Background
The
1997 Treaty of Amsterdam places equality between women and men among the
explicit tasks of the European Union and obliges the EU to promote gender
equality in all its tasks and activities. In the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming
it is recognised that gender should be an essential part of policies on science,
labour market and employment, development co-operation and education. The
Gender Mainstreaming approach that has been legitimated by this Treaty
is backed by legislation and by positive action in favour of women (or the "under-represented sex").
With regard to gender inequality, the EU has both a formal EU problem definition
at the present time, and a formalised set of EU strategies.
The world-wide adoption of the Gender Mainstreaming
strategy can be traced back to the UN-conference in Beijing, and is connected
to earlier agreements, such as CEDAW. Since Beijing, the EU has been among
the major pioneers in developing Gender Mainstreaming, both by starting a
process of Gender Mainstreaming within the European Commission itself, by
diffusing information to Member States and candidate states in a number of
conferences and seminars (in Brussels, Bled, London), and through the reorganisation
of EU-policies so that Member States can hardly escape engaging in Gender
Mainstreaming too (as in the case of the new regulations for the Structural
Funds). After Beijing, several national governments have also announced that
Gender Mainstreaming will be adopted as part of their continuous efforts
to achieve gender equality. Countries such as Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands
took the lead in developing specific tools. At yet another level, supranational
organisations such as the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Council of Europe,
the World Bank and the ILO started initiatives directed at their respective
constituencies. At most levels, feminist movements exert pressure in favour
of Gender Mainstreaming.
|
