations of employment policies are important in revealing
current strengths and current weaknesses in the gender mainstreaming approach
within the National Action Plans. Austria has adopted the most comprehensive system
of evaluating the measures included in the National Action Plan and importantly has
placed gender mainstreaming at the top of the topics to be considered. These
evaluation reports have revealed positive successes for gender mainstreaming
objectives within the first two pillars of the NAP- employability and entrepreneurshipbut a continuing neglect of gender issues within the third pillar adaptability. These
results within the NAP are paralleled by gender evaluations of the structural funds. A
good record of equal opportunities within Objective 3 is not matched by success in
Objective 4, where women have received much less attention in policies directed at
those already employed within companies (Pastner 2000). These two sets of
evaluations taken together suggest that policy action in Austria needs to focus more
on the position of women within paid employment and on the policies adopted by
employers, in parallel with continuing efforts to improve opportunities for unemployed
women.
In Germany the Referat für Frauenbelange of the Federal Employment Office has
published an analysis on women's participation in active labour market policy for 1999.
This analysis is based on the concept of analysing ‘how women participate in
programmes, how participation helped them to enter the labour market in regular
employment and discusses the targets/aims and guidelines in a gender sensitive
sense, to discover disadvantages or contradictions within the legal framework and the
actual policy implementation.’ The analysis used the newly created evaluation
instruments and statistics of the Labour Ministry called Eingliederungsbilanz
(employment integration balance), which is an instrument of evaluation and controls
both for the local and the macrolevel of labour market policy (Tischer/Doering 2000)’
(Maier 2000). The main results of the study have been to show that women are
underrepresented in some key areas of the programme, particularly those which
involve placements with a private sector employer (see section 2 below).
Unanticipated or unintended gender outcomes.
One example of unanticipated gender differences emerging from evaluations of active
labour market policies comes from Finland. Here there are still only very limited
evaluations of employment policy from a gender perspective, but one evaluation,
which came across the gender perspective almost by accident reveals the potential
importance of disaggregating by gender in evaluating and designing effective active
labour market policies.
According to Hämäläinen (1999) the most efficient programmes (in terms of
improvements in the employment possibilities of participants in open, nonsubsidised labour markets) are enterprise allowance and labour market
training.2 In this study gender was one of the many explanatory factors in the
estimated models, but including gender revealed an important difference
between men and women what comes to the efficiency of labour market
programmes. The calculations from the study showed that a policy shift from
private sector job placements to labour market training would weaken, not
improve (as it did for men), the employment prospects of women, families with
children, and the disabled. The above result emphasises the need for gender
impact assessment in the NAPs. It appears that for groups for whom entering
2
This study was commissioned by the Ministry of Labour.
the labour market is problematic (e.g. young women are more prone to have
temporary employment contracts than young men), policy measures that
alleviate entry are more beneficial than other measures which just postpone the
problem into the future. It appears that young women, in particular, who are
suspected not to be as much attached to the labour market as men due to their
childbearing ability, need to 'prove' their labour market attachment by actually
participating the labour market (Lilja 2000).
Introducing gender into the Spanish Economic and Social Council’s evaluation of the
Employment Agreement 1997 revealed how even after a priority to women had been
introduced in the policy to promote transfers from temporary to permanent contracts,
women were underrepresented in the contracts as opposed to their overall share of
contracts. This underrepresentation is identified as resulting from a low rate of increase
in participation in the scheme from women under 30.
Despite the positive evaluation in relation to the stability of employment contracts
(more permanent contracts and longer short-term contracts), a non-neutral
gender effect of the new type of permanent contracts was reported (Consejo
Económico y Social, 2000:270). A comparison was established between the
percentage of women who benefited from permanent contracts in 1998 (34%)
and their representation in the total of contracts (40%). This situation becomes
slightly better in 1999, when gender was introduced as an explicit criterion in the
employment policy (Act Number 50 of 30 December 1998). As a result, the
percentage of women in new permanent contracts increased to 36% and their
participation in the transformation of temporary contracts into permanent
contracts was even higher (39%).
underrepresented
in
the
However, in 1999 women were still
employment
promotion
measures.
This
underrepresentation is mostly due to the fact that women under 30 (who are also
overrepresented among the unemployed) increased their participation in those
contracts only one percentage point from 1998 (38%) to 1999 (39%) (Molto and
Valiente 2000).
Structural fund evaluations may reveal positive gender effects even when these were
unintended or unanticipated in the original policy design. For example in Finland an
evaluation of the ADAPT programme identified positive gender effects, even though
equal opportunities had been missing from the original criteria in selecting projects.
In 2000, a final evaluation report on the ADAPT programme was published. It
appears from this report that at the beginning phase the objective of gender
equality was missing due to the fact that the application forms of different
projects did not indicate that promoting gender equality was one of the
selection criteria. Gender equality was added to the programme documents
only after the representatives of the European Commission requested it. All in
all, it appears that the objective of gender equality was at the background when
different projects were selected. Even though, the gender equality was only a
marginal factor in the ADAPT programme, according to the evaluation report
the programme had some beneficial BUT unanticipated effects on gender
equality. It appears from the above discussion that gender perspective in the
actual programming phase of the ADAPT programme was basically missing
(Lilja 2000).
Unanticipated or hidden effects may reduce rather than enhance apparently positive
gender outcomes of policies. In an Evaluation of the programme of subsidies to
employers for new job creation in Greece (Dedousopoulos et al. 1994) there is
evidence of selectivity in favour of women, especially in manufacturing. However,
because the study found displacement and deadweight effects to be extremely high,
the contribution of the programme to net job creation must be considered minimal
(Karamessini 2000).
Policies apparently designed to meet equal opportunities objectives may still have
negative outcomes, when gender sensitive evaluations are carried out.
In Luxembourg the evaluation of measures in the NAP by the Ministry of
Women's Affairs (Mesures en faveur de l’emploi des femmes, March 2000) has
underlined some potential negative gender impacts of some of the new
measures of the NAP. This is the case for the parental leave which has been
introduced in the NAP of 1998 and organised by the legal act of February 1999.
This measure, which is characterised by a relatively high compensation,
remains mainly used by women (more than 95% of the parental leaves). The
report suggests that the results of this measure are not necessary positive from
the point of view of the equality in the domestic and familial spheres. The
positive impact on the employment of women remains to be demonstrated. The
reports insists on the necessity of qualitative data and information on the post
parental leave situation of the employees before being able to correctly assess
the impact of the measure from a gender perspective. (Plasman 2000)
Evaluating the gap between rhetoric and reality.
Another function of evaluation is to attempt to identify the concrete measures and
concrete realities behind policymakers’ commitments to equal opportunities policies.
Much of the European employment debate, including the National Action Plans is
conducted at a rather rhetorical level with policy commitment not followed up either by
concrete measures or by new initiatives (as opposed to the repackaging of existing
policies). These problems are also found in the area of equal opportunities as the
example of the evaluation of the Portuguese global plan on equal opportunities
revealed.
A recent experience of evaluation on the existing instruments of promotion of
mainstreaming from a gender perspective has been implemented regarding the
Global Plan on Equal Opportunities. The external evaluation that has been
done by a research centre has not been publicised but the main weaknesses
identified have to do with three main points: i) the lack of clearly defined
instruments of evaluation regarding the Plan; ii) the lack of clearly identified
financial means for the promotion of the different objectives of the Plan; iii) the
lack of clearly defined responsibilities and the correspondent delays for the
promotion of the measures to be implemented through the Plan. Also, and
besides this general limitation, the evaluation has also stressed the difficulties
of stating and defining the concrete tasks and work methodology of the former
Counsellors on Equality. The evaluation has made clear the need for the tasks
of the Counsellors to be defined in a concrete way and for their actions to be
co-ordinated. Ways also need to be found to make visible their role within
institutions and to clarify the need for these social actors. So one of the factors
that emerges from the evaluation of the Portuguese Global Plan on Equal
Opportunities is the need to look beyond formalities and to define the content of
the tasks before implementing the new instruments or functions on this area.
The existence of non-operational jobs/functions/plans in this as in other areas
can be more damaging than good for the promotion of Equal Opportunities as it
means
a
wide
spread
of
resources
without
any
evident
gain
associated.(Gonzalez 2000)
Using gender evaluation to promote good practice.
Gender sensitive evaluations can be used not only to assess the specific policy but to
generate ideas and principles for good practice which can be utilised in other policy
environments. For example in Spain there was ‘a pioneer study on local gender
equality policies promoted by twelve city councils in Catalonia (Jiménez et al., 1998).’
The outcome of the study was a guide to identify good practices (Proyecto Estela, 1998)
to be used by any institution at the local, regional or central state level undertaking
gender equality policy.
1.3. Barriers that need to be overcome in the development and
implementation of Gender Impact Assessment
Gender impact assessment is still in the early stages of development in most member states.
The implementation and improvement of this tool may be undermined or prevented by a
number of barriers or obstacles. Every national report identified some or all of the types of
barriers that are discussed in this section.
A recent evaluation of the use and effectiveness of GI assessment in the Dutch policy making
process provides some useful general lessons given that The Netherlands has had more
experience of GI assessment than most of the other member states. The evaluation concluded
that the instrument is a useful tool for mainstreaming (Graaf, van de, et al. 1999 cited in
Plantenga 2000). Some frequently made criticisms concerning the resource costs and relevance
of this policy instrument were shown to be largely unfounded in relation to the Dutch
experience. The report concluded that in the case of the Netherlands there is sufficient
expertise to conduct gender impact assessments, that GIAs are neither too time consuming nor
too expensive and most of the GIAs include a clear consideration of alternatives and have
practical relevance. Indeed, the evaluation report warns that simplification of the instrument
would probably reduce its analytical value. However, profound changes in policy proposals
have not resulted from the GIAs undertaken so far in the Netherlands, and to improve the
effectiveness of Gender Impact Assessment a number of recommendations can be made about
how to develop the GIA procedures:
• Practical and specific guidelines about the purpose and procedural steps of GI
assessment are needed to make it manageable
• GI assessment must be introduced at an early stage in the policy making process
otherwise it has little effect on the policy plans and focus
• Clear political commitment and institutional procedures are needed
• Public accountability is essential for GI assessment to be effective
Similar requirements were identified in every national report, and most countries also
mentioned the need for:
• Information, expertise and financial resources to build the capacity of policy makers to
undertake GI assessments
These five categories of recommendations are elaborated below.
• Practical and specific guidelines about the purpose and procedural steps of GI
assessment are needed to make it manageable
Systematic and practical guidelines are necessary for GI assessment to become an effective
policy tool. Yet guidelines have not been systematically adopted in all countries or policy
making areas. Where guidelines do exist they are often too vague or too complex. The
guidelines should identify how to implement impact assessment at each step in the policy
making process, and build in a requirement for monitoring and evaluation of the actual impact
of the policy.
To make the procedure of impact assessment manageable and feasible the guidelines need to
be supported with toolkits for the implementation of impact assessment. These toolkits should
identify simple benchmark indicators for different policy issues plus methodological
procedures for the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the policy being scrutinised at the
various policy stages (design, implementation, monitoring)
Where gender impact assessment is being carried out alongside other impact assessments
(race/ethnicity, disability, anti-poverty, etc.) there are additional methodological issues to
address and specific development work is required on this topic.
The identification and dissemination of 'best practice' examples of guidelines, toolkits and their
application in the different member states could contribute to raising the state of knowledge
and quality of impact assessment of policy in the European Union. 'Best practice' examples
will demonstrate the value of GI assessments and may help to persuade those who are
unconvinced of the merits of this tool to reconsider their opinion. For example, policy makers
in the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment initially perceived GI assessment to
be too much trouble, too costly and too time consuming, but they were persuaded to try to use
this tool by the positive examples of GIA being applied by other ministries (Plantenga 2000).
• GI assessment must be introduced at an early stage in the policy making process,
otherwise it has little influence
Many GI assessments are carried out too late in the policy making process, they need to be
introduced at the outset of the policy planning if they are to have maximum effect. Impact
assessments should be an integral part of policy monitoring and evaluation, with the results
systematically fed back into the start of the next cycle of policy making.
The guidelines should specify the requirement for GI assessment to be commenced in the early
stages of policy making, and the procedures to be adopted to ensure that the policy outcomes
are monitored, evaluated and the results are systematically fed back and addressed in the
subsequent policy cycle.
• Clear political commitment and institutional procedures are needed
In common with any policy initiative, the systematic development and implementation of GI
assessments requires a clear political commitment and defined institutional procedures and
functional responsibilities. Otherwise the use of this tool is likely to be uneven and largely
dependent on the goodwill and motivation of individuals rather than the protocol of the
organisation.
In a number of member states there was no obligation on policy making organisations to
undertake GI assessment. In others the assessments were the responsibility of advisory bodies,
such as Equality Units, that had little formal power of sanction or ability to enforce policy
revision in light of an impact assessment (see appendix table A1). Even where GI assessment is
a requirement, such as in Sweden, the use of the instrument may in practice be uneven or halfhearted in policy making units without a clear commitment to gender mainstreaming (Gonäs
2000). This is likely to arise in other member states where GI assessments have been made
obligatory, but where the guidelines fail to specify procedures for monitoring, evaluation and
policy reform in light of the evaluation. For example, this risk is evident in relation to the UK's
Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment guidelines (Rubery 2000). Clear functional lines of
responsibility, reporting and accountability are required.
Competing political priorities or other reforms may also create a barrier to the effective use of
GI assessments. For example in Germany the current process of local government
administrative reform ('New Public Management') may operate to counteract mainstreaming
initiatives, for example where output indicators are set that ignore or attach little value to
gender differentiated impacts (Maier 2000). Another example is Austria, where gender
mainstreaming is ignored in the current context of public sector expenditure cuts (Pastner
2000).
Even where there is a clear political commitment, GI assessments may expose the internal
tensions in a policy that require further political resolution. For example, the GI assessment of
the Dutch Working Time Act exposed the tension between the competing objectives of trying
to deregulate working time while also providing protection and work-family reconciliation
(Plantenga 2000). This type of tension is inherent in policy making and impact assessments are
one means of exposing these tensions so that priorities are explicitly debated and selected.
Improving the representation of women in decision-making may be one means of helping to
promote political commitment to GI assessments within an organisation, as well as meeting the
objective of promoting gender equality within the organisation itself. It would be naïve to
assume that women will automatically identify and represent the needs of all groups of women,
as demonstrated in the policy debates between feminists rooted in their differences according
to race/ethnicity, social class and so forth. However, research has shown that the presence of
women in decision-making does help to keep equal opportunities on the agenda, for example in
collective bargaining (Dickens et al. 1988, Heery and Kelly 1988). Furthermore, the limited
gender impact assessments of public policies that have been done to date in Spain have been
driven largely by the political energies of 'femocrats' (Moltó and Valiente 2000).
• Public accountability is essential for GI assessment to be effective
Public accountability will help to tackle some of the procedural and political barriers to the
effective implementation of GI assessments that have been discussed above.
Public accountability can be increased in various ways, only three are mentioned here.
One way is to recommend the use of external independent (non-government) experts to carry
out GI assessments. A second is the public dissemination of database and methodological
toolkits, and the full reports of GI assessments. This will help to raise public awareness and
the expertise of non-governmental groups and lobbies. An effective and low cost means is
through web sites, such as the one being developed in Finland for example (see section 1.1
above). The third way is to build in explicit requirements for consultation with the policy target
groups in both the policy design and evaluation.
• Information, expertise and financial resources to build the capacity of policy makers to
undertake GI assessments
Impact assessment has to be adequately resourced if it is to be effective. In some countries
there is a pressing need to develop more comprehensive statistics and other information
sources, although this is not a problem everywhere. For example, this is less of a constraint in
France or the Netherlands (Silvera 2000, Plantenga 2000) compared to the situation in Italy or
Belgium (Meulders et al. 2000, Villa and Bonetti 2000). However, the need for benchmark
indicators to be developed and for statistics to be routinely disaggregated by gender is a
widespread concern. A major limitation is the lack of information on individual earnings and
other income, and the lack of longitudinal data to track transitions of target groups between
different labour market situations and so forth.
A related information issue is the problem of using units of analysis or categories that obscure
gender effects. The most important of these is the use of the household rather than the
individual as a unit of analysis. While problems remain in presenting an individual analysis,
particularly for assessments of taxation and benefits that are household-based, development
work is needed in this area to identify the gender impact (Rubery 2000). There is also a need to
distinguish between the older population and the elderly, for a gender breakdown of all those
over 60 years conceals the fact that women predominate to an even greater extent among the
very elderly.
A second resource constraint is a lack of expertise in policy evaluation generally, or in
mainstreaming specifically. Training to redress the lack of gender mainstreaming skills has
begun in a number of member states (see section 1.1 above), but these skills are likely to
remain in short supply in many member states for the short to medium term. It may also be
important for this mainstreaming focus to be embedded in training in techniques for policy
evaluation more generally (Schmid et al. 1996) rather than as a 'stand-alone' competency.
A related consideration is whether the acquisition of this expertise should be concentrated on a
few experts or dispersed to become a general competency. An evaluation of the 1999 gender
mainstreaming process for Finland's NAP concluded that the mainstreaming process was
constrained by a shortage of expertise, resources and lack of clarity in the division of
responsibility between the officer responsible for mainstreaming and the rest of the working
group. In relation to the functional division of responsibility there was a tension concerning
whether the special officer was expected to act as a gender equality 'consultant' for the group or
was to draw up an independent GIA on the guidelines. The evaluation concludes that it is
preferable to adopt the 'consultant' model so that mainstreaming develops as an integral
approach in administrative work, and not as a specialist competence that only a few are
equipped with (Ilmakunnas 2000 cited in Lilja 2000). Similarly, the German expert points out
that as long as the responsibility for impact assessment is presumed to be rest with the women
representatives in trade unions than the other functions and departments in the unions will not
integrate mainstreaming into their day to day working methods (Maier 2000).
Finally, financial resources and incentives are critical for the successful promotion of Gender
Impact Assessments and mainstreaming generally, for even where there is a stated policy
commitment and apparent political will for gender mainstreaming this commitment is 'likely to
remain more theoretical and aspirational than practical without the requisite resources' (Barry
2000, p15).
2. GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENTS OF MEASURES INCLUDED IN THE NAPS
Gender impact assessment of policy measures included in the National Action Plans
has hardly begun. Even in member states where gender awareness has reached a
relatively high level, the employment policy measures are still often presented without
a detailed gender analysis. It is in this context that the expert group has undertaken to
present gender impact assessments of employment policy measures. In some cases
the experts have been able to draw on existing studies or even fairly fully developed
gender impact assessments while in others the experts have developed their own
analysis based on publicly available statistics and information or, in the absence of
appropriate information, have suggested the types of information which need to be
collected in order for gender impacts assessment to be carried out. Some of the
assessments relate to policies which are in the process of being implemented and are
thus ex ante assessments.
Others relate to policies where there are already
measurable results or outcomes and in these cases ex post assessments are made.
One objective of the exercise is to demonstrate the utility of gender impacts
assessment, by illustrating the unexpected, invisible and sometimes unintended
impacts of policy which go unnoticed if gender neutral assumption is made.
In
member states where policy evaluation in general is underdeveloped and there is a
lack of attention to data gathering and analysis, these examples of gender impacts
assessment should also indicate the types of information which will need to be
collected for gender mainstreaming to become a reality.
For each member state two policy measures have been selected, at least one related
to the employability pillar. The policies have been grouped, however, according to
their content, rather than their placement within the four pillars of the employment
guidelines as there are considerable variations in where member states choose to
present similar policy measures within the NAPs; for example policies related to the
information society appear both under the employability and the entrepreneurship
pillar or lifelong learning policies may be considered as either an employability or as
an adaptability measure. The first two headings we have used to group the policies
are active labour market policies and training and lifelong learning policies. There is
considerable overlap between these two categories, in part because training
measures may be targeted at the unemployed and active labour market policies may
include both work placement and training measures. We have included policies under
the second heading where all the associated initiatives are related to training and
under active labour market policies where a mix of training and other measures are
discussed. Both sets of policies normally appear under the employability pillar. The
third set of measures relate to tax and benefit policies, some of which appear under
the first pillar and some under the entrepreneurship pillar. The fourth type of measure
relates to entrepreneurship: here the focus is on policies to encourage entry to self
employment, even when some of these measures may have been included in the
employability pillar of the NAP.
We follow this with measures related first to the
information society, and second to the social economy- both areas which normally fall
under the entrepreneurship pillar although, as have already said, some information
society policies are included in practice in the employability pillar. The seventh
category relates to policies towards working time, flexibility and the reconciliation of
work and family life. These policies are currently spread across both the adaptability
and the equal opportunities pillars of the guidelines but gender mainstreaming does
suggest that these areas of policy should be considered from an integrated rather than
from a separate perspective. Finally we include segregation policies, another area
which relates primarily to the equal opportunities pillar, but where the policies also
relate to issues of employability and adaptability and may indeed be included under
these pillars.
The main results of the assessments together details of the policy measures are
presented in summary tables below. The framework for gender impact assessment
adopted in this exercise is based closely on the gender impact assessment guidelines
issued by the European Commission. These have been developed into a seven stage
assessment process (Rubery et al 1999: see above box 1).
The exercise also
provides an opportunity to assess in a practical context the usefulness of this
particular approach.
To undertake this latter assessment we summarise the key
issues highlighted in individual gender impact assessments within each of the
assessment stages. This summary provides a contribution to the continuing
methodological debate on the development of gender impacts assessment.
The
policy evaluations also, however, reveal similarities in gender issues with respect to
areas of policy and to conclude this analysis we draw together into a checklist the
aspects of policy measures which need to be given careful consideration in designing
gender sensitive employment policies and in evaluating employment policy measures
from a gender perspective. This checklist is provided for each of the main policy areas
in which the measures fall, that is: active labour market policies, training and lifelong
learning, entrepreneurship, the information society, the social economy, working time,
flexibility and reconciliation policies and segregation policies.
2.1 THE SEVEN STAGE GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROCESS
1. Initial starting point
The first stage in a gender impact assessment of employment policy must first of all
determine the initial position by gender with respect to the four dimensions, identified
in the European Commission's gender impact assessment guidelines (European
Commission 1998), by which gender inequality can be assessed: participation,
resources, norms and values and rights. This initial assessment should determine the
intensity of the gender equality deficit and thereby feed into determining the priority
that should be attached to gender equality in the formulation, the monitoring and
development of the policy measures.
The initial assessment also provides a
benchmark against which to assess the policy outcomes.
Participation
Many analyses of gender impact begin and end with statistics on participation by
gender. This represents a necessary starting position but, as we will see below,
simple participation rates are by no means the end of the story. However, attention to
participation issues still requires an awareness of gender.
For example, the
development of statistics on target populations for measures to help the unemployed
requires understanding of gender differences in how unemployment is measured and
recorded. Several of the policy evaluations identified the importance of the definitions
of the target unemployed population in determining potential participation rates by
gender (see Austria (1), France(1), Germany (1), Ireland (1 and 2), Spain(1), Portugal
(1), UK (1)). If the target population is defined with respect to characteristics such as
‘wanting to work’ and ‘having been without work’ and not with respect to either benefit
claiming (as more women are ineligible to claim) or systematic job search (as
childcare responsibilities may restrict job search activities), the female share of the
target population will increase.
Gender impact assessments also need to consider the impact on target populations of
changing other aspects of eligibility criteria: for example in Ireland (Ireland (2)) the
restriction on eligibility to join the social economy programme to those over 35
considerably reduces the female share of the target population compared, for
example, to a situation where all over 25 or even over 20 were eligible. The need to
translate a general and apparently gender neutral policy target into potential
participation rates by gender is well demonstrated by policies targeted at the low
waged (Belgium (2)). Women dominate the low wage sector in all countries yet
policies directed towards the low waged are still often presented as gender neutral.
Identifying the gender composition of the appropriate target population only provides a
starting point for the evaluation of policy. In active labour market policies in particular
it is clear that even when women are represented within the policy measures
according to their share of the target population, they may well prove to be
underrepresented in particular part of the programme, often those most likely to lead
to permanent employment (Austria (1), France (1), Ireland (1 and 2), Luxembourg (1),
Germany (1), Spain (1), UK (1)).
Resources
Gender differences in access to resources include not only differences in earnings but
also differences in access to state benefits, and to resources to facilitate entry and
participation in the labour market, such as transport and childcare. In considering the
impact of new benefit policies from a gender perspective it is critical to take into
account not only the impact on household resources but also the impact on individual
resources.
In the UK the introduction of the Working Families Tax Credit was
controversial because it involved the transfer of income from the main carer to the
main wage earner.
Availability of childcare resources is critical in determining
opportunities for women to participate in active labour market programmes, as
experience in Spain (1) illustrates (see also France (1), Austria (1)). Similarly in
Austria (1) a higher share of women are regarded as difficult to place because of low
mobility associated with childcare responsibilities. This low mobility is also likely to be
associated with transportation arrangements. An important part of the gender equality
deficit in access to resources relates to education and training.
Women’s
underrepresentation, for example, in information technology, cannot be considered
solely from a labour market perspective but also concerns access to education and
training. Differences in returns from labour market and training activities also need to
be taken into account in considering the gender equality deficit.
The focus in European employment policy on meeting the target for female
employment of 60 percent of working age population by 2010 tends to detract
attention from the continuing problem of the gender pay gap. Moreover the definition
of the employment target with reference only to the number of people in work and not
to either the quality of jobs or the time duration of jobs, again focuses attention away
from the gender gap in access to resources associated with promotion of part-time
work (see Italy (2), Portugal (2)).
Norms and values
Gender impact assessments need to identify the role of policy measures in reinforcing
social norms and values which maintain gender inequality. Tax and benefit policies
are by and large discussed in National Action Plans as if they were gender neutral
policies. However, many tax and benefit policies are based on the principle of a male
breadwinner household model and treat spouses as economically dependent on the
main breadwinner.
While the actual impact of household-based tax policies on
participation rates may be relatively low, the move towards an individualised
assessment takes on a symbolic value, indicating a recognition of women’s right to
economic independence (Netherlands (1)). Benefit policies based on households are
more likely to have a significant impact on employment participation, largely because
they often involve very high rates of marginal taxation. In these cases the need for
action is much greater than symbolic as women affected by household means testing
may have very limited opportunities for labour market entry (UK(1)).
Social norms and values also limit the potential effectiveness of policy options. For
example in Spain (Spain (2)) it is suggested that policies to promote childcare
infrastructure may not yet be politically feasible, given the strong social norms in
favour of childcare provided directly by the mother or grandmother. Norms and values
issues also enter into policies to address gender segregation: for example again the
problem of women's underrepresentation in information technology jobs cannot be
fully addressed without attention being paid to societal norms and values which define
men as more comfortable with or suitable for technical work (Austria (2), Germany (2),
Italy (1) Finland (1)). Social norms may also protect women’s employment
opportunities in some female-dominated segments; where desegregation policies
involve encouraging men to enter female-dominated segments, the impact on the
gender gap in overall employment opportunities needs to be considered (Denmark
(2)).
Rights
Eligibility criteria based on current tax and benefit policy norms may restrict women's
rights as citizens to access labour market programmes, lifelong learning opportunities
and to maintain an independent source of income. Even where women have formal
rights on the same basis as men, lack of childcare facilities, for example, may restrict
women's ability to exercise their rights to take up these opportunities (see Spain (1)).
Similarly establishing formal rights for men to participate in reconciliation measures
will not necessarily be a sufficient, even if a necessary measure to promote gender
equality in domestic work (see Spain (2), Luxembourg (2)).
2. Direction of trends
The initial situation prior to the implementation of policy needs to be considered from
a dynamic and not solely a static perspective. Without a consideration of trends there
may be a tendency to attribute too much to the impact of policy measures.
In
particular it is important to note that women have been increasing their participation in
the labour market often despite rather because of supportive tax, benefit and labour
market policies. It is not only the direction of trends which need to be taken into
account but also the fact that trends related to the gender equality deficit may be
operating in contradictory directions. Women's employment rates may be rising faster
than men's at the same time as women's unemployment rate falls at a slower rate
than men's.
Similarly women may be increasing their concentration in female-
dominated sectors at the same time as female shares of male-dominated sectors are
also rising (Greece (1), Belgium (1)). Trends, for example, in the gender pay gap
operate differently between the public and private sectors (Finland (2)).
Employment policies are aimed at future as well as current labour market trends. As
such it is also important to take into account future risks. Women currently occupy a
higher share of jobs involving routine work with information and communication
technologies. It is precisely these jobs there may be vulnerable to the next stage of
technological development and change (Germany (1) and (2)). Current employment
rates by gender in the ICT sector may therefore not be a good indicator of future
prospects.
3. Priority to gender equality
Some of policy measures chosen for evaluation directly addressed gender equality
issues, either as the main or as a subsidiary objective (Germany (1), Sweden (2),
Portugal (1) Greece (2) Spain (2) Luxembourg (2) France (1 and 2)). In the case of the
reduced working time policy in France the measures required the social partners to
include equality issues in their collective bargaining over how to implement the
measures at the sector level (France (2)).
Other policy measures were concerned
with different objectives, with no specific commitment to gender equality. The priority
attached to gender equality was not necessarily related to the initial gender equality
deficit, nor was it always the case that the gender impact of the policy was clearly
identified at the time of policy design (Denmark (1) Portugal (1) Netherlands (2)). Nor
was it necessarily the case that those policies with specific gender equality objectives
would in practice be able or likely to reduce gender equality deficits (Luxembourg (2)
Italy (2)).
One problem in assessing the commitment to gender equality is that sometimes the
budget attached to gender equality measures is limited (Spain (1)). This is not always
an obstacle to effective policy: the example of the German programme to increase
women's participation in IT courses demonstrates the possibility of using limited funds
in strategic way to achieve equality objectives (Germany (2)). The adoption of specific
targets with respect to gender participation appears to be an important means of
ensuring priority to gender even when funds are limited. Another way of securing
priority to gender without establishing a significant separate budget may be, as in the
French example, to establish a training programmes in equal opportunities for officials
implementing the policy (France (1)). Nevertheless where there is a clear relationship
between expenditure and the likely impact of the policy, the level of budget
commitment must be an indication of policy priority. In a number of cases the budget
allocated to gender issues are unclear or small-scale: for example job training
programmes devoted to women in Spain (Spain (1)). In other cases special
assistance, for example with childcare costs, is offered at too low a level to be
effective, for example in France (France (1)). In Ireland the opportunity to include up to
10% of participants who do not meet strict eligibility criteria represents some
recognition of the potentially discriminatory nature of the criteria adopted to gain
access to the social economy programme (Ireland (2)). While welcome, a 10% area of
flexibility may be considered too limited.
Where the policy commitment is explicitly not directed at gender equality, the principle
of gender mainstreaming requires that the impact on gender equality should
nevertheless be evaluated.
However, many employment policies are simply
presented as gender neutral (Finland (1 and 2) and even information in the public
domain which reveals gender differences in the policy impact are not taken into
account in policy design (UK (1 and 2), Ireland (1 and 2), Netherlands (2)). By and
large member states do not defend the decision to push ahead with a policy which
may have negative gender equality effects: instead they prefer to leave the gender
impacts invisible.
Another problem is to be clear about what promoting gender equality actually means.
Some policies claim to be promoting gender equality by encouraging employment but
may be compromising women’s right to care, in some circumstances: for example
policies to encourage lone mothers to enter employment may have these
contradictory effects (UK (1 and 2)). Gender equality is not served by increasing the
total work burden on women, taking paid and unpaid work together. Moreover, policies
which prioritise entry into employment over improving access to quality jobs or
education and training will not close the gender equality deficit in the labour market
(Austria (1)). Further complications arise in assessing the gender equality aspects of
segregation policies. In Greece modifications to the vocational trade programme may
be required to reduce the tendency for the policy to reinforce gender segregation but
these changes might come at the expense of aggregate employment opportunities for
women (Greece (1)). In a context of low overall female employment rates there is a
major dilemma over whether priority should be given to reducing the gender
employment deficit or to reducing gender segregation. In Portugal (Portugal (1)),
where there is only a limited gender equality deficit in employment rates, the priority
attached to the underrepresented sex- whether men or women- in the vocational
training programmes may be perhaps considered more appropriate than in a Greek
context where raising the female employment rate may take priority. Some policy
measures are implemented without a specific gender dimensions, even when there
are examples of good practice in the public domain which could have provided a role
model (Finland (2)).
There are even more problems in determining the extent to which reconciliation
policies or measures to promote part-time work can be considered to be promoting
gender equality (Spain (2), Luxembourg (2), Portugal (2), Italy (2)). The assessment
must depend upon whether or not they include measures to promote men’s
involvement in care work or to reduce the labour market disadvantages associated
with leave arrangements or part-time work.
4. Impact on gender equality
Evaluation of the impact of the programmes again requires an assessment of the
effects with reference to participation, resources, norms and values and rights.
Participation
Evaluation of participation in labour market programmes is shown in many of the
examples to require disaggregated and detailed statistics in order to assess whether
apparent gender equality in overall participation rates is reproduced at the detailed
programme or occupational level. A further stage of evaluation is then required in
order to assess the impact of participation in different parts of programme on longterm employment prospects and access to resources (Germany (1), France (1) UK (1)
Austria (1) Ireland (1 and 2) Sweden (1)). Similarly evaluation needs to disaggregate
participation rates according to the gender composition of the occupation or sector
where the schemes are located (Belgium (1 and 2), Greece (1 and 2), Luxembourg (1)
Austria (1)). In some cases such disaggregation may reveal continued patterns of
desegregation, in others there may be some evidence of desegregation or a mixed
pattern with segregation reinforced in some areas and reduced in others. The
prevailing pattern of segregation may also in part explain different rates of
participation in the programme (Sweden (1), Luxembourg (1), Germany (1)).
As yet many of the labour market programmes have not yielded detailed information
on long-term consequences of participation. Some have information on initial
destination, but although these may indicate little difference by gender, further
information is needed on job quality and duration before an evaluation can be carried
out. Some programmes do not seem to have a commitment
to collecting this
longitudinal information, thereby preventing an effective evaluation of gender impacts.
Some programmes have failed over the long term to achieve their stated equality
objectives- for example active labour market programmes in Germany (Germany (1)).
Recent reforms and more active mainstreaming may enable them to meet the targets
in the future.
Most of the problems lie in the underrepresentation of West German
women compared to their share of measured unemployment, but the better apparent
success in East Germany may reflect simply more serious labour market
disadvantage as women find difficulty in moving from schemes into employment.
Indeed higher than anticipated participation in the labour market programme may not
necessarily be indicative of gender sensitive approach but instead may reflect
difficulties women experience in gaining access to employment, over and above those
suggested by unemployment rates. Evaluation of policies across different countries
also reveals that while some policy measures may promote women’s labour market
participation in some contexts, this is not necessarily the case in others. This
particularly applies to part-time work, where its promotion in France is seen as likely to
reduce rather than increase women’s integration into the labour market (France (2)).
Resources
Some parts of the gender equality programmes have low budgets attached. For
example in Spain (Spain (1)), the programmes for women returners are funded at a
low level and in the UK (UK (1)) the expenditure per participant on the femaledominated part of the New Deal programmes is only about half that on the main New
Deal programmes where women are considerably underrepresented. Also in Spain
unskilled women are less likely to be offered access to the more costly skills training
than unskilled men and instead are trained in methods of job search. Labour market
policies which do not address the issue of the availability and the costs of childcare
are unlikely to have significant impacts on women’s behaviour: this is likely to be the
case with the Dutch reform of the tax and benefit system which abolished the married
person’s allowance but did not replace it with allowances or credits for care costs
(Netherlands (1). Access to a range of resources, including training and technical
assistance, is proving as important as financial subsidies in the development of the
new professionals programme encouraging entry into self employment in Greece
(Greece (2)).
Norms and values
Labour market programmes can reinforce or break down traditional social norms and
values: these tendencies are not necessarily related to whether the policy follows
traditional or innovative lines. For example the innovative labour market programmes
in Sweden to close educational gaps is not resulting in breaking down traditional
division of subjects studied by gender (Sweden (2)). Women are not using the
opportunity for education to change orientation and careers. Nor does the programme
for the disabled in Sweden do more than reproduce existing patterns of labour market
activity by gender (Sweden (1)). Within the New Deal for Lone Parents in the UK the
option of childcare as a suitable job for lone parents is actively promoted (UK(2)).
On a more positive note, the use of personnel accounting in Finland could help to
break down gender stereotypes and make more visible both women’s’ contribution to
organisations and their desire for further training and promotion (Finland (2)). The
Portuguese programme for unemployed less well educated young people includes a
strong emphasis on changing social norms (Portugal (1)); not only is there explicit
priority given to the underrepresented sex but also there is a focus on citizenship
training and within that on equal opportunities issues. Policies for example in the IT
area which fail to address issue of working cultures- for example long hours and
spatial flexibility- are unlikely to be successful in increasing women’s share of the
sector (Austria (2)). Indeed without a recognition that the IT sector is male-dominated,
current policies to promote the information society may lead to further gender
imbalances within a policy programme which is presented as gender neutral (Finland
(2) Italy (1)).
Rights
Few of the policy measures chosen for evaluation involve major changes to
employment rights, although many have indirect implications for rights, as eligibility
criteria for access to programmes lead to differences in citizenship rights by gender.
Similarly changes to tax and benefit policies affect individuals’ rights to independent
income and to privacy. The Dutch tax reform (Netherlands (1)) has enhanced
individual rights and thus gender equality while the main other tax and benefit policy
assessed, Working Families Tax Credit in the UK has called into question previously
established rights both to independent taxation and for carers to have direct access to
benefits. The second Dutch policy chosen for evaluation (Netherlands (2)) – the act on
flexibility and security- is the main policy measure chosen to have a direct impact on
rights. The approach of combining flexibility with security involves increasing rights in
some areas while reducing them in others: protection against dismissal is reduced but
rights for temporary workers more regulated and improved. Moreover while ‘flex
workers’ receive new rights- such as a right to a minimum of three hours pay for on
call workers- there is also a risk of displacement as a result of the new rights. Women
predominate among so-called flex workers and initial evaluations suggest that
although a large number of flex workers suffered some negative impacts from these
changes a larger number evaluated the new policies favourably. There is no actual
breakdown by gender but it is likely that the policy in any case had some negative
effects for some women but positive for others. Both the Dutch flexibility act and the
French second Aubry law raise the possibility that apparently positive policiesproviding increased security in one case (Netherlands(2)) and reduced working time in
the other (France (2))-could have negative effects on others, in particular by
increasing personal and family stress as a consequence of the greater flexibility in
working time associated with the measures. These measures may therefore
undermine a right to a stable work pattern which may be essential for effective
reconciliation of work and family life.
5. Effects on specific groups
Women’s relationship to policy programmes are often determined by their household
position; thus lone parents are increasingly expected to be active in the labour market
while mothers in couple households are allowed to be inactive and may be excluded
from programmes. In some cases mothers in principle are able to participate but lack
of childcare restricts their participation (Spain (1)). Programmes in some member
states have begun to recognise that some groups of women are effectively invisiblefor example partners of the unemployed - but others continue to exclude these groups
from policy programmes (Ireland (2)). Policies apparently aimed at the unemployed
and disadvantaged may effectively exclude some of the most disadvantaged womenincluding the least well educated- from assistance (Austria (1)). While one problem is
gender bias due to exclusion, other problems emerge when policies have
contradictory effects on different groups of women: for example favouring employment
for lone parent groups or workless households but discouraging women’s employment
in, for example, couple households with employed partners (UK (2)).
6. Indirect effects
Changes to gender relations outside as well as inside work may be one of the positive
indirect effects to be looked for in evaluating employment policies from a gender
mainstreaming perspective. The inclusion of training in ‘autonomy’, that is in basic
care and cooking skills, in the Portuguese citizenship training programmes (Portugal
(1)) could be considered an example where the policy is aiming at a broader
transformation of attitudes and capabilities than simply changing gender segregation
at work. Its effectiveness is not yet known. Other indirect effects may be more
negative, including potential negative effects on child welfare where employment
policies are not combined with adequate childcare facilities or adequate rights to
reconciliation policies or to stable working patterns (Netherlands (2), France (2)).
However, too strong a promotion of reconciliation policies or part-time work could
have the long term effect of reinforcing gender divisions of labour both in and outside
work as women may become more concentrated in sectors offering flexible
employment and access to care leaves may reinforce women’s role as the main carer
(Portugal (2), Luxembourg (2) Italy (2)). Similarly, integration of women into, for
example, the IT sector or self employment could have negative impacts on family life if
there is no change to the long working hours culture (Greece (2), Finland (1), Austria
(2), Germany (2)).
7. Modifications to policies
Modifications already introduced into policies
The increasing awareness of gender mainstreaming issues has led to some
modification of policies. For example in Germany women returners have been granted
access to active labour market programmes (Germany (1)) and in France (France (1)
specific targets have been adopted for female participation in programmes and
eligibility requirements based on benefit claims removed. The second Aubry law in
France associated with the 35 hour week reveals a much greater awareness of
gender issues, requiring social partners to negotiate on gender equality issues and
also abolishing the incentive for employers to create part-time jobs. In Austria (Austria
(1)) the availability of gender specific information on labour market policy has raised
awareness of gender issues. In the Netherlands and the UK there are also examples
of modifications to policies introduced because of more general political pressure,
through lobby groups or parliament. In the Netherlands (Netherlands (1)) the tax
reform was amended to provide an employment rebate for all parents with a child
under 12, thereby providing a small fiscal incentive towards working parents. In the
UK after intense lobbying an option for the carer to receive the benefit was introduced
into the Working Families Tax Credit and proposals to develop a new integrated child
tax credit, as a further development of the tax credit system, will pay the credit
normally to the main carer, thereby effectively restoring women’s right to receive the
income from these benefits directly (UK (2)).
Suggestions for further modification
A wide range of proposals are made for further modification, rethinking or monitoring
of the policies chosen for evaluation. These proposals can be categorised into some
general principles which point to potential pitfalls in employment policies which
policymakers across Europe should consider when designing, implementing and
evaluating employment policies.
•
Policies need redesigning to remove any potential discrimination due to
eligibility tests based on household position, employment record test which
match male rather than female work histories etc.
•
Issues of segregation as well as participation need to be addressed and
monitored
•
Attention needs to be paid to improving the quality of women’s jobs, not
simply to raising the short term employment rate
•
Policies need to protect rights to care, not only right to access employment
•
More attention needs to be paid to how to reduce discrimination by private
firms against women
•
Policies need to include ways of reconciling work and family life constraints,
but reconciliation policies must include addressing men’s involvement in
domestic labour
•
Consideration should be given to new policies to promote family friendly
working time policies for men and women instead of promoting women-only
policies such as part-time work
•
Attention needs to be paid to changing working cultures and education
systems
•
Policies, for example to support IT, need to be broad, taking into account a
wide range of jobs and not solely focused on the most technical areas
•
An integrated approach to policymaking is required to reduce gender
inequality (e.g. training, technical advice, childcare as well as financial help
to women entrepreneurs)
•
Policies need to be designed to help the most vulnerable and the most
invisible groups of women
•
Social partners need to be encouraged to include gender equality issues on
their bargaining agendas but this encouragement may also need to be
backed up by basic equality rights, not dependent on the bargaining
agreement
•
Evaluations of policies need to be carried out on an individual and not solely
a household basis. Women’s rights to employment and to independent
income should be considered an independent policy objective and not
merely a means to reduce welfare expenditure to reduce household poverty
•
More monitoring and evaluation by gender is required, including more
longitudinal analysis.
2.2. TOWARDS THE DEVELOPMENT OF A CHECKLIST FOR GENDER IMPACT
ASSESSMENT?
This long list of gender recommendations and principles needs to be applied in
specific policy and indeed country contexts. The development of effective and a priori
checklists for gender impact assessment must ideally be carried out at the national
level, where the specificities of the gender equality deficits, the employment practices
and the social and labour market institutions can be fully taken into account. However,
on the basis of this discussion of gender impact assessment across the 15 member
states it is nevertheless possible to develop a set of issues to be looked at in
assessing the extent to which gender issues have been taken into account in policy
design and evaluation.
Table 2.1 :Checklist for Gender Impact Assessment of Employment Policies
Policy area
Active
labour
market
policies
Eligibility/access criteria
and/or policy orientation
Equality
Equality
positive
negative
Returners;
Benefit
Spouses of
claimants
the
unemployed
Training
and lifelong
learning
Unemployed
and inactive;
those on
atypical
contracts.
Full-time
permanent
employees.
Unemployed
benefit
claimants.
Tax and
benefit
policies
Individual
basis;
citizenship
rather than
employment
record
Household
basis; means
testing
Integrated policy approach
Budgets/finance
Areas of likely weakness
and possible remedies
Monitoring and evaluation
Childcare provision required
Attention to segregation as
well
as
employment
effects. Need to preserve
the right to care as well as
rights to work.
Childcare facilities for those
both inside and outside the
labour market
Attention to segregation in
subjects chosen for
education/training. Attention
to be paid to new and
expanding sectors where
opportunity for gender
equality strong.
Provisions for costs of
childcare in tax and benefit
system. But making work pay
has to be addressed by
ensuring equal pay in the
labour market and not just
through household tax and
benefit systems.
Women to have equal
or greater access to
training and skills
development
programmes
Discrimination by private
sector firms; specific
attention paid to ensuring
equitably represented on
programmes involving
private firm placements.
Discrimination by private
sector firms in both hiring
and training. Changes to
working culture required
in some male dominated
sectors.
Longitudinal monitoring of
outcomes required.
Potential conflicts
between gender equality
and poverty/social
inclusion programmes e.g.
in work benefit systems
Monitoring not only of
employment participation but
also of individual access to
income and resources
required.
Financial incentives
to ensure employers
include those on
atypical contracts etc
in training
programmes
Tax
credits/allowances for
cost of childcare.
Spouses of benefit
claimants to be
allowed a reasonable
independent income.
Monitoring by subject as well
as by programme required.
Evaluation of impact of
education, training on initial
and longer term employment
prospects. Monitoring of
access to further training also
necessary.
Entreprene
urship
Inactive as
well as
unemployed
and
employed;
cooperatives
as well as
independent
self
employed
Benefit
claimants;
prior access to
finance/ credit.
Need to provide access not
only to finance but also to
training, technical advice,
childcare etc. Attention needs
to be paid to gender
segregation in areas of start
ups.
Need to ensure
women-only
measures receive fair
share of budget
and/or that women
receive fair share
within mainstreamed
programmes
Attention needs to be paid
to fragility of start ups;
women may be in more
competitive areas, face
more constraints in start
ups.
Monitoring not only of enter
into self employment but also
of duration of start ups and
long term profitability of
women’s start up companies
required.
The
information
society
Wide range
of jobs;
school
students
Focused on
technical job
area and post
higher
education
entrants
Need to address male techno
culture in education system
and in work system. Need to
pay attention to job design to
expand range of types of jobs
within IT area.
Need to consider
linking budgets and
financial incentives
to meeting specific
targets on female
recruitment
Monitoring of women’s’
participation in education,
training and in jobs associated
with IT required. Particular
attention should be paid to
evaluating positive actions,
e.g. women only training
programmes etc.
The social
economy
Returners ,
spouses of
unemployed
Benefit
claimants only
Need to consider displacement
effects of policies to promote
the social economy. Also need
to provide childcare for
participants, access to formal
training and credentials, fair
wage levels and to consider
impact on gender segregation.
Need sufficient
budget to provide for
high quality
employment
experience including
training etc.
Both gender segregation
in education and in work
cultures may be resistant
to change. Positive action
policies may be required,
including policies in
which women are more
involved in shaping the
information society..
Need to consider how to
assist movement out of
social economy
programmes into longer
term secure employment
e.g. through training and
access to credentials .
Working
time,
flexibili
ty and
reconcil
iation
policies
Targeted at
men as well
as women;
family
friendly
working
time for all;
all forms of
Promotion of
women only
working time
and leave
arrangements.
Exclusion of
those in
marginal/
Leave arrangements need to
be paid and need to consider
specific entitlements for men
to encourage participation.
General working time
reduction or flexibility
programmes need to be
devised, not specific
Budget needs to
provide for paid
leave. Incentives
needed for general
working time
changes, for the
provision of security
and to encourage
Resistance by private
sector to employee driven
flexibility, especially if
applied to men as well as
women. Protection for
those taking leave or
reducing hours required
and specific incentives
Monitoring not only of
participation in social
economy programme but of
longer term effects in making
transitions to the regular
labour market. Evaluation of
the impact on the availability
and quality of social economy
services is also required.
Monitoring by gender of
access to and participation in
working time and
reconciliation measures
compatible with a better worklife balance. Impact of
participation on subsequent
career options also needs to be
Segregation
policies
flexible
work
provided
with some
level of
security/
employment
rights
Values
difference
and
heterogeneit
y; makes
skills visible
flexible jobs
programmes aimed primarily
at women. Need to improve
rights for those on atypical
working time contracts.
changes to domestic
division of labour.
needed for employers to
participate in scheme.
Security provision may
reduce some forms of
flexible work in the short
term but may have longer
term more positive effects
evaluated. Careful monitoring
of policies offering flexibility
in return for security or
reduced working hours
required; possible increase in
personal and family stress
needs to be considered.
Promote
desegregation
but at expense
of women’s
employment
opportunities.
Segregation policies need to
be set in general context of
maintaining and improving
employment opportunities for
women. Main focus should be
on vertical rather than
horizontal segregation.
Training
opportunities will not
be sufficient to break
down segregation;
need incentives etc to
encourage employers
to hire the
underrepresented sex.
Special measures may be
needed for the private
sector.
Aspirations for skill and career
development need to be
investigated through personnel
audits/gender audits.
Employment Policy Summary Tables
Active labour market policies
Denmark (1)
Description of policy measure
The labour market reform June 1993 which reduced the length of time
someone could stay on benefits, introduced early retirement options and
introduced new special leave schemes for the employed and
unemployed
Women had a slightly higher unemployment rate than men and a lower
employment rate, although the gender gap is low by comparison to
average European levels and women were increasingly involved in fulltime as opposed to part-time work.
Unemployment rates for men and women had been rising prior to the
introduction of the reform.
The measures were assumed to be gender neutral even though some of
the leave schemes involved parental leave. The availability of childcare
in Denmark was assumed to allow men and women to behave similarly
in the labour market.
The scheme appeared effective in reducing unemployment but had clear
gender effects which could have been anticipated if a gender impact
analysis had been carried out. The early retirement option led to
women’s retirement age falling to 57 compared to 60 for men, with
women accounting for over two thirds of participants in early retirement
schemes. Women in fact accounted for over four fifths of all leave takers
and over 90% of those taking parental leave. Various explanations for
the higher female take up of leave include women being lower paid,
women being expected to take on the care responsibilities, women
facing more time pressures and women-dominated sectors being more
accommodating to leave requests.
The policy led to employment shortage in some areas such as nurses
where there was a low unemployment rate prior to the reform. Some
women who took parental leave found it difficult to return to the labour
market ending up in unemployment-a problem known as the leave trap.
Immigrant women have lower employment rates and higher
unemployment rates but the trends after the reform were for immigrant
women’s unemployment rates to fall without a strong upward trend in
employment rates.
Regional labour market councils have recognised the problem of the
leave trap and are taking measures to move unemployed women into
active labour market policies at an early stage.
The schemes may need to be made more attractive if they are to be
taken up by men, but there also needs to be changes in the norms
associated with the domestic division of labour.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Active labour market policy
France (1)
Description of policy measure
‘New departure’ programme aimed at the integration of the most
vulnerable unemployed.
Women's participation in the programme at 54 percent represents their
share of unemployment but they are underrepresented in training
programmes at 37 percent.
Women account for 45 percent of the economically active population
compared to 53 percent of the unemployed. Falls in unemployment
have not reduced the gender gap.
The main aim of policy remains the assistance of the young and the long
term unemployed but since 2000 women's unequal access to
employment has been taken into account. All women in difficulty are
eligible, regardless of length of unemployment or age, a form of positive
discrimination. Only limited help is given with childcare costs (2 to 3000
francs) but all public employment services will receive equality training.
According to information available women are equally likely to leave the
programme without finding employment. There is little information on
the long-term effects of the programme, on the nature of jobs found or
on their stability.
The programme includes specific policies aimed at preventing social
exclusion. The programme is relatively less successful in helping this
group move into employment. Women face similar problems to men in
reintegrating into employment.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
More attention needs to be paid to discrimination by companies in
determining access to employment and gender equality. Attention also
needs to be paid to other policies such as the parental childcare
allowance which acts as a disincentive to women reintegrating into the
labour market.
Active labour market policies
Germany (1)
Description of policy measure
Active labour market programmes. Women have been identified as a
target group since 1987 but there is a new commitment to gender
mainstreaming in the Federal Employment Service
Women have been underrepresented in active labour market
programmes despite the commitment since 1987 to target women
including women returners.
Active labour market policy has been reduced in scope and scale since
the mid 1990s. The policy has concentrated on the long term
unemployed and unemployed receiving benefits and on special
programmes for East Germany.
Women have been a target group since 1987. In 1993 there was a
further commitment that women should participate in active labour
market programmes according to their share of unemployment. Some
regulations have been changed to favour women including the
introduction of a part-time further training allowance, paid childcare for
those on further training and wage subsidies if an employer hires a
returner.
Despite the special measures and commitments, women on these
programmes still often account for less than their share of the
unemployed particularly in West Germany and in schemes for self
employment and for wage subsidies in the private sector. In West
Germany women are often still excluded because of eligibility criteria for
the schemes (no more than 6 years non employment). Although
women’s participation in the East is more representative of their share of
unemployment they have problems moving into employment from the
schemes. The commitment to gender mainstreaming has, however,
improved the evaluation of the gender dimensions to the scheme. This
has made visible the continued low participation of women in schemes
involving placements with private employers. Women are also somewhat
less likely to get a job after further training ( 61% compared to 66% of
men ) or after job creation schemes (39% compared to 41% of men) or
integration contracts (41% compared to 51% of all participants). Women
in older age groups, the long term unemployed and in East Germany
had particular problems of employment reintegration.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Gender mainstreaming of active labour market policy has resulted in
gender guidelines being issued for all levels of the federal employment
service with an obligation for these to be followed.
Women returners are not the most vulnerable female group and more
attention needs to be paid to long term unemployed older women and to
problems in East Germany. The implementation process of gender
mainstreaming needs to be monitored.
Active labour market policies
Ireland (1)
Description of policy measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Long term unemployment preventative strategy
Women underrepresented in register of long term unemployed; women
tend to leave register for home duties and the share of women who are
unable to find work is underrecorded.
Employment rates have risen particularly for women while
unemployment rates have fallen, by similar amounts for men and
women. Women’s underrepresentation among the long term
unemployed has remained stable.
Use of ‘live register’ recognised as discriminatory but no reference to
potential discrimination made with respect to this policy measure.
Women have been represented within the policy measure to a greater
extent than their representation among the registered long term
unemployed (around half of participants compared to only a quarter on
the register). This is a positive result for closing gender gaps in
employment and training.
Higher participation than expected due to concentration on the under
25s. Some groups of women marginalized by the strategy e.g. partners
of long term unemployed, women who are in low income households but
treated as inactive, women who are lone parents and consequently not
claiming benefit on grounds of unemployment.
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Policy should be redesigned to target different groups of women and
men experiencing labour market disadvantage while still prioritising the
long term unemployed. Monitoring of the training and employment
outcomes of participants also required for full policy impact assessment.
Active labour market policies
Luxembourg (1)
Description of policy measure
Measures related to providing the unemployed with a fresh start before
they reach 12 months unemployment, including workshops, individual
psycho-social support and the development of individual action plans
The unemployment rate for women is higher than for men.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Women’s unemployment rate hardly declined between 1994 and 1998
while the male unemployment rate declined significantly
There is no specific gender priority attached to the policy but as
women’s unemployment is higher and more resistant to change in
principle the policy should have positive impacts for women.
Information on the impact of the policy is not yet fully available. Women
only account for around 35% of participants in 1998 despite higher
unemployment rates but this lower participation in part reflects lower
overall activity rates but is still lower than the female share of the target
population (43%). Women are underrepresented in most parts of the
programme, particularly those schemes involving traineeships in a
company where there is most chance of becoming permanently
employed at the end of the scheme. They are only overrepresented in
the training schemes provided by the employment agency itself. The
success of the scheme in general for participants may also depend upon
how the psycho-social support scheme is organised.
Underrepresentation of women among the traineeships may be linked to
these traineeships being offered more often in male-dominated
occupations or sectors.
There is no information available on whether the underrepresentation of
women on the scheme is concentrated among specific groups such as
non EU immigrants, other EU nationals etc.
Those in charge of the psycho-social support schemes should receive
training in gender issues. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs should
participate in the coordination and decision committee. Availability of
traineeships in companies should be extended particularly in femaledominated occupations or sectors.
Active labour market policies
Sweden (1)
Description of policy measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to promoting
gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Wage subsidies for handicapped men and women
Women constitute 39% of participants in the scheme; this is a lower
participation rate than could be expected as women overall account for
48% of the labour force in Sweden
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
The measure is assumed to be gender neutral
The Labour Market Board was invited to assess the discrepancy in
participation by gender. The findings revealed similar educational levels
among male and female participants (concentrated at the lower end),
higher exit rates by men into permanent employment, higher shares of
men finding employment in the private sector (half compared to 28% of
women), higher wage subsidies for men but associated with women
being more likely to take part-time jobs (50% of women worked full-time
compared to 80% of men). Overall the gender neutral measures tends to
reproduce gender disadvantage in the general labour market with
women concentrated in part-time, temporary and public sector jobs. Men
may participate more in the scheme as more women find it difficult to
work with a handicap in female occupations such as health and care
even if there is a wage subsidy available.
Consideration needs to be given to providing incentives for employers to
take on handicapped workers from the non typical sex into some
occupations; to achieve this desegregation it would be necessary to
provide education and training before offering wage subsidies. These
gender effects need to be considered in local and regional study groups
concerned with gender mainstreaming.
Active labour market policies
UK (1)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
New Deal programmes for the unemployed
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Women have lower measured unemployment rates than men, but the
gender gap is greater for benefit claimants than for ILO measures. The
New Deal policies are only available to benefit claimants and women are
therefore underrepresented on the programmes. Benefit rules and lack of
childcare have placed obstacles in the way of certain groups such as lone
parents moving off benefits into work.
Unemployment rates have been falling for men and women and the
gender gap has been closing; however this is the normal experience
during the upturn of the cycle.
Rather than ‘mainstreaming’ the New Deals, the approach has been to
introduce separate programmes targeted at the predominantly female
groups of lone parents and the partners of the unemployed. This has
allowed for a tailoring of provision – for example, great emphasis is
placed on help with childcare arrangements for participants in NDLP. No
programme is available to those women with an employed partner who
are not part of the claimant population.
Women account for 28% of the New Deal for Young People, 16% of the
New Deal for Long term Unemployed but 94% of the New Deal for Lone
Parents. Expenditure per participant on this last programme is only about
half that of expenditure on the former two programmes. Participants on
the subsidised employment option in NDYP on which women are
underrepresented receive the wage for the job in addition to any other
benefits to which they are entitled, while other participants receive no
more than when they were registered unemployed. For lone parents,
there are no pecuniary incentives for participation in the New Deal per se;
everything depends on the specific job offer. Possible gender
stereotyping of the jobs taken by New Deal participants is not seen as
problematic: a much publicised option for lone parents is to take
employment in the childcare sector.
The policy is based on the expectation that lone parents should combine
their caring duties with employment but there is no similar expectation for
partnered mothers. Conversely, demands for support may come from
women whose lack of employment is not considered problematic by virtue
of the fact that they have an employed partner.
The government has extended the training option for lone parents in
response to criticisms and is considering a New Deal for Labour Market
Returners.
Modifications could be made to the pool from which the different New
Deals draw their participants to include those who had experienced
repeated spells of unemployment or indeed other forms of absence from
the labour market. The provisions for training and possibly for subsidised
employment for the New Deal for Lone Parents should be improved.
Training and lifelong learning
Austria (1)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Measures to improve the qualifications and training for the unemployed
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Unemployment is concentrated among the least educated and women
are overrepresented among the low educated. Even among the young,
women are less well educated than men. Women account for more than
50% of participants on these measures. There are too few steps taken to
counter gender segregation. Moreover many participants and programme
managers do not question gender differences in occupational
concentration. Many women used to be excluded from access to these
programmes as they were not among the registered unemployed but the
job returner initiative started in 1998 provides access for women who are
not benefit claimants.
Women face continuing problems because of low educational levels, but
these are compounded by other difficulties: for example 46% of female
unemployed compared to 24% of men are categorised as hard to place
because of mobility restrictions, mainly due to childcare.
There has been a focus on increasing women’s participation in these
programmes, but high participation has coincided with a move away from
further vocational training which provides access to qualifications and
towards work placement schemes, prioritising returning to the labour
market. The latter programmes are unlikely to help to close gender gaps
in qualifications and skills.
In addition to targets relating to the number of women participants in the
totality of training measures, there are the female quotas for individual
new qualification measures and targets both for flow of women into
employment following skills training and monitoring of the share receiving
training of over three months. The targets have for the most part been
exceeded although men, on average, were trained 5 days longer than
women. However, the evaluation of ESF revealed (indirectly) that while
women more often entered employment than men, they did so at lower
income levels. The development of gender targets has raised gender
awareness within the Public Employment Service.
Women with low basic qualifications who have the highest need for
qualifications and training underrepresented in these measures. Women
without completed vocational training are mainly sent on job finding
courses. This does not apply to the same extent to unqualified men who
are far more often included in skills training.
Quantified gender-specific indicators and the job returners initiative have
moved the policies away from concentration on the training of
unemployed men. The Public Employment Service plans to increasingly
influence training institutions to consider gender-specific issues.
More detailed monitoring of the effects of the measures on employment
careers is required. The measures need better tailoring to meet the needs
of all subgroups and more efforts need to be made to include all groups in
the measures, that is by moving yet further away from the administrative
definition of the unemployed as those in receipt of benefits.
Training and life long learning
Belgium (1)
Description of policy measure This policy uses three different measures to facilitate the integration of
young (<25 years old) low educated people into employment using a
limited reduction of employer's contributions
Agreement on employment training : according to this measure a job
seeker with low educational attainment aged between 18 and 25 years
old and an employer can conclude, for a least one year and at most
three years, an agreement including two parts : a part-time
employment contract and training of at least 240 hours per year linked
with the work.
Part-time schooling : this measure allows employers to hire young
people still obliged to go to school on a part-time basis.
Apprenticeship : a reduction of social security contributions is also
granted to employers who hire apprentices.
Initial gender deficit with
The measure is targeted at young people with low educational attainment.
respect to participation,
The proportion of women with low educational attainment is higher than for
resources, norms and rights. men although the average level of education of young women is higher
than the level of education of young men. In 1998, the unemployment rate
of young women (55,3%) was much higher than the unemployment rate of
young men (39,9%)(rate for those aged 15-25)
Direction of trends,
The youth unemployment rate increased strongly between 1990 and 1994
irrespective of policy
but decreased between 1995 and 1998 reaching a level of 46%. The male
youth unemployment rate has hardly increased between 1990 and 1998
and has even decreased since 1997. The youth male unemployment rate
is lower than the youth unemployment rate for women and the gap
between these rates increased between 1994 and 1997 but has
decreased since 1998. The youth unemployment rate for women remained
relatively steady between 1994 and 1998. Nevertheless it peaked in 1997.
In general younger women are becoming better educated, although they
still have a higher proportion of low educated than men.
Priority attached to promoting There is no specific gender dimension to the policy although the target
gender equality
group is mainly female.
Impact on gender equality
Women account for 30% of those affected by the scheme and for 32% of
with respect to participation,
the cost of the scheme. Thus, women's participation in this policy is low.
resources, norms and rights. Young women are underrepresented in the job training and in
apprenticeship.
These measures reinforce segregation in the male-dominated sectors.
Indeed, women in the male-dominated sectors benefit from the policy less
than in proportion to their presence in the sectors. In addition, women
benefit less from the policy in the female sectors than their relative share
in these sectors.
Impact of policy on particular The risk is that young people hired thanks to these measures will be fired
groups and/or indirect policy
when they no longer fulfil the conditions which give a right to the
effects.
reduction of social insurance contributions. They nevertheless benefit
from some work experience. Another risk is that the young people who
do not fulfil the conditions for a reduction in social insurance
contributions will not be hired.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
The policy needs to be modified to improve the participation of women and
to ensure that desegregation applies equally in male-dominated and
female-dominated sectors.
Training and lifelong learning
Greece (1)
Description of policy
measure
Vocational training institutes: these were set up in 1992 to provide initial
training to upper secondary education graduates. The specialities
provided by these institutes are to be restructured and the number of
specialities expanded from 145 to 225.
In 1999 participants in these institutes constituted 25% of the relevant
graduate population and women constituted 55% of participants but 49%
of employed graduates and 69% of unemployed graduates, indicating
that women have more difficulty in finding a job after VTI than men. The
destination of VTI graduates reveals horizontal and vertical segregation
by gender. Women predominate in medium paid occupations while male
graduates take a higher share of both highly and poorly paid occupations.
Men dominated VTI registrations up to 1995 but women have dominated
ever since. However, the female share of registrations has been falling
since 1997. VTI specialities are found in the rapidly expanding
occupations: employment expanded by 36% compared to under 5%
growth in all employment and women’s employment grew by 50.5%
compared to 28.6% growth for men. Female employment grew faster
than men’s employment both in those occupations where women are
underrepresented relative to their overall share of the labour force and in
those where they are overrepresented: that is there was a process of
both desegregation in male-dominated jobs and reinforcement of
segregation in female-dominated jobs.
The problem for women lies primarily in their higher unemployment rates,
indicating that VTI graduates are less able to compete for this jobs than
those with higher technical education. A policy of desegregation would
harm women’s employment growth as female dominated occupations are
growing faster than male dominated segments.
The restructuring of specialties may well reduce female participation as
the new specialties are primarily in male dominated segments, although
the numbers of female recruits in female dominated segments could rise
to offset this effect. VTI has been important in narrowing the gender
employment rate gap, so that reductions in participants could have
negative effects.
Better employment prospects for VTI graduates implies higher
unemployment rates for higher technical education graduates and/or
upper secondary education graduates who have no training, at least in
those occupations where the supply of labour exceeds demand.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Continuous monitoring of participation shares by gender in each
speciality and sector is required so that numbers of training places can be
adjusted to ensure that the overall gender share of training places is
proportional to the gender share in unemployment of upper secondary
education graduates. Pilot training courses for women in male-dominated
and for men in female-dominated segments could be introduced. More
needs to be done to focus on assistance to women trainees finding jobs.
Training and lifelong learning
Portugal (1)
Description of policy
measure
Sub 21 programme aimed at unemployed young people under 21 who
rd
have not completed the 3 cycle of basic education. Priority to be given to
the underrepresented sex in access to training in different areas.
Portuguese youth has the lowest level of educational involvement in the
EU (only 49.6% of Portuguese men aged 15-24 were in education and
54.7% of women). Traditionally women have a lower representation in
training than men, accounting for 32% of all trainees in 1996.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Equality issues have been placed at the centre of the policy through the
priority to be given to the underrepresented sex.
The focus on citizenship skills should address equal opportunities issues,
as should the improvement in access to knowledge implied by the
programme. The focus on the underrepresented sex applies to both men
and women and thus represents a significant attempt to change social
norms for men as well as for women. The clear statement of equal
access for women and men to the training programme should reinforce
formal legal rights to equal access.
The measures are targeted at the least well educated and therefore most
disadvantaged young people including women. The measures may have
indirect impacts on gender relations through the citizenship training with
respect to equal opportunities which will concentrate on providing
information on legislation and current gender inequalities ad also address
issues of training for becoming autonomous adults, including basic
domestic and care skills.
Assessment will require more indicators on the outcomes disaggregated
by gender. There is a follow up study of the youngsters who participate
and this will need to be assessed in order to understand obstacles to the
success of the policy. More action will be needed to link reconciliation of
work and family life with labour market policies if gender equality is to be
successfully pursued.
Training and lifelong learning
Spain (1)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Job training policies
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
More women than men participate in job training policies reflecting their
higher share of the unemployed but women with childcare responsibilities
find participation difficult.
No major changes
Low budget attached to those job training policies which actively promote
gender equality. Some job training policies restricted to the long term
unemployed with family responsibilities, in practice to men.
The NAP 2000 states that women should participate in active labour
market policies according to their presence in unemployment and also
makes specific commitments to women returners (women expelled from
the labour market and women who were on leave from work because of
family responsibilities). Women are also to be trained in IT and
entrepreneurship. However, the specific commitments are to be met
either from low budgets or from unspecified budgets with numerical
targets attached.
There are no childcare measures associated with the job training
programmes, thereby restricting access by mothers. Women who are
outside the labour market are ineligible to participate. This means that
low educated older women are less likely to have access. However,
there are specific programmes for disabled women and female
immigrants and emigrants.
The elimination of apparently gender neutral policies which favour men,
for example schemes only for the long term unemployed with family
responsibilities and the development of schemes which favour women,
for example schemes for those on leave because of childcare.
Improvements in budgets and the adoption of numerical targets for
gender equality measures are required together with evaluation of the
programmes using statistics disaggregated by sex.
Training & Lifelong Learning
Sweden (2)
Description of policy
measure
Adult education initiative. The target group is the unemployed and others
who have not completed three years of upper secondary education. The
unemployed could obtain a grant paid at the benefit level; the employed
could also get a grant provided their employer hired someone who was
long term unemployed as a replacement. The aim was to reduce
unemployment and increase economic growth potential by closing
education gaps.
The educational levels of women and men differ. A higher proportion of
men have only compulsory education but the proportion of women in
adult education has for many years been twice the level for men. Many
municipalities have been active in trying to recruit men to the programme.
Women already participate more in adult education than men (66%). This
is a higher share than women’s overall share in active labour market
programmes.
The risk of long-term unemployment among low educated persons was
very high in 1995-7, particularly for women in low level jobs in the public
sector. When the programme started it was seen as a way for women
threatened by unemployment to lift their knowledge base. Immigrants,
single mothers and people at risk of social exclusion have been
prioritised, with the class dimension as important as gender and ethnicity
in shaping priorities.
Women already constituted two thirds of participants in adult education
before the latest policy developments. It is difficult to disentangle the new
policies from the old adult education programmes in the statistics but
women’s share of adult education rose slightly to 68% suggesting more
women were participating. However there is little evidence of change in
the gender distribution by type of course. Overall the programme should
increase women’s capacities and thereby help their employment
prospects but women tend to study traditional subjects which are unlikely
to lead to fundamental changes in career. Evaluations are being
undertaken by universities and school administrative departments.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
There needs to be more attention paid to gender differences in subjects
studied, especially for example in new areas such as IT. There is a risk
that women will return to the same types of jobs that they held before, but
at a higher competence level. There will be no change to the gender
structure, only to the competence level of the labour force.
Tax and benefit policy
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Netherlands (1)
The revision of income tax 2001 process
The current tax system is based on individual assessment but with the
option for a non active partner to transfer any unused part of the basic tax
free allowance to the breadwinner. This may discourage participation
among women, strengthen the norm of a male breadwinner society and
an unequal division of paid and unpaid work, thereby reinforcing
inequality in access to monetary resources.
Women have been increasing their participation in the labour market
despite the tax system and despite the lack of childcare arrangements.
However, there have only been limited moves towards an equal sharing
of unpaid work and the society is moving towards a one and a half earner
rather than towards a dual earner society.
The new system will be entirely individualised, marking a clear break with
the breadwinner taxation model. Non working partners will find it more
advantageous to seek employment under the new system. The new
employment rebate provides an incentive to seek and take up work
especially at lower income levels. However, the policy did not convert the
previous allowances for dependent spouses into assistance for children;
indeed the focus initially was solely on increasing participation rates with
no new approach to the costs of combining work and care (see below for
information on how there has been some modification to this policy
approach)
Some positive impact on female participation can be expected but the
impact is not expected to be large as the costs of childcare are not
addressed.
Lone parents receive additional subsidies if they enter work.
After pressure from parliament so-called combination rebate was
introduced for all working parents with a child under 12; this provides
some incentive to families to have two working parents. This provides a
small financial incentive towards persons trying to combine paid work and
unpaid caring tasks..
The system still favours income security over incentives for participation
and still fails to provide for childcare costs to be taken into account. A
move towards more incentives to participation or being available for work
should be combined with policies which protect the right to care through
improved leave arrangements.
Tax and benefit policies
UK (2)
Description of policy
measure
Working Families Tax Credit- a tax credit for families with at least one
person in work for 16 hours or more. (The benefit is more generous than
the previous Family Credit system, provides help with childcare, operates
as a tax credit rather than a benefit and has a claw back rate of 55%
compared to 70%)
The aim of the policy was to reduce the number of couple households
and lone parents on welfare benefits. Women have lower participation
rates overall than men and particularly low rates for lone parents but
women with a partner already in work had been taking most of the new
jobs. WFTC replaces the old Family Credit policy which provided benefits
direct to the main carer but discouraged participation through its 70%
claw back rate.
Employment of mothers in couple households and in lone parent
households had been rising but the former faster than the latter. Also the
share of workless households had been rising.
The priority is moving households off benefits. To the extent that this is
achieved through encouraging women’s participation, the policy provides
help e g. through help with childcare costs and by reducing eligibility to
only 16 hours per week. But little attention is paid to the disincentive
effects on women’s participation in households not on benefits and an
extra allowance for someone on 30 hours a week but not for two partners
on combined hours of 30 hours a week suggests that there is no overall
commitment to gender equality.
The estimated impact will be to increase participation among lone parents
and wives of unemployed partners but to decrease it for other women.
The transfer of the payment to the wage earner from the carer unless the
household opts otherwise will reduce women’s access to income. The
long term effect of WFTC could be to put downward pressure on wages
at the bottom end of the labour market to the disadvantage of women.
WFTC compromises the right to independent taxation and may lead to
restrictions on lone parents right to care.
Positive incentives for participation women currently dependent on
benefits, negative incentives for those in relatively low income
households but not currently in receipt of benefits.
Option for carer to receive benefits was introduced after lobbying from
women’s pressure groups. A proposal to move to integrated child credit
would again restore principle of credit paid to main carer. However, the
proposed extension of in work benefits to those without children would
mean women with working partners would be the major group in receipt
of low wages without access to state subsidies.
The impact on women’s participation rates and rights to independent
income and taxation needs to be taken into account and consideration
given to raising the minimum wage to reduce risk of lower wages. The 30
hours incentive needs to be available to couples who work for more than
30 hours combined.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Entrepreneurship
Belgium (2)
Description of policy measure Reduction in employer’s social security contributions on low wages to
favour employment creation especially in SMEs. First introduced in 1993,
but replaced by new measures in 1999.
Initial gender deficit with
The measure is targeted at low skilled workers who are defined as being
respect to participation,
the low waged. Women are over represented among the low wage
resources, norms and rights. population (21,4% of women compared to 9,1% of men earn below 66% of
the median wage) as well as among the low skilled population. The
unemployment rate is high for both low skilled men and womenbut very
low skilled women (non or primary diploma) do not participate in the labour
market.
Direction of trends,
Women are becoming better educated although they still are
irrespective of policy
overrepresented among the lower skilled. From 1985-1994 the rate of low
pay hovered around 5% but thereafter it increased,reaching 8% in 1994.
On the other hand the risk of low pay for women relative to men has
decreased from 4,5 in 1985 to 3,2 in 1994. Hence although the relative
situation of women is improving the trend in general is worsening.
Priority attached to promoting There is no specific gender dimension to the policy although the target
gender equality
group is mainly female.
Impact on gender equality Women account for 56,4% of those affected by the scheme and for 59,1%
with
respect
to of the cost of the scheme presumably because women have lower wages
participation,
resources, than male participants (the reductions are greater the lower the wage).
norms and rights.
The scheme is not directly linked to job creation. Women are over
represented in the scheme in both male and female-dominated industries.
The measures could exert a perverse effect by encouraging the creation of
low wage employment and by providing incentives to keep wages low to
continue to secure the benefits.
Impact of policy on particular The measure could, as mentioned above, put downward pressure on
groups and/or indirect policy wages around the cut-off limit for the benefits, e.g. a person up for a pay
effects.
rise does not receive it or a person who would usually receive a higher
wage is offered a wage under the cut-off limit. Low wage jobs could
become low wage traps instead of stepping stones. Indeed they already
are for a number of people.
Modifications made to policy Since the 1st of January 1999 part-time workers are only eligible if they
work at least 33% of the hours of a full-time worker during the quarter.
This prevents the creation of very small part-time jobs.
Modifications still required
Evaluation of the job creation effects and of the impact on women’s
earnings as well as employment opportunities is required.
Entrepreneurship
Finland (1)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Measures to strengthen IT
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
At present men hold about 70% of jobs in IT; this corresponds to the
tendency for jobs to be highly segregated in Finland, although the
overrepresentation of men is lower than in technology and engineering
more generally where men hold 83% of qualifications in this field.
Gender segregation in education has become if anything stronger over
recent years.
The policy measures have been presented as gender neutral and there is
no information on specific steps to be taken, if any, to promote gender
equality. The policy of promoting IT has not been questioned as a gender
neutral policy even though it is a male-dominated sector and the impact
could be to widen gaps between male-dominated and female-dominated
sectors.
The policy could widen gender gaps if steps are not taken to reduce male
domination. Moreover the focus on this sector tends to create problems in
other sectors. The government needs to invest in the care sector as much
as the IT sector as it is essential for citizens and for women’s
employment.
The IT sector has a long working hours culture; the promotion of this
sector could have negative implications for reconciling work and family
life and for men’s involvement in the family.
Explicit measures to reduce segregation in employment and education in
IT should be developed. Also the adequacy of public support to other
sectors, such as the care sector and personal services, needs to be
considered.
Entrepreneurship
Greece (2)
Description of policy
measure
New professionals programme targeted at the unemployed who move
into self employment on their own and have a low to medium income:
programme to be expanded to involve training and assistance from the
Hellenic Organisation of SMEs.
Women only account for 24.1% of the self employed compared to 37.4%
of total employment and only account for 15.8% of employers compared
to 26.7% of the self employed without employees. Self employment
generates earnings that are 1.5 times higher than employee earnings but
is also associated with long hours and poor quality of work and a family
life.
Women’s share of self employment has been rising rapidly due to rising
numbers of women entering and declining numbers of men. The most
spectacular growth has been among women employers, up one third
between 1993 and 1999. These opposing trends in self-employment by
gender (for the self employed without employees) are found in both the
non agricultural sector and in the agricultural sector. In the latter female
family helpers have moved to the status of self employed to replace men
who have dropped out of this sector. Women self employed have on
average higher qualifications than men.
Although the gender gap among the self employed is narrowing it is
higher than in the rest of Europe. Moreover there is evidence that
women’s firms are more fragile than men’s and also that self-employed
women have lower income and social protection than men who are selfemployed. Priority therefore needs to be given to gender issues. The new
professionals programme has been in existence for 15 years but it is only
since 1998 that women have been eligible for extra subsidies and only
since 1999 that women have been given preferential terms of access.
There is little evidence that these changes towards a priority for women
have increased female participation which peaked in 1994. The subsidies
in general are in any case rather small; more important has been the
possibility for up to 20 members of a cooperative to be subsidised at the
same time leading to growing numbers of women cooperatives. There are
doubts about the net effectiveness of the programme once deadweight
and displacement effects are taken into account. The new training and
technical assistance aspects may be particularly beneficial for the more
fragile women’s firms. However, this may be at the expense of other
women’s firms not included in the programme so that subsidies should be
targeted at sectors where there is potential for expansion.
Measures are mainly aimed at the lower educated, but this group needs
specific attention as training and technical support has higher returns for
higher educated participants. Women entering self employment may have
negative impacts on the quality of family life due to long hours of work.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Subsidies to be effective need to be larger for both women and men;
subsidies also need to be targeted at areas of demand expansion. A
more integrated approach involving funding, training, counselling,
technical assistance is required. The Hellenic Association of SMEs needs
to draw on existing gender expertise in developing training and advice;
integrated and individualised services should be provided at a local level;
and more support needs to be given to women cooperatives and
assistance provided in utilising the cooperative banking system.
Information society
Austria (2)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Measures to exploit the employment potential of services with particular
reference to IT
Women account for the majority of jobs in services and for 50% in
business services. Women’s share of IT jobs is unknown but their share
of computer science courses has decreased from 15% in the early 90s to
10% and the female share of IT apprentices is only 11%. Women
predominate in basic IT courses for the unemployed but only account for
52% of the more advanced courses but a new women only advanced
course is to be launched. Women face not only the problem of the
‘technique-taboo’ but also the long working hours and flexibility
associated with IT.
Women’s share of high level courses is declining but they are taking a
high share of lower level jobs such as call centre work.
A new ‘women only’ course at the higher level for the unemployed is to be
launched.
Current demand is for excellently trained, spatially and temporally flexible
workers, i.e. men. The policy measures introduced are mainly gender
neutral; therefore little will change without action taken in the education
systems and changes made to the working culture.
One of the issues is whether the policies to help the unemployed in IT
skills will be sufficient to overcome problems relating to their low level of
education. The underrepresentation of women in IT will mean that they
are not able to play a full role in shaping the impact of technology on
society.
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
There is a need to develop innovative approaches within the system of
further vocational training, for both the unemployed and employed;
programmes need to include older women, those from rural areas, and
those with low basic qualifications. Attention needs to be paid to helping
women access jobs in areas related to IT e.g. graphics and design- and
not all efforts should be concentrated on the most technical job areas.
Information society
Germany (2)
Description of policy
measure
Measures related to lifelong learning guideline to accelerate and promote
training and jobs in IT, with particular emphasis on improving training, job
opportunities and professional advancement for women and promoting
the reconciliation of family and career for men and women.
Currently more women are employed in jobs using computers but more
are in those areas vulnerable to restructuring as a result of faster
integration of ICT technologies. Although in general women are faring
well in the education system they are underrepresented in higher
education courses in computing. Also within the new apprenticeship
programmes there is a high level of segregation, with women found
mainly among media and information services specialist trainees,
particularly in the public sector.
Women initially had quite a high share of information sciences course
when they were first established but they became more male-dominated
as the significance of the occupation increased.
The government programme has integrated the idea of gender
mainstreaming and women’s issues into nearly all aspects of the
programme. The focus is on social inclusion through IT. Using women’s
skills in IT is also argued to be critical for developing Germany’s
comparative advantage. There are specific gender targets (40% share of
apprenticeships by 2005, 40% of new entrants into university course by
2005, 50% of internet users by 2005 compared to 30% at present and an
increase in female share of business start-ups from 30% to 40%). A
range of actors are engaged in the programme including federal
ministries, social partners, professional organisations and educational
institutions. The latter receive more funds for integrating women into the
programme. In some cases the requirements is for women only courses,
in others for 40% of the budget to be devoted to women or to have 40%
female participants.
In most areas it is too soon to evaluate outcomes. The ‘women in the
web’ initiative has already been quite successful and achieved its aims.
The gender mainstreaming approach may be diluted by the attention now
being paid to recruiting IT-specialists from outside Germany to fill the IT
skill gap. The programme has a limited budget but the finance may still be
relatively influential, particularly within the education sector.
Women seem to be particularly likely to be recruited into apprenticeships
in the public sector, either because of low wage levels paid or because
gender mainstreaming has had more impact.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
It is still unclear how the problem of gender segregation in private sector
firms is to be tackled or how the programme may help to prevent women
currently working in IT but vulnerable to restructuring from becoming
unemployed.
Information society
Italy (1)
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Measures to promote the information society, starting with an expansion
of education provision at all levels.
As a new sector it should be free of cultural prejudices inherited from the
past but in practice it is largely male-dominated and offers little access to
women. This segregation may arise out of the education and socialisation
of children and in particular from the male dominance of computer
games.
Skills shortages in the sector on the one hand open up access to women
but on the other hand encourage high levels of overtime working, a
culture which women are less able to comply with. Salaries are high in
computing so that exclusion of women is adding to gender income
inequalities. Women’s share of computer courses and jobs have
remained at a low level.
Measures introduced in the NAP are discussed in gender neutral
language.
Without a gender perspective policy measures are likely to perpetuate
gender differences.
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
There is a need to introduce a gender perspective into all policy
documents; to introduce incentives to firms to hire women; to train
more teachers in equal opportunities issues in the IT sectors; and to
pay specific attention to the education of young children to stimulate
girls’ as well as boys’ interests in IT.
Social economy
Ireland (2)
Description of policy
measure
Social economy programme: projects include community businesses,
‘deficient-demand’ social enterprises and enterprises based on public
service contracts in disadvantaged communities. Specific groups targeted
as participants include people over 35 years of age who have been
unemployed for one year, spouses of unemployed or recipients of One
Parent Family Payments or Disability Welfare Payments
Women are particularly likely to benefit from policies to provide support
for car services, local transport, shopping etc. in both urban and rural
disadvantaged communities. Women are, however, underrepresented
among employers and the self employed at 25% compared to 41% of the
labour force. Women are also underrepresented among the participants
in publicly funded enterprise support schemes in Ireland and are also
even more underrepresented among the long term unemployed over 35
than among the long term unemployed as a whole. Also 66% of recipients
of One Parent Family Payments are under 35 years of age.
Women have been increasing their participation in self employment at an
even higher rate than their increase in participation in the labour force as
a whole, but this was from a low starting position.
The promotion of gender equality is one of four priorities of the social
economy programme. A number of gender disaggregated indicators have
been specified in the social economy framework document including the
gender of project proposers, levels of pay and quality of employment by
gender, the nature and level of training by gender and progression into
non funded employment by gender. Not all targets have been
disaggregated by gender, however, and the targeting on welfare
claimants over 35 continues to disadvantage women. The scheme allows
for 10% of participants not to meet these criteria in partial recognition that
the criteria discriminate against women but 10% is too low a ratio.
The scheme is only just being implemented but the eligibility criteria are
already recognised as restricting access for women.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Younger women and women returners are not targeted by this
programme. The scheme aims to improve the quality of life and
infrastructure in these communities and should benefit children as well as
adults.
Eligibility criteria need to be more flexible; age thresholds need to be
removed; women in low income groups and women returners need to be
targeted. The range of indicators needs to be extended to include gender
disaggregation on all dimensions and to include more information on care
services, gender composition of participants and gender composition of
local committees. The funding needs to be greater and longer term and
more research and evaluation should be planned.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
France (2)
Reduction in working week to 35 hours. The second Aubry law not only
sets a new working week but also establishes overtime rules, provides for
new developments in the organisation of work (adjustment of working
hours, days taken off in lieu, time saving accounts, part time work,
arrangements for managerial and professional staff), provides for a
decrease in some employer contributions and establishes mechanisms
for a guaranteed income level for workers based on the minimum wage.
The legislation also encourages the bargaining process, particularly
regarding professional training and gender equality. It also abolishes the
exemption for employers’ contributions for part time work
In 1998 part-time accounted for 18% of all jobs but for over 30% of
female jobs and 5% of male jobs. 85% of part time jobs go to women
but in France contrary to what occurred elsewhere, the growth in
female employment began with full time jobs and has increasingly not
involved interruptions in careers. Part-time work does not therefore act
to promote equal opportunities in a French context. A six hour gap in
working time between men and women is largely accounted for by the
different shares of part-time work as the gap for full-timers is rather
small at 2.4 hours.
In 1980, there were 1,5 million part time jobs but 3,5 million by 1998.
A major shift occurred between the first and the second Aubry Law in
terms of attention to the gender impact. This aspect was totally absent
from the first Law but the second Aubry Law makes negotiation of gender
issues a prerequisite for access to financial incentives. It also abolishes
the exemption on part-time work for employers’ contributions, as a result
of extensive lobbying against these measures.
The act should reduce the gender gap in working time, by reducing men’s
full-time hours and by reducing incentives for short part-time work.
Equality issues are to be determined through the bargaining process.
Some conditions are favourable to equality for although unionisation
rates are lower for women, they are better represented in the
bargaining process. Women have managed to make their voice heard
in some bargaining agreements, for example where they have refused
a 4 day week instead of shorter daily working hours. However in other
cases the agreements have resulted in working times which increase
stress and fatigue.
The policy in principle should enable parents to achieve a better balance
of work and family life but the focus on flexibility has increased the trend
towards unsocial and flexible hours. The decision to reduce working days
rather than working hours for managerial and professional groups could
increase gender segregation. Gender differences in the allocation of extra
time may reinforce the gender division of labour; men opt for long
weekends, women for more time with children.
The second Aubry law has included a much greater focus on gender
issues that the first law and abolished the exemption for employers’
contributions on part-time jobs
There is a need to complement policy on working time with awareness
campaigns on the shared responsibility for children between mothers
and fathers. There is also a need for a provision for a right to revert to
full time employment, as is the case in the Netherlands. Reliance on
the bargaining process is too uncertain.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation policy
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Italy (2)
Law on Part-time work to ensure parity of treatment. Part-time work
contracts must be written and must state duration and schedule of work.
Changes to schedule, duration or employment status must be by
consensual renegotiation. Part-timers must have preference when
employers have vacancies for full-time work. Applications for full-timers to
work part-time can only be rejected on justifiable grounds. The promotion
of part-time work is supported by tax incentives worth 600 billion lira over
3 years but only for permanent hires over and above current staffing
levels. Rebates range from 7% at 20-24 hours to 13% for 32 hours.
Women account for the majority and an increasing share of part-time
workers- at 70% in 1998. Around a quarter of part-time women workers
did not want a full-time job and another quarter said they worked parttime for personal/family reasons. Male part-timers are more likely to be
involuntary part-timers. Part-time is more common in lower level jobs.
Part-time work is highest among the self employed accounting for 16.7%
of the women whoare self employed. Part-time work is reinforcing
women’s roles as care givers.
Female employment has been increasing faster than men’s at 3.2% per
annum compared to 1.4% for men but almost all the female increase
consists of part-time employment, now accounting for 9% of the total
labour force. Part-time work is also becoming increasingly feminised.
If the funds available for tax subsidy are insufficient, priority is to be given
to young people and to women with underage children or to those living
with a disabled person. However, it is by no means clear that promoting
part-time work is promoting equal opportunities as it may reinforce
women’s role as caregivers.
The impact of the new law is not yet known but if it further accelerates
increases in part-time work it may serve to reinforce women’s role as
primary care giver, while providing some opportunities to remain in work
for those who currently quit the labour market at childbirth. Although the
new law aims to protect part-timers against discrimination and to provide
employees more scope to choose to move from part-time to full-time or
vice versa, it may not be able to prevent discrimination against part-timers
in areas such as promotion. Moreover the tax incentives only apply to
new additional hirings on permanent contracts and this may restrict its
effects.
There are major differences in labour market behaviour between high and
low educated women; the part-time work option is more likely to be taken
up by low educated women who currently quit the labour market. The
opportunity for parents to care for their children through opting for parttime work could be considered beneficial, but this option would be more
likely to be used if there was an automatic right to return to full-time work.
To encourage men as well as women to participate in part-time work
there needs to be an automatic right to return to full-time work; at present
the law stops short of this right. There is also a need to promote parttime work in higher level jobs and in male-dominated jobs to prevent the
segregation of part-time work in low level female-dominated areas.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation policy
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Luxembourg (2)
Parental leave and leave for family reasons (12February 1999). Paid
parental leave for 12 months part-time or twelve months full-time at a flat
rate. The leave is an individual entitlement for both parents.
Women have a low employment rate in Luxembourg associated in part
with an expectation of withdrawal from the labour market when they have
small children. There was no parental leave- paid or unpaid- before the
1999 law. Moreover childcare facilities are still insufficient even fi they
have expanded rapidly over recent years.
Women’s employment rate had been increasing but still lagged behind
European averages, associated in part with their childcare
responsibilities.
Although the scheme gives rights to both parents the level of pay may not
be sufficient to ensure that men take up their rights. The traditional male
breadwinner model remains the norm and the gender division of labour
may be reinforced by parental leave measures, even if they are very
generous. It is also important to ensure that the scheme does not lead to
greater withdrawal from the labour market. The scheme provides
guarantees of return to the same status and seniority.
The effects of the scheme are not yet known but may reduce female
withdrawal from the labour market. However the women’s trade union is
concerned that it could encourage some withdrawal from the labour
market as they fear that even temporary leave may lead to long term
withdrawal from the labour market.
Take up rates may vary by occupation as the pay is flat rate at about the
same level as the minimum wage, although this low pay may have more
impact on take up by men than for women.
There is a need for a close monitoring of the impact of parent leave within
companies by the equality delegate.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation
Netherlands (2)
Description of policy
measure
Act on Flexibility and Security 1999. The objective is to increase flexibility
while maintaining adequate levels of protection for employees. The act
regulates the position of ‘flex’ workers such as workers on call, on stand
by, temporary workers and agency workers. After working for three
months each week or at least 20 hours a month for the same employer
an employment contract is assumed. The renewal of temporary contracts
is made easier but at the 3rd renewal or after 36 months the contract is
transformed into an indefinite contract. Temporary agency staff come
under the same rules after 36 weeks. On call workers receive a minimum
of 3 hours wages per call if they work less than 15 hours a week.
In 1999 13% of women had ‘flex’ contracts compared to 7% of male
employees. Women are particularly overrepresented among on call
workers and substitute workers. Involvement in ‘flex work’ reduces time
sovereignty and reinforces gender patterns of labour market behaviour.
The flex workers also have lower employment rights, a situation that this
act was aimed at changing.
Flexible contracts increased significantly throughout the mid 1990s rising
from 400,000 employees in 1997 to over 600,000 by 1998 but in 1999
there was a slight decline to 571,000 as the labour market tightened.
As flexible employment concerns more women than men, the act has
significant implications for women's employment and should on balance
provide greater security. However, little attention was paid to the other
problems associated with flexible work, namely that of combining work
and care responsibilities. There was no requirement in the act for
employers to negotiate with employees on how flexible employment could
meet the interests of both employers and employees.
The act changes the incentive structure with regard to regular and flexible
employment relationships. In the short-term as employers adjust, some
reduction in flex employment can expected. In the first three months after
the introduction of the act approximately 45000 flexiworkers experienced
negative effects while 80,000 experienced positive effects. It is not yet
clear whether these results reflect the legislation or the positive economic
climate. There is no detailed information on the costs and benefits by
men and women. Further monitoring will be required particularly during
less favourable economic conditions.
This act is likely to provide protection for relatively low educated and
weakly organised labour market groups. The indirect effects of the policy
on time sovereignty need to be monitored.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Participation and consultation are extremely important preconditions for a
gender friendly flexible working environment.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation policies
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Portugal (2)
Regulation of part-time work aimed at promoting part-time work provided
it is voluntary and reversible and results in the recruitment of new
workers.
Part-time work primarily concerns women and is therefore not gender
neutral. There is an implicit but not explicit assumption that women
should be interested in part-time work because of their family
responsibilities. Part-time work is also associated with lower earnings for
women.
Part-time work is relatively rare in Portugal but primarily concerns women
and the gap between men and women in part-time work is increasing.
The link with women’s employment is implicit rather than explicit. The
incentives for part-time work are likely to increase the gender gap in this
area. The stress that it should be voluntary and reversible provides some
safeguards for women but the focus on part-time work could reinforce
women’s responsibilities for care work.
The impact of the policy could be to reinforce gender differences in
employment and gender differences in care responsibilities.
Part-time work expansion affects women in urban areas and young
women.
The policy should be reconsidered and instead of promoting part-time, an
employment form that mainly concerns women, the incentives should be
used to promote family friendly forms of managing human resources, to
include men as well as women.
Working time, flexibility and
reconciliation policies
Description of policy
measure
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
Spain (2)
Reconciliation measures including leave schemes, flexible working time
and supply of care services
Women account for the vast majority of participants in leave schemes
even though men and women have equal rights to leave, except for 6
weeks of maternity leave. Social norms are changing; there is some
evidence that care work is now not seen as the exclusive preserve of
women, but there is still strong suspicion of childcare schemes. If mothers
are not available for care the substitution of another woman, for example
the grandmother, is considered more acceptable than childcare
arrangements.
Although there is evidence of change in social attitudes, women continue
to undertake the lion’s share of domestic tasks.
Reconciliation policies are still primarily aimed at women and thus tend to
reinforce the gender division of labour in the family, while helping women
combine paid work and family life.
Most of the measures proposed are not specific, lacking detailed
timetables and budgets. Since 1999 men are entitled to 10 weeks leave if
both partners are in paid work, but take-up is likely to be low. There are
commitments to increase childcare facilities but without targets or details.
Only 0.6% of the 2000 NAP budget is to be spent on reconciliation
measures but this compares to 0% in the 1999NAP.There can be little
expectation of a major change in social norms as a result of these
policies.
The new measures for childcare and leave should improve childcare in
some cases.
There is a need for more concrete measures and for measures directed
specifically at men.
Segregation policies
Denmark (2)
Description of policy
measure
Ringsted Municipality Project as part of general Nordic policy to integrate
the equality dimension into youth policy and labour market policy. The
policy focuses on gender equality in recruitment in the municipality but
the objective is to influence the behaviour of decision makers with no
presumption that the gaol should be equality in numbers of men and
women employed by municipalities.
More than a quarter of all women work for municipalities where they
account for three quarters of the labour force. Within the municipalities
there is strong gender segregation with women accounting for 90% of
care workers. The project considered the advantage of moving towards a
gender integrated workforce; the opportunities for using both male and
female resources better and as better human beings; and how the
workplaces could be improved from a gender perspective.
Overall employment levels have remained stable but women’s share has
been increasing.
The policy focused on equality in staff recruitment with a focus on valuing
difference and non homogeneity- in contrast to traditional Danish ideology
which is based on similarity and homogeneity. The recruitment stage
provide an opportunity to focus on what the organisation lacked or
already possessed, viewed from a gender perspective; it thus provided a
means of raising gender consciousness.
The potential impact could be to reduce women’s share of municipal jobs.
There is a particular danger that the need for difference/non homogeneity
will be stressed when recruiting men into traditional female jobs while the
normal values of similarity/ homogeneity may be used when recruiting
into male-dominated jobs. Preliminary figures on recruitment do not
suggest than women are losing out overall but men may find it easier to
get jobs when a higher educational qualification is required and vice
versa for women. The mainstreaming concept is also not yet fully
understood in Denmark.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on
particular groups and/or and
indirect policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
There is a need to monitor any policy on desegregation to ensure that it
does not result in greater ease of entry for men but little change for
women entering male type jobs.
Segregation policies
Finland (2)
Description of policy
measure
Use of indicators, including personnel accounting, for describing the staff
situation at the workplace (including personnel strengths, individual
qualities and the work community) as a tool for promoting employability.
Finnish labour markets are highly segregated with 75% of managerial
jobs held by men. 68% of women are employed in the public sector but
again are excluded from higher level jobs. Women are also
overrepresented in temporary jobs but use of part-time jobs to reconcile
work and family life is not common in Finland where women work fulltime.
Segregation has remained strong in the face of policies to reduce
segregation. The gender pay gap has declined in the private sector but
widened in the public sector. Men and women’s access to further training
is similar.
The measures are introduced as gender neutral measures but the
potential for personnel accounting to have an impact on gender equality
was recognised in the Government Plan of Action on Equality 1997-1999.
Personnel accounting should make the skills of women more visible to
management and can be expected to have positive impacts on women’s
career and training possibilities, provided the gender perspective is
included in the personnel accounting system. The emphasis on
quantifying women’s skills may be particularly useful as women are less
prone than men to praise their own abilities in the workplace. Personnel
accounting could also lead to more accurate data on women’s own
individual preferences regarding training and career opportunities in
contrast to the current situation where women are treated as a group and
presumed not to have career aspirations. The application of this approach
to Finnish ministries has revealed gender differences in horizontal and
vertical segregation and differences in male and female wages.
The policy could be particularly useful to young women both by helping
career development and by raising gender consciousness in companies.
Initial gender deficit with
respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Direction of trends,
irrespective of policy
Priority attached to
promoting gender equality
Impact on gender equality
with respect to participation,
resources, norms and rights
Impact of policy on particular
groups and/or and indirect
policy effects.
Modifications made to policy
Modifications still required
The use of personnel accounting with an explicitly gendered perspective
as in the Finnish ministries needs to be adopted within the general NAP
measure.
References
Gender Impact Assessment Reports 2000:
Belgium: Danièle Meulders, Maria Jepsen, France Marage and Julie Lumen
Denmark: Ruth Emerek
Germany: Friederike Maier
Spain: Maria-Luisa Moltó and Celia Valiente
France: Rachel Silvera
Greece: Maria Karamessini
Ireland: Ursula Barry
Italy: Paola Villa and Sabrina Bonetti
Luxembourg: Robert Plasman
The Netherlands: Janneke Plantenga
Austria: Ulli Pastner
Portugal: Maria Pilar González
Finland: Reija Lilja
Sweden: Lena Gonäs
UK: Jill Rubery and Katherine Rake
Atkinson, J., Barry, J., Bladen, J., Dewson, S. and Walsh, K. et al. (2000) ‘New Deal
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Appendix Table A1. State of Development of Gender Impact Assessment Guidelines by Government in the
Member States, 2000
Belgium
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Regional government: Flemish government
Regional
Regional employment policy, regional economic policy, regional agricultural
policy, …
Name of guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Emancipatie Effect Rapportage
1997, but there is no obligation to use the guidelines.
The objective of the EER is to screen policy documents from the gender-friendly
angle. The aim is to analyse policy intentions and collect data in due time and to
adjust decisions.
The first step is to reveal the inconsistencies between the objective as well as the
content of the proposed policy and the real context within which it will evolve.
The second step is to evaluate the impact of the proposal on men and women. The
final step is to pin point the negative effects on their every day life.
It is an instrument that should be applied to all policy proposals of
flemish regional government.
? (Not specified)
The Guidelines
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and
evaluation
Obstacles undermining the
effectiveness of the GIA
policy
•
•
Not obligatory.
Guidelines too complicated to use.
Denmark
Official guidelines have not been adopted.
Germany
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Ministry of Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ)
Federal
National policy in the area of family, women, older people and youth, responsible for
gender mainstreaming. Programmes for example: women and work, girls and vocational
training etc.
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
Guidelines on gender mainstreaming will be developed – first steps:
• inter-ministerial working group since May 2000.
• common standing orders of all federal ministries are revised (since july 2000) and
include (in §2) the sentence that gender equality is a main aim of all government
policy and the obligation of developing and introducing a gender impact assessment
procedure in all legal actions
• BMFSFJ will develop a catalogue of concrete criteria specifying how the
government will integrate gender-sensitive issues into its work and suggested
frequent evaluations of all future amendments
Date when issued or adopted
? (work in progress)
Aims and objectives
Gender equality is a main aim of all government policy and there is the obligation to
develop and introduce a gender impact assessment procedure in all legal actions
Summary of contents
? (Official guidelines not yet adopted)
Method of implementation
? (not decided)
Method of monitoring and Independent research/evaluation of the process of development of guidelines and
evaluation
implementation is under tender
Obstacles
undermining
the Very slow and complicated processes of policy formulation and implementation
effectiveness of the GIA policy
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Federal employment office (Bundesanstalt für Arbeit – BA)
Federal, regional and local offices.
Tripartite body (government, trade unions, employers association) under the supervision
of the Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs
Development and implementation of the passive and active labour market policy in
Germany
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
Standing order 2000, policy guidelines for labour market policy. Gender mainstreaming
integrated into the guidelines
• market related development and realisation of employment possibilities
• reduction of youth unemployment
• reduction of long-term unemployment
and fourth guideline:
• improvements in the combination of work and family for women and men
Date when issued or adopted
2000
Aims and objectives
To improve women's position in employment, to decrease women's unemployment, to
make the combination of work and family easier, to increase women's participation in
labour market programmes
Summary of contents
• General necessity of employment promotion for women
• Improvement of the combination of work and family
• Broadening of the occupational choice of young women and increasing women's
proportion in modern occupations with growing importance
• Stimulation of new forms of employment and self employment of women
• Integration of women in all programmes of active labour market policy
• Reduction of women's unemployment
• Information campaigns for customers, internal employees and the public concerning
women’s position and possibilities
• Information to be collected for the tripartite bodies
The guidelines include all legally binding regulations and give hints on how to
implement programmes.
Method of implementation
The implementation of these guidelines has to rely on a very complex administrative
structure. All units are responsible for gender policy but in reality it is the central
administrative unit in Nuremberg called Referat für Frauenbelange der Bundesanstalt für
Arbeit (unit for women's issues). As all local and Länder units have a similar position
since 1998 (responsible for women's issues = gender mainstreaming) the administrative
basis for implementation is much better than in earlier years. Since the legal base for
implementing women's programmes and gender mainstreaming has been changed over
the last 4 years, the BA seems to be quite advanced in the process of mainstreaming and
relevant activities.
Very concrete examples on how to implement gender mainstreaming in local policy and
measures were published in early 2000. The text explains very detailed the concept,
procedures and targets of mainstreaming and women's issues in labour market policy and
gives practical examples on how to proceed and implement measures/programmes within
the guidelines of the BA.
Method of monitoring and The Referat für Frauenbelange has published an analysis of women's participation in
evaluation
active labour market policy during 1999. It discussed the targets/aims and guidelines in a
gender sensitive sense, to discover disadvantages or contradictions within the legal
framework and the actual policy implementation. The analysis used the newly created
evaluation instruments and statistics of the BA called Eingliederungsbilanz (employment
integration balance).
Obstacles
undermining
the • Stop and go policy in active labour market policy depending on the Federal budget.
effectiveness of the GIA policy
• Guidelines have to be decided year by year, danger of discontinuity.
Greece
An Inter-Ministerial Committee for gender mainstreaming is to be created and this committee will be responsible
for preparing GI assessment guidelines.
Spain
Organisation
The Women's Unit (Instituto de la
Mujer) in the Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs
National
Promote gender equality in all spheres
of social and economic life
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
The Economic and Social Council
(CES)
National
Government advisory body on socioeconomic and labour matters. Formal
channel of participation for economic
and social partners in the process of
policy design and review in relation to
legislation and labour policy
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
There are no specific GI assessment
guidelines, but the III Equality Plan
provides some guidance
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
8th March 1997
To promote equal opportunities for
women in all areas of the economy and
decision making
Each
policy
area
(employment,
education, health, etc.) has a set of
objectives and recommendations
Government
agencies
periodically
submit information about the degree of
implementation of gender equality
measures within their area of
responsibility.
A public report is prepared which
evaluates the degree of implementation
of gender equality measures by national
government.
• No specified GI assessment
guidelines for ministries to use in
policy making
• Lack of specialised expertise in
policy evaluation.
• The Women's Unit can only advise,
it has no power of sanction over
other parts of government.
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of
evaluation
monitoring
and
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
There are no specific GI assessment
guidelines, but the 'Report on the
Situation of Women in Social and
Labour Life in Spain' provides some
evaluation
19th October 1994
To report on the situation of women
Investigates the situation of women in
the labour market
Published report dissemination, no
precise
procedure
for
the
implementation of recommendations
A form of GI assessment is used in the
report.
•
•
No specified GI assessment
guidelines
The institution can only advise, it
has no power of sanction
France
Organisation
Centre for Employment Studies (CEE)
Level of responsibility
National - research centre of the
Ministry of Research, linked to the
Ministry of Employment
Assessment of ESF projects, especially
equal opportunities issues
Area of responsibility
National Institute of Statistics and
Economic Studies
National
Production of statistics
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and
evaluation
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
Assessment of the implementation of
equality in the French structural fund
programmes
1998
To assess equality of access to
employment and public measures
regarding training and re-integration
policies
The report provides an assessment of:
• The
place
of
equality
in
employment policies
• The share of women among the
beneficiaries
• Equal Opportunieis in the structural
fund programmes
?
Analysis of employment statistics and
government directives
• Lack of overall coherence in the
definition and approach to equality
issues between the different policy
actors
• Contradictions between the general
objective of equality for all and the
use of specific actions for target
groups, with the latter not regarded
as legitimate by many social actors
Improving statistics about the respective
situations of women and men
1999
To evaluate and improve statistical tools
to make them suitable for GI
assessments
•
•
Identifies the statistics available
Identifies those aspects that need to
be improved to support GI
assessments
• Establishes a permanent network to
produce and analyse gender
statistics
Survey of available sources and analysis
of the information requirements of the
different ministries
?
•
•
Statistics compartmentalised into
narrow types of uses
Lack of political will to use the
statistics to undertake GI assessment
in some parts of government.
Ireland
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Gender Equality Unit in the Department
of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
National
Law and policy in relation to justice and
equality. Specific responsibility for
gender mainstreaming in the National
Development Plan
Area Development Management Ltd
Local
Local Development Programme of NDP
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and
evaluation
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
Gender Impact Assessment Guidelines
Adopted by the Cabinet, March 2000
To provide a framework for gender
impact assessment of measures under
the National Development Plan
Three specific questions:
Current situation of women and men
Differences/inequalities
between
women and men
Measures to address these differences
Completion of a GI assessment form in
respect of each measure of the NDP
Operational Programme Monitoring
Committees currently being established
• Lack of resources
• Information gaps in statistical
sources
• Lack
of
specific
line
of
responsibility
• Weak commitment within the
institutional system
? Being developed - not yet available
? Being developed - not yet available
To
provide
guidelines
for
mainstreaming gender equality in local
development
? Being developed - not yet available
? Being developed - not yet available
Will be subject to evaluation by ADM
and the monitoring system of the NDP
• Lack of resources and expertise
• Limited data availability
• Possible tensions or contradictions
between gender mainstreaming and
other social inclusion policy
objectives
Italy
The Ministry for Equal Opportunities has drawn up GIA guidelines for the European Structural Funds.
Luxembourg
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Ministry of Economic Affairs with Ministry of Women's affairs.
National
Economics Affairs and Gender equality
Name of guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and
evaluation
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
Impact fiche
Autumn 2000
Check all the new measures
? (not available)
?
?
The Guidelines
? Too early to assess
Netherlands
Type of Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
University
(authors: M. Verloo & C.Roggeband)
Independent academics
Not applicable
Name of guidelines
Date issued or adopted
Research guidelines GIA
1994
Aims and objectives
To analyze, ex-ante the potential effects of new government policies on gender
\relations in Dutch society
The guidelines follow the basic methodology of any impact assessment. The
innovative part is the theoretical framework which refers to three questions relating
to three elements:
• Where are the structural unequal power relations between men and women to
be found (structures);
• How do they function? What are the mechanism producing them (processes);
• How are they to be evaluated (criteria)
? (not specified)
? (not specified)
The Guidelines
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and
evaluation
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
The methodology is perceived as rather complicated and time consuming
Portugal
Organisation
CITE (Commission for the Equality on Work and Employment)
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
National
It is a tripartite institution including representatives from the Government and the
Social Partners under the Presidency of a representative of the Ministry of Labour.
It aims at promoting and co-ordinating all the initiatives in the field of Equal
Opportunities regarding the National Employment Policy
Name of guidelines
Implementation of a System of Indicators of evaluation of the NAP from purposes
of Equal Opportunities from a gender perspective.
Will be implemented in the evaluation of the NAP 2000
The Guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method
of
monitoring
evaluation
and
Obstacles which may limit the
effectiveness of the policy
To assess the Portuguese NAPs from a gender perspective
A list of indicators has been produced to analyse the NAP at 2 different levels: i)
Indicators of general situation (obtained in different statistical sources and
institutions) and ii) Indicators of execution (obtained in the Follow-up reports from
the NAPs).
The indicators refer to 7 main topics:
• Activity, employment and unemployment;
• Work organisation and management;
• Labour revenues;
• Other revenues;
• Reconciliation of work and Family life;
• Education;
• Social Protection.
Systematic construction of the proposed data basis.
To identify the effects of the proposed measures and to systematically compare
them with the established aims (norms) regarding E.O. in order to change and/or
redefine the measures.
This procedure needs a regulation agent that is meant to be CITE.
Two main statistical obstacles are identified: i) the almost non existence of panel
data allowing to build up the evolution of the individual (with particular emphasis
on gender) along the life cycle; ii) the prevalence of problems resorting from the
lack of breaking down by gender of some indicators.
UK
Organisation
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
The Home Office, the Department for
Education and Employment and the
Women's Unit of the Cabinet Office
National ministries
Equal
treatment
by
gender,
race/ethnicity and disability, education
and employment policy (as well as the
criminal justice system)
Name of guidelines
Policy Appraisal for Equal Treatment
Date when issued or adopted
1998
Aims and objectives
Guidelines issued to all government
departments
Three steps to appraise policy
• Check how the policy or programme
will affect different groups of people
(gender, race/ethnicity, disability),
for both direct and indirect impacts.
• Identify any adverse differential
impact (direct or indirect). Ensure
the result is not unlawful
discrimination. If the differential
impact is not illegal it is still
necessary to consider whether it can
be justified in policy terms.
• Take action to revise policy if
necessary
? (Not specified)
Women's Unit of the Cabinet Office
National
Development and recommendation of
gender equality policies for government
to consider
The Guidelines
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of
evaluation
monitoring
and
Obstacles
undermining
the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
? (Not specified)
•
•
•
Focus on 'gender proofing' as a
narrow
form
of
gender
mainstreaming
Guidelines too general and lack
specific examples of the types of
gender issues to consider
Lack of machinery for monitoring
and evaluation
Framework
for
Gender
impact
Assessment
Draft
under
consideration
by
government, 2000
To assist policymakers to undertake GI
assessments
Concrete and detailed steps to undertake
for GI assessment in five steps:
• Define policy issues and goals
• Collect data to assess differential
impact
• Develop policy options
• Communicate and implement policy
• Evaluate
If adopted then all government
departments will be required to conduct
GI assessments of all policy
• Specify targets
• Public
dissemination
and
consultation
• The guidelines are still being
considered and may be revised or
rejected.
• There may be political resistance to
the requirement to systematically
assess each policy
• There may be tensions in policy
priorities between the results of GI
assessment and policy appraisal for
other target groups.
Austria
Organisation
National ministry (initiated by an interdepartmental working group on GM)
National
Employment policy, NAP
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Public Employment Service
National
Labour market policy including
administration of ESF-projects
The Guidelines
Name of guidelines
No precise guidelines (letter to social
partners titled "anchoring of GM in the
different NAP areas")
(March 2000)
To motivate social partners to use GM
approach in their NAP contributions
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
Explanation of the GM-concept with
concrete examples of equal opportunity
measures
Method of implementation
None
Method of monitoring and evaluation
None
Obstacles which may limit
effectiveness of the GIA policy
•
the
•
No implemented policy, just a single
attempt to translate the GM concept
into practice
Lack of specific GI assessment
guidelines
No stand-alone paper (inclusion of
GIA method in internal instructions
of PES)
Planned
To consider gender relevant criteria
in all processes and areas of PES
activities
Consideration of the gender
dimension according to the GIA
scheme given by the EC
(participation, resources, norms,
rights)
General inclusion of GIA method in
basic internal instruction
Via the existing PES-quality
management system
? Too early to say, but competing
political priorities are likely
Finland
Type of Organisation
The Parliamentary Council of Equality and
the Ombudsman for Equality.
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
National.
The Council of Equality co-ordinates the
implementation of the national Plan of
Action for the promotion of gender
equality.
Name of guidelines
Developing mainstreaming methodology
(DMM).
By the end of year 2000.
The Parliamentary Council of
Equality and the Ombudsman for
Equality.
National.
Assessment of ESF projects.
The Guidelines
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
To create methodological package and an
approach which can enhance the
mainstreaming
of
equality
in
administrative activities and procedures.
Summary of contents
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and evaluation
Obstacles which may limit
effectiveness of the policy
Engendering evaluation of structural
policy
1998
the
The toolkit is targeted to authorities,
experts, evaluators, politicians as
well as to project leaders and NGOs,
who wish to work with opportunities
offered by regional and structural
policies.
To be published at the end of year 2000.
The toolkit comprises 60 methods
applicable to gender analysis. It
offers a choice of different methods
for the varying stages of assessment
starting from ex-ante evaluation of
the programming phase, continuing
through the interim evaluation of the
implementation phase and ending
with the ex-post evaluation.
The DMM project aims at publishing a The toolkit has been published as an
web-site including a comprehensive ESF publication.
information packaged on matters related to
gender mainstreaming.
? (Not specified)
? (Not specified)
The
web-site
is
designed
for
administration and its usefulness is directly
related to the ability of different ministries
to apply the given information in practice.
It is probable that further training is
required to achieve good results.
There appears to be no policy line
related to the practical application of
the suggested toolkit.
Sweden
Level of responsibility
Area of responsibility
Regional
Supervising, planning and authorisation
National
Policy formation
Name of guidelines
Key numbers of equal opportunities
Method for gender analysis
Date when issued or adopted
Aims and objectives
Summary of contents
May 1999
To reach 40-60 representation
• Process maps
• Targeted actions,
• Checklists,
• Key indicators
Method of implementation
Method of monitoring and evaluation
Adapting the process lists, formulating
the goals in relation to each step in the
planning process
Monitoring in the yearly accounts.
1999
Gender impact assessment
A four stage procedure. Definition of
target-groups, conditions for women
and men respectively in the policy area,
explain different/similar conditions for
women and men in the specific area,
measures planned in order to achieve
the gender policy objectives.
Analysis of resources , rights and
responsibilities from a gender
perspective
Auditing, and yearly accounts.
Obstacles which may limit the
effectiveness of the GIA policy
•
•
•
•
The Guidelines
Source: the national expert's reports.
Lack of interest and motivation
Availability of statistics can be a
problem.
Lack of interest and motivation
Availability of statistics can be a
problem.