Gender-sensitive Parliaments

This tool is designed to benefit the following parliamentary groups and structures presented in the list below. Not all groups and structures mentioned here are present in all parliaments.

Groups and structures in parliament who can benefit from this tool

Parliamentary leaders

Parliamentary leaders (bureaus, presidiums, boards and other leadership bodies) can be supported by this tool to establish the necessary support structures to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a gender equality action plan, and to allocate the sufficient human and financial resources for ensuring the plan’s success.

High-level working groups or committees

The tool describes how high-level working groups or committees established for the concrete purpose of delivering a gender equality action plan can support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a gender equality action plan.

Permanent gender equality offices

The ways in which the gender equality offices that sit in the parliamentary administration can use their gender expertise to provide technical support for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of a gender equality action plan initiative are laid out in this tool.

Gender equality committees

The tool includes measures that gender equality committees, as cross-party structures of the parliament, can take to improve the general legal framework for gender equality in their country, promote gender mainstreaming in their own legislative work, and carry out oversight of gender equality in government action.

Women’s caucuses

This tool describes how women’s caucuses that bring together women members of parliament (MPs) from different political parties can help the parliament to identify key gender equality concerns in the institution, raise cross-party support of the gender equality action plan, and advocate for gender-sensitive legislative outputs and policies.

MPs

MPs can be supported by this tool to tackle gender inequalities that they may experience in their workplace (e.g. a lack of gender representation amongst their peers or a poor working environment that fails to prevent gender-based violence) and facilitate gender-responsive institutional transformation. The support of MPs is crucial for achieving a gender-sensitive parliament.

Parliamentary employees

The tool shows how the parliamentary administration (ranging from administrative staff to staff that maintain the facility, and other staff that support the functioning of the institution) can provide technical support for a gender equality action plan and can ensure that the lessons learned are embedded within the institution and are carried across different terms.

Staff of MPs

This tool describes how staff of MPs (employees hired directly by MPs who provide various forms of administrative, executive and research support) can facilitate the implementation of gender equality action plans by supporting MPs in mainstreaming a gender perspective into their legislative work, or by conducting research on how gender inequalities impact the constituencies of their employers.

External experts or stakeholders

This tool describes how external experts or stakeholders (i.e. gender-sensitive parliaments experts, international organisations, academics and civil society representatives) can increase the capacity of the parliament to carry out gender-sensitive reforms, can raise societal awareness of the parliament’s efforts to advance gender equality in the institution and in the country and can remind parliaments of the commitments outlined in their gender equality action plans.