Define

In this phase, it is recommended that information is gathered on the situation of women and men in a particular area. This means looking for sex-disaggregated data and gender statistics, and checking for the existence of studies, programme or project reports and/or evaluations from previous periods.

Did you know that EIGE has a Gender Statistics Database? Check whether there are relevant statistics to feed into your analysis.

Examples of gender and employment statistics

Examples of studies, research and reports

Did you know that EIGE has a resource and documentation centre? Check whether there is relevant information to feed into your analysis.

One of the first steps to take when defining your policy/project/programme is to gather information and analyse the situation of women and men in the respective policy area. The information and data you collect will allow an understanding of the reality and assist you in designing your policy, programme or project. Specific methods that can be used in this phase are gender analysis and gender impact assessment.

Examples of gender analysis

Examples of gender impact assessments

Consider consulting stakeholders (e.g. gender experts, civil society organisations) on the topic at hand, to share and validate your findings and to improve your policy or programme proposal. This will enhance the learning process on the subject for all those involved and will improve the quality of the work performed at the EU level.

Examples of stakeholders that can be consulted

For a more detailed description of how gender can be mainstreamed in this phase of the policy cycle, visit EIGE's Gender Mainstreaming Platform.

Plan

In this phase, it’s appropriate to analyse budgets from a gender perspective. Gender budgeting is used to identify how budget allocations contribute to promoting gender equality. Gender budgeting brings visibility to how much public money is spent for women and men respectively. Thus, gender budgeting ensures that public funds are fairly distributed between women and men. It also contributes to accountability and transparency about how public funds are being spent.

Example of gender budgeting in employment

Examples of indicators for monitoring gender and employment

Analyses often consider the question of employment and the participation rate of women and men without considering the quality of their working situation and the segregation issue. In some circumstances the consideration of only one dimension might give a misleading picture of the situation and lead to the idea that women’s situation in the labour market is better than men’s.

Indeed, as traditional measures of employment rely on headcount measures for employment, they fail to account for women’s over-representation in part-time work. In order to assess the impact of gender norms and women’s and men’s labour force participation with regard to part-time work and self-employment, new indicators have been developed, as explained below.

For a more detailed description of how gender can be mainstreamed in this phase of the policy cycle, visit EIGE's Gender Mainstreaming Platform.

Act

In the implementation phase of a policy or programme, ensure that all those involved are sufficiently aware about the relevant gender objectives and plans. If not, set up briefings and capacity-building initiatives according to staff needs. Think about including researchers, proposal evaluators, monitoring and evaluation experts, scientific officers, programme committee members, etc.

Example of capacity-building initiatives about gender and employment

Examples of awareness-raising in gender and employment

For a more detailed description of how gender can be mainstreamed in this phase of the policy cycle, visit EIGE's Gender Mainstreaming Platform.

Check

 A policy cycle or programme should be checked both during – monitoring, and at the end – evaluation – of its implementation.

Monitoring the ongoing work allows for the follow-up of progress and remedying unforeseen difficulties. This process should take into account the indicators delineated in the planning phase and realign data collection based on those indicators.

At the end of a policy cycle or programme, a gender-sensitive evaluation should take place. Make your evaluation publicly accessible and strategically disseminate its results to promote learning potential.

Example of gender monitoring and evaluation on employment

For a more detailed description of how gender can be mainstreamed in this phase of the policy cycle, visit EIGE's Gender Mainstreaming Platform.