Stories from the Front Lines: Making Sense of Gender Mainstreaming in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Scala ◽  
Stephanie Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Implementation Research ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Micro Level

Gender mainstreaming (GM) is a strategy used by governments to promote gender equality. It entails integrating gender and intersectional considerations into all aspects of policy work, including policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation. However, its success in achieving gender equality and social transformation has been limited. Drawing on implementation research and narrative analysis, this article explores the micro-level dynamics and the local actors that help shape the character and outcome of gender mainstreaming. Using narrative analysis, we explore how GM specialists within the Canadian public service make sense of their role, and we identify the strategies they use to make gender matter in policy work. By examining their stories of isolation, disempowerment, and resistance, we uncover the administrative and political forces that shape not only the “space” for gender work but also the opportunities for individual activism and resistance. These stories convey how, by engaging in these micro-level strategies, GM specialists both challenge and reinscribe, at the macro level, technocratic representations of GM and of policy work in general. We conclude with some reflections on the insights that micro-level analysis and implementation research can bring to the study of gender mainstreaming.

Gendering Public Policy or Rationalizing Gender? Strategic Interventions and GBA+ Practice in Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Scala ◽  
Stephanie Paterson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Public Bureaucracy ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Relational Strategies

AbstractThe debate surrounding the transformative potential of gender mainstreaming has revived concerns of co-optation of equality work and resistance first expressed by early feminist public administration scholars. In this article, we explore how gender analysts exercised their agency and carved out spaces within the bureaucracy to articulate and advance a gender focus in policy work. Employing discursive, institutional and relational strategies, gender analysts simultaneously used and pushed back against hierarchical bureaucratic discourses as they operationalized Gender-Based Analysis Plus (GBA+) in the federal public bureaucracy. These micro-level acts of resistance, on their own, do not lead to social transformation. However, by creating spaces for feminist knowledge and activism within the state, these local strategies can contribute to the broader feminist agenda.

Gender equality in Europe: measures and indicators

2019 ◽  
pp. 75-100
Author(s):  
Vera Lomazzi ◽  
Isabella Crespi
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Working Mothers ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Complex Task ◽  
European Institute ◽  
Survey Population ◽  
The Status ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Critical Overview

This chapter dealswith the complex task of measuring gender equality across European countriesby assuming two principal perspectives: the use of macro indicators, developed using gender statistics and describingthe country’s situation;and the employment of micro-level indicators, which are built on survey-population measurements, such as ISSP and Eurobarometer, and refer to individuals’ perspectives on gender issues. The critical overview provided on the international indicesspeaks to different conceptualisations of gender equality. This requires awareness not only among scholars interested in the study of gender equality, but also among policymakers and audit bodies that evaluate policies. The EIGE Gender Equality Index, developed in the gender-mainstreaming perspective’s framework by the European Institute for Gender Equality,appears particularly meaningful for evaluating gender equality according to the overall European strategy. The measurement of gender-equality issues through surveys needs better conceptualisations, which so farmainly refer to women’s double role as working mothers, thereby neglecting gender equality’s multidimensionality and the fact that it encompasses the status of both women and men.

Panpsychism versus Panprotopsychism and the Subject-Summing Problem

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Goff
Keyword(s):  
Macro Level ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Combination Problem ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Micro Level ◽  
Russellian Monism ◽  
Nature Of Matter

This is the first of two chapters discussing the most notorious problem facing Russellian monism: the combination problem. This is actually a family of difficulties, each reflecting the challenge of how to make sense of everyday human and animal experience intelligibly arising from more fundamental conscious or protoconscious features of reality. Key challenges facing panpsychist and panpsychist forms of Russellian monism are considered. With respect to panprotopsychism, there is the worry that it collapses into noumenalism: the view that human beings, by their very nature, are unable to understand the concrete, categorical nature of matter. With respect to panpsychism, there is the subject-summing problem: the difficulty making sense of how micro-level conscious subjects combine to produce macro-level conscious subjects. A solution to the subject-summing problem is proposed, and it is ultimately argued that panpsychist forms of the Russellian monism are to be preferred on grounds of simplicity and elegance.

The Role of Local Actors in Peacekeeping: The Cases of Liberia and Sierra Leone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Sempijja ◽  
Ekeminiabasi Eyita-Okon
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Policy Work

With the advent of multidimensional peacekeeping, in considering the changing nature of conflicts in the post–Cold War period, the role of local actors has become crucial to the execution of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mandate. Just as peacekeeping does not have space in the UN charter, local actors do not have a clearly defined space in the UN-led conflict resolution process. However, they have gained recognition, especially in policy work, and slowly in the academic discourse, as academics and practitioners have begun to find ways of making peacekeeping and peacebuilding more effective in the 21st century. Therefore the construction and perception of local actors by international arbitrators play an important and strategic role in creating and shaping space for the former to actively establish peace where violent conflict is imminent. Local actors have independently occupied spaces during and after the conflict, and although they bring a comparative advantage, especially as gatekeepers to local communities, they have largely been kept on the periphery.

Policy advisory styles in the francophone Belgian civil service

2018 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 463-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Aubin ◽  
Marleen Brans
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Administrative System ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Internal Information

In a context of the rising importance of ministerial advisers, this article provides empirical evidence about the nature of involvement of civil servants in policy work. Based on a survey of graduated civil servants in francophone Belgium, it shows that civil servants are much involved in policy work even in a politico-administrative system characterised by strong ministerial cabinets. Belgian francophone civil servants are ‘incidental advisors’. They are less process generalists than issue specialists who mostly deal with policy implementation. Their policy advisory style oscillates between ‘rational technician’ and ‘client advisor’. Despite a low institutionalisation of policy advice in the civil service, civil servants significantly serve the ministers in the policy formulation (for harmonization) phase, supplying information and analysis and participating to the writing of policy-related texts. Points for practitioners The francophone Belgian case shows the importance of policy tasks conducted by civil servants. It also provides evidence about the importance of in-house policy-analytical capacity as it shows that civil servants primarily rely on internal information sources and consultation when involved in policy formulation.

scholarly journals Confusion and Making Sense of Menstruation: A Micro-level Study of Village Khagawal, Chandauli District, Uttar Pradesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 86-98
Author(s):  
Sumedha ◽  
Suman Singh
Keyword(s):  
Information Overload ◽  
Uttar Pradesh ◽  
Menstrual Disorders ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Entire Process ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Grass Root ◽  
Micro Level

Menstruation is a natural process which has significant and irrevocable changes on a woman’s life. Navigating the entire process is no small feat, and the added confusion in the age of information overload often complicates the situation rather than simplifying it. In India, discourses surrounding menstruation are still restricted to sanitary napkins while overlooking menstrual disorders, understanding and examining the agencies responsible for it. Many a time, ancient pearls of wisdom are being dismissed as taboos without apprehending its deeper sciences which helped women in traversing the entire process since time immemorial. This research is an attempt to view menstruation holistically by giving importance to a woman’s personal experiences and to find out how menstruation is integrated into the local culture. To accomplish the research, we conducted a questionnaire survey amongst 40 females aged 13-49 years and three focus group discussions to explore the coping mechanisms, the grass-root problems the rural girls and women face during menstruation in village Khagawal located in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. The findings revealed that rudimentary information concerning menstruation was present amongst the respondents— the respondents are aware of the traditional knowledge and ways but completely ignorant regarding the scientific roots of the practices. Some facets of hygiene need to be addressed.

scholarly journals PELAKSANAAN PROGRAM SEKOLAH BERWAWASAN GENDER DI PROPINSI RIAU

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Yenita Roza
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Program Implementation ◽  
Learning Outcome ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Orientation Program ◽  
Government Program ◽  
Indonesian Government ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Implementation Data

Gender mainstreaming being the big issues lately included in Indonesia. To improve the gender equality access for education Indonesian government been launching the schools program name “ Sekolah Berwawasan Gender”.  The aim of this study is to explore the schools’ achievement on that government program in The Province of Riau. Giving orientation program, schools were required to design and implement their specific program. Schools also get funded to accelerate their program. The assessment were done based on 10 standard on indicator of the program implementation. Data were collected through questionnaire and direct observation to the schools. This paper discuss finding based on the 10 standard that grouped into schools level and region of the schools. It was found that the highest achievement is reached for standard 3 (85%) that deal with learning outcome, the lowest achievement is given to the standard 5  (56%) about schools’ facilities. This finding will be used as recommendation for the schools and government to improve their program design and implementation of gender equality program.

scholarly journals Measurement Invariance of the Sensitive Assessment for Gender Equality (SAGE) Index Across Degree: Findings from two Teacher Education Programmes in Spain

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 157
Author(s):  
Cristina Miralles-Cardona ◽  
Esther Chiner ◽  
María Cristina Cardona-Moltó​
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Education ◽  
Elementary School ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Elementary School Student

Western European countries have made impressive gender equality (GE) progress in education during the last few decades. Unfortunately, the implementation of gender mainstreaming (GM) in higher education has not been satisfactory. This paper describes a survey-based research study designed to explore student teachers’ perceptions of training for GE in teacher education (TE) using the Sensitive Assessment for Gender Equality (SAGE) index. The study firstly aims to analyse the factor invariance across degree of the SAGE and secondly tries to describe the status of GM implementation in teacher education programmes from students’ perspectives. Data were collected from 398 student teachers (84% female) aged 21.44, enrolled on two TE programmes from a public higher education institution in the Autonomous Region of Valencia (Spain). Using single and multi-group CFA the study revealed that the proposed three-factor structure of the SAGE fitted well to early childhood and elementary school student teachers’ data, thus suggesting equivalence between its components in both samples. Early childhood students scored significantly higher than elementary school student teachers in their reported perceptions of gender equality training and awareness of gender inequalities. Results will be displayed in terms of identifying institutional and curricular needs for GE education practices as findings reveal a clear demand for change.

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