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  • Menu
  • Gender mainstreaming
    • What is Gender mainstreaming
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    • Toolkits
      • Gender Equality Training
        • Back to toolkit page
        • What is Gender Equality Training
        • Why invest in Gender Equality Training
        • Who should use Gender Equality Training
        • Step-by-step guide to Gender Equality Training
            • 1. Assess the needs
            • 2. Integrate initiatives to broader strategy
            • 3. Ensure sufficient resources
            • 4. Write good terms of reference
            • 5. Select a trainer
            • 6. Engage in the needs assessment
            • 7. Actively participate in the initiative
            • 8. Invite others to join in
            • 9. Monitoring framework and procedures
            • 10. Set up an evaluation framework
            • 11. Assess long-term impacts
            • 12. Give space and support others
        • Designing effective Gender Equality Training
        • Gender Equality Training in the EU
        • Good Practices on Gender Equality Training
        • More resources on Gender Equality Training
        • More on EIGE's work on Gender Equality Training
      • Gender Impact Assessment
        • Back to toolkit page
        • What is Gender Impact Assessment
        • Why use Gender Impact Assessment
        • Who should use Gender Impact Assessment
        • When to use Gender Impact Assessment
        • Guide to Gender Impact Assessment
          • Step 1: Definition of policy purpose
          • Step 2: Checking gender relevance
          • Step 3: Gender-sensitive analysis
          • Step 4: Weighing gender impact
          • Step 5: Findings and proposals for improvement
        • Following up on gender impact assessment
        • General considerations
        • Examples from the EU
            • European Commission
            • Austria
            • Belgium
            • Denmark
            • Finland
            • Sweden
            • Basque country
            • Catalonia
            • Lower Saxony
            • Swedish municipalities
      • Institutional Transformation
        • Back to toolkit page
        • What is Institutional Transformation
          • Institutional transformation and gender: Key points
          • Gender organisations
          • Types of institutions
          • Gender mainstreaming and institutional transformation
          • Dimensions of gender mainstreaming in institutions: The SPO model
        • Why focus on Institutional Transformation
          • Motivation model
        • Who the guide is for
        • Guide to Institutional Transformation
            • 1. Creating accountability and strengthening commitment
            • 2. Allocating resources
            • 3. Conducting an organisational analysis
            • 4. Developing a strategy and work plan
            • 5. Establishing a support structure
            • 6. Setting gender equality objectives
            • 7. Communicating gender mainstreaming
            • 8. Introducing gender mainstreaming
            • 9. Developing gender equality competence
            • 10. Establishing a gender information management system
            • 11. Launching gender equality action plans
            • 12. Promotional equal opportunities
            • 13. Monitoring and steering organisational change
        • Dealing with resistance
          • Discourse level
          • Individual level
          • Organisational level
          • Statements and reactions
        • Checklist: Key questions for change
        • Examples from the EU
            • 1. Strengthening accountability
            • 2. Allocating resources
            • 3. Organisational analysis
            • 4. Developing a strategy and working plan
            • 5. Establishing a support structure
            • 6. Setting objectives
            • 7. Communicating gender mainstreaming
            • 8. Introducing methods and tools
            • 9. Developing Competence
            • 10. Establishing a gender information management system
            • 11. Launching action plans
            • 12. Promoting within an organisation
            • 13. Monitoring and evaluating
      • Gender Equality in Academia and Research
        • Back to toolkit page
        • WHAT
          • What is a Gender Equality Plan?
          • Terms and definitions
          • Which stakeholders need to be engaged into a GEP
          • About the Gear Tool
        • WHY
          • Horizon Europe GEP criterion
          • Gender Equality in Research and Innovation
          • Why change must be structural
          • Rationale for gender equality change in research and innovation
          • GEAR step-by-step guide for research organisations, universities and public bodies
            • Step 1: Getting started
            • Step 2: Analysing and assessing the state-of-play in the institution
            • Step 3: Setting up a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 4: Implementing a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 5: Monitoring progress and evaluating a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 6: What comes after the Gender Equality Plan?
          • GEAR step-by-step guide for research funding bodies
            • Step 1: Getting started
            • Step 2: Analysing and assessing the state-of-play in the institution
            • Step 3: Setting up a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 4: Implementing a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 5: Monitoring progress and evaluating a Gender Equality Plan
            • Step 6: What comes after the Gender Equality Plan?
          • GEAR action toolbox
            • Work-life balance and organisational culture
            • Gender balance in leadership and decision making
            • Gender equality in recruitment and career progression
            • Integration of the sex/gender dimension into research and teaching content
            • Measures against gender-based violence including sexual harassment
            • Measures mitigating the effect of COVID-19
            • Data collection and monitoring
            • Training: awareness-raising and capacity building
            • GEP development and implementation
            • Gender-sensitive research funding procedures
          • Success factors for GEP development and implementation
          • Challenges & resistance
        • WHERE
          • Austria
          • Belgium
          • Bulgaria
          • Croatia
          • Cyprus
          • Czechia
          • Denmark
          • Estonia
          • Finland
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Hungary
          • Ireland
          • Italy
          • Latvia
          • Lithuania
          • Luxembourg
          • Malta
          • Netherlands
          • Poland
          • Portugal
          • Romania
          • Slovakia
          • Slovenia
          • Spain
          • Sweden
          • United Kingdom
      • Gender-sensitive Parliaments
        • Back to toolkit page
        • What is the tool for?
        • Who is the tool for?
        • How to use the tool
        • Self-assessment, scoring and interpretation of parliament gender-sensitivity
          • AREA 1 – Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
            • Domain 1 – Electoral system and gender quotas
            • Domain 2 - Political party/group procedures
            • Domain 3 – Recruitment of parliamentary employees
          • AREA 2 – Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
            • Domain 1 – Parliamentarians’ presence and capacity in a parliament
            • Domain 2 – Structure and organisation
            • Domain 3 – Staff organisation and procedures
          • AREA 3 – Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
            • Domain 1 – Gender mainstreaming structures
            • Domain 2 – Gender mainstreaming tools in parliamentary work
            • Domain 3 – Gender mainstreaming tools for staff
          • AREA 4 – The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
            • Domain 1 – Gender equality laws and policies
            • Domain 2 – Gender mainstreaming in laws
            • Domain 3 – Oversight of gender equality
          • AREA 5 – The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
            • Domain 1 – Symbolic meanings of spaces
            • Domain 2 – Gender equality in external communication and representation
        • How gender-sensitive are parliaments in the EU?
        • Examples of gender-sensitive practices in parliaments
          • Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
          • Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
          • Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
          • The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
          • The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
        • Glossary of terms
        • References and resources
      • Gender Budgeting
        • Back to toolkit page
        • Who is this toolkit for?
        • What is gender budgeting?
          • Introducing gender budgeting
          • Gender budgeting in women’s and men’s lived realities
          • What does gender budgeting involve in practice?
          • Gender budgeting in the EU Funds
            • Gender budgeting as a way of complying with EU legal requirements
            • Gender budgeting as a way of promoting accountability and transparency
            • Gender budgeting as a way of increasing participation in budget processes
            • Gender budgeting as a way of advancing gender equality
        • Why is gender budgeting important in the EU Funds?
          • Three reasons why gender budgeting is crucial in the EU Funds
        • How can we apply gender budgeting in the EU Funds? Practical tools and Member State examples
          • Tool 1: Connecting the EU Funds with the EU’s regulatory framework on gender equality
            • Legislative and regulatory basis for EU policies on gender equality
            • Concrete requirements for considering gender equality within the EU Funds
            • EU Funds’ enabling conditions
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 2: Analysing gender inequalities and gender needs at the national and sub-national levels
            • Steps to assess and analyse gender inequalities and needs
            • Step 1. Collect information and disaggregated data on the target group
            • Step 2. Identify existing gender inequalities and their underlying causes
            • Step 3. Consult directly with the target groups
            • Step 4. Draw conclusions
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 3: Operationalising gender equality in policy objectives and specific objectives/measures
            • Steps for operationalising gender equality in Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes
            • General guidance on operationalising gender equality when developing policy objectives, specific objectives and measures
            • Checklist for putting the horizontal principle of gender equality into practice in Partnership Agreements
            • Checklist for putting the horizontal principle of gender equality into practice in Operational Programmes
            • Examples of integrating gender equality as a horizontal principle in policy objectives and specific objectives
          • Tool 4: Coordination and complementarities between the EU Funds to advance work-life balance
            • Steps for enhancing coordination and complementarities between the funds
            • Step 1. Alignment with the EU’s strategic engagement goals for gender equality and national gender equality goals
            • Steps 2 and 3. Identifying and developing possible work-life balance interventions
            • Step 4. Following-up through the use of indicators within M&E systems
            • Fictional case study 1: reconciling paid work and childcare
            • Fictional case study 2: reconciling shift work and childcare
            • Fictional case study 3: balancing care for oneself and others
            • Fictional case study 4: reconciling care for children and older persons with shift work
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 5: Defining partnerships and multi-level governance
            • Steps for defining partnerships and multi-level governance
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 6: Developing quantitative and qualitative indicators for advancing gender equality
            • Steps to develop quantitative and qualitative indicators
            • ERDF and Cohesion Fund
            • ESF+
            • EMFF
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 7: Defining gender-sensitive project selection criteria
            • Steps to support gender-sensitive project development and selection
            • Checklist to guide the preparation of calls for project proposals
            • Checklist for project selection criteria
            • Supplementary tool 7.a: Gender-responsive agreements with project implementers
          • Tool 8: Tracking resource allocations for gender equality in the EU Funds
            • Ensuring gender relevance in EU Funds
            • The tracking system
            • Steps for tracking resource allocations on gender equality
            • Step 1: Ex ante approach
            • Step 2: Ex post approach
            • Examples of Step 2a
            • Annex 1: Ex ante assignment of intervention fields to the gender equality dimension codes
            • Annex 2: The EU’s gender equality legal and policy framework
          • Tool 9: Mainstreaming gender equality in project design
            • Steps to mainstream gender equality in project design
            • Step 1. Alignment with partnership agreements’ and Operational Programmes’ gender objectives and indicators
            • Step 2. Project development and application
            • Step 3. Project implementation
            • Step 4. Project assessment
          • Tool 10: Integrating a gender perspective in monitoring and evaluation processes
            • Steps to integrate a gender perspective in M&E processes
            • Additional resources
          • Tool 11: Reporting on resource spending for gender equality in the EU Funds
            • Tracking expenditures for gender equality
            • Additional resources
          • References
          • Abbreviations
          • Acknowledgements
      • Gender-responsive Public Procurement
        • Back to toolkit page
        • Who is this toolkit for?
          • Guiding you through the toolkit
        • What is gender-responsive public procurement?
          • How is gender-responsive public procurement linked to gender equality?
          • How is gender-responsive public procurement linked to gender budgeting?
          • Five reasons why gender-responsive public procurement
          • Why was this toolkit produced
        • Gender-responsive public procurement in practice
          • Legal framework cross-references gender equality and public procurement
          • Public procurement strategies cover GRPP
          • Gender equality action plans or strategies mention public procurement
          • Capacity-building programmes, support structures
          • Regular collaboration between gender equality bodies
          • Effective monitoring and reporting systems on the use of GRPP
          • Tool 1:Self-assessment questionnaire about the legal
          • Tool 2: Overview of the legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks
        • How to include gender aspects in tendering procedures
          • Pre-procurement stage
            • Needs assessment
            • Tool 3: Decision tree to assess the gender relevance
            • Preliminary market consultation
            • Tool 4: Guiding questions for needs assessment
            • Defining the subject matter of the contract
            • Choosing the procedure
            • Tool 5: Decision tree for the choice of procedure for GRPP
            • Dividing the contract into lots
            • Tool 6: Guiding questions for dividing contracts into lots for GRPP
            • Light regime for social, health and other specific services
            • Tool 7: Guiding questions for applying GRPP under the light regime
            • Tool 8: Guiding questions for applying GRPP under the light regime
            • Reserved contracts
            • Preparing tender documents
          • Procurement stage
            • Exclusion grounds
            • Selection criteria
            • Technical specifications
            • Tool 9: Decision tree for setting GRPP selection criteria
            • Award criteria
            • Tool 10: Formulating GRPP award criteria
            • Tool 11: Bidders’ concepts to ensure the integration of gender aspects
            • Use of labels/certifications
          • Post-procurement stage
            • Tool 12: Checklist for including GRPP contract performance conditions
            • Subcontracting
            • Monitoring
            • Reporting
            • Tool 13: Template for a GRPP monitoring and reporting plan
        • References
        • Additional resources
    • Methods and tools
      • Browse
      • About EIGE's methods and tools
      • Gender analysis
      • Gender audit
      • Gender awareness-raising
      • Gender budgeting
      • Gender impact assessment
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      • Examples of methods and tools
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    • Good practices
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    • Country specific information
      • Belgium
        • Overview
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        • Overview
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        • Overview
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        • Overview
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        • Overview
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        • Overview
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        • Overview
    • EIGE’s publications on Gender mainstreaming
    • Concepts and definitions
    • Power Up conference 2019
  • Gender-based violence
    • What is gender-based violence?
    • Forms of violence
    • EIGE’s work on gender-based violence
    • Administrative data collection
      • Data collection on violence against women
        • The need to improve data collection
        • Advancing administrative data collection on Intimate partner violence and gender-related killings of women
        • Improving police and justice data on intimate partner violence against women in the European Union
        • Developing EU-wide terminology and indicators for data collection on violence against women
        • Mapping the current status and potential of administrative data sources on gender-based violence in the EU
      • About the tool
      • Administrative data sources
      • Advanced search
    • Analysis of EU directives from a gendered perspective
    • Costs of gender-based violence
    • Cyber violence against women
    • Femicide
    • Intimate partner violence and witness intervention
    • Female genital mutilation
      • Risk estimations
    • Risk assessment and risk management by police
      • Risk assessment principles and steps
          • Principle 1: Prioritising victim safety
          • Principle 2: Adopting a victim-centred approach
          • Principle 3: Taking a gender-specific approach
          • Principle 4: Adopting an intersectional approach
          • Principle 5: Considering children’s experiences
          • Step 1: Define the purpose and objectives of police risk assessment
          • Step 2: Identify the most appropriate approach to police risk assessment
          • Step 3: Identify the most relevant risk factors for police risk assessment
          • Step 4: Implement systematic police training and capacity development
          • Step 5: Embed police risk assessment in a multiagency framework
          • Step 6: Develop procedures for information management and confidentiality
          • Step 7: Monitor and evaluate risk assessment practices and outcomes
      • Risk management principles and recommendations
        • Principle 1. Adopting a gender-specific approach
        • Principle 2. Introducing an individualised approach to risk management
        • Principle 3. Establishing an evidence-based approach
        • Principle 4. Underpinning the processes with an outcome-focused approach
        • Principle 5. Delivering a coordinated, multiagency response
      • Legal and policy framework
      • Tools and approaches
      • Areas for improvement
      • References
    • Good practices in EU Member States
    • Methods and tools in EU Member States
    • White Ribbon Campaign
      • About the White Ribbon Campaign
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      • First steps towards more inclusive language
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        • Choosing whether to mention gender
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        • Stereotypes
          • Avoid gendered pronouns (he or she) when the person’s gender is unknown
          • Avoid irrelevant information about gender
          • Avoid gendered stereotypes as descriptive terms
          • Gendering in-animate objects
          • Using different adjectives for women and men
          • Avoid using stereotypical images
        • Invisibility and omission
          • Do not use ‘man’ as the neutral term
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        • Quiz 1: Policy document
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        • Quiz 3: Legal text
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    • Work-life balance in the ICT sector
      • Back to toolkit page
      • EU policies on work-life balance
      • Women in the ICT sector
      • The argument for work-life balance measures
        • Challenges
      • Step-by-step approach to building a compelling business case
        • Step 1: Identify national work-life balance initiatives and partners
        • Step 2: Identify potential resistance and find solutions
        • Step 3: Maximise buy-in from stakeholders
        • Step 4: Design a solid implementation plan
        • Step 5: Carefully measure progress
        • Step 6: Highlight benefits and celebrate early wins
      • Toolbox for planning work-life balance measures in ICT companies
      • Work–life balance checklist
    • Gender Equality Index 2019. Work-life balance
      • Back to toolkit page
      • Foreword
      • Highlights
      • Introduction
        • Still far from the finish line
        • Snail’s-pace progress on gender equality in the EU continues
        • More women in decision-making drives progress
        • Convergence on gender equality in the EU
      • 2. Domain of work
        • Gender equality inching slowly forward in a fast-changing world of work
        • Women dominate part-time employment, consigning them to jobs with poorer career progression
        • Motherhood, low education and migration are particular barriers to work for women
      • 3. Domain of money
        • Patchy progress on gender-equal access to financial and economic resources
        • Paying the price for motherhood
        • Lifetime pay inequalities fall on older women
      • 4. Domain of knowledge
        • Gender equality in education standing still even as women graduates outnumber men graduates
        • Both women and men limit their study fields
        • Adult learning stalls most when reskilling needs are greatest
      • 5. Domain of time
        • Enduring burden of care perpetuates inequalities for women
        • Uneven impact of family life on women and men
      • 6. Domain of power
        • More women in decision-making but still a long way to go
        • Democracy undermined by absence of gender parity in politics
        • More gender equality on corporate boards — but only in a few Member States
        • Limited opportunities for women to influence social and cultural decision-making
      • 7. Domain of health
        • Behavioural change in health is key to tackling gender inequalities
        • Women live longer but in poorer health
        • Lone parents and people with disabilities are still without the health support they need
      • 8. Domain of violence
        • Data gaps mask the true scale of gender-based violence in the EU
        • Backlash against gender equality undermines legal efforts to end violence against women
        • Conceptual framework
        • Parental-leave policies
        • Informal care of older people, people with disabilities and long-term care services
        • Informal care of children and childcare services
        • Transport and public infrastructure
        • Flexible working arrangements
        • Lifelong learning
      • 10. Conclusions
    • Sexism at work
      • Background
        • What is sexism?
        • What is the impact of sexism at work?
        • Where does sexism come from?
        • Sexism at work
        • What happens when you violate sexist expectations?
        • What is sexual harassment?
        • Violating sexist expectations can lead to sexual harassment
        • Under-reporting of sexual harassment
      • Part 2. Test yourself
        • How can I combat sexism? A ten-step programme for managers
        • How can all staff create cultural change
        • How can I report a problem?
        • Eradicating sexism to change the face of the EU
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  • Gender Equality Training

Gender Equality Training

PrintDownload as PDF
  • Back to toolkit page
  • What is Gender Equality Training
  • Why invest in Gender Equality Training
  • Who should use Gender Equality Training
  • Step-by-step guide to Gender Equality Training
    • Preparation phase
      • 1. Assess the needs
      • 2. Integrate initiatives to broader strategy
      • 3. Ensure sufficient resources
      • 4. Write good terms of reference
      • 5. Select a trainer
    • Implementation phase
      • 6. Engage in the needs assessment
      • 7. Actively participate in the initiative
      • 8. Invite others to join in
      • 9. Monitoring framework and procedures
    • Evaluation and follow-up phase
      • 10. Set up an evaluation framework
      • 11. Assess long-term impacts
      • 12. Give space and support others
  • Designing effective Gender Equality Training
  • Gender Equality Training in the EU
  • Good Practices on Gender Equality Training
  • More resources on Gender Equality Training
  • More on EIGE's work on Gender Equality Training

Gender equality training in the European Union

  • Legal and policy framework
  • Provision of GET in the EU
  • Challenges in the provision of GET
  • Previous efforts

Commitment to mainstreaming gender in the EU

Gender mainstreaming has been adopted as a strategy by EU institutions to promote gender equality in policies and programmes and ensure gender equality between women and men.

  • Several EU treaties emphasise that the Union should work to eliminate gender inequalities and promote transversal equality in all its activities. Gender mainstreaming was established as a policy norm in the Treaty of Nice (2003) and the Treaty of Lisbon (2009)
  • Gender mainstreaming has been a long-standing priority of the European Commission. In March 2010, the Commission presented a ‘Women’s Charter’ expressing its increased commitment to gender equality over the next five years. The charter reinforced the Commission’s obligation to mainstreaming gender.
  • Gender mainstreaming is a key component of the current Commission’s Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010–2015, and is promoted as ‘an integral part of the Commission’s policymaking’. In this follow-up process to the Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men, the Commission emphasises the need to develop and make use of specific methodological gendered tools to foster the concrete implementation of the gender-mainstreaming strategy.
  • In the European Pact for Gender Equality (2011–2020), the European Council highlighted that de facto gender equality had yet to be attained and stressed the need to integrate gender in a transversal way into all EU policy, in particular in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Council recalls that ‘mainstreaming the principle of equality between women and men in all its activities represents a general aim for the Union’. By integrating the gender perspective into all policy areas, gender mainstreaming is also considered a tool to promote and reinforce good governance.
  • Besides stressing the need to effectively mainstream the gender dimension in the work of national administrations, in 2009 the European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men recommended that Member States ensure that ‘those with responsibilities for gender equality in national administrations are effectively supported and resourced’.

Provision of Gender Equality Training in the EU and differing approaches

In most Member States, policy documents do not emphasise capacity-development tools (such as training) as a prerequisite for the effective integration of gender considerations into the policy process. Despite a strong legal commitment to gender equality, the implementation of gender competence development initiatives rarely constitutes a consistent part of gender-mainstreaming strategies, gender-equality strategies or action plans.

Policy documents of Member StatesGender competence development

Member States have adopted differing approaches towards the provision of gender-equality training. Some integrate gender aspects into the core training process of civil servants; others run separate gender-equality training programmes that target specific actors. Some provide gender-equality competence development on an ad hoc basis, while others have taken a more systematic approach, organising training on a continuous basis for specific target groups.

Systematic provision of gender-equality training (i.e. regular and consistent training that reaches a wide range of staff members) was most likely to be found in countries where gender mainstreaming has a strong legal basis and is backed by a gender-equality strategy which prioritises capacity-building for civil servants and officials in public administrations.

In some Member States, gender-equality competence development was given more attention at the regional or local level. These initiatives were often backed by support from central government training agencies for administrative staff or ministries in charge of civil service training. As a result, training materials on gender mainstreaming have been prepared for local administrations and sub-regional associations in order to assist stakeholders in this process. However, regular gender-equality training at national and regional/local level is provided in only a small number of EU Member States.

Although training provision tends to vary in its form and funding source, the infrastructure for gender-equality training at Member State level presents some common features. The key coordinating and commissioning organisations commonly include the following: an interministerial/departmental working group or government council; ministries (e.g. ministries of labour and social policy or ministries of justice); or departments and units within these ministries responsible for gender-equality issues. Less frequently, equal opportunities offices or equality commissions are in charge of commissioning gender-equality training. Coordinating or commissioning authorities which have relevant in-house gender expertise often use internal resources to train their own staff.

Challenges in the provision of gender equality training

EIGE’s report on gender-equality training in the European Union (2014) concludes that despite important policy developments in some Member States, the delivery of gender-equality training faces a number of practical challenges. The report revealed the following important issues regarding the provision, scale and effective implementation of gender-equality training:

  • Gender-equality training is still considered a low priority in most Member States, both in policy and in practice. It is rarely planned in a systematic and integrated way. Therefore it often turns out to be a one-off effort and rarely helps civil servants to meet specific objectives set out in gender-equality programmes or action plans.
  • Gender-equality training is provided in almost all EU Member States. However, it tends to be generic, occasional and provides only very basic gender-related information. Training programmes are often abstract and not tailored to the needs of participants. This in turn limits the application of new knowledge gained through the training in everyday work.
  • Resources allocated to gender-equality training activities directly correlate with how well gender-equality competence development is institutionalised. It also correlates with the economic situation in the specific country. Gender-equality policies and gender-equality training initiatives rarely find themselves at the top of funding priorities, especially in times of economic downturn.
  • It is common that participants attend training sessions on a voluntary basis. Incentives are usually limited, which keeps attendance rates low. In such circumstances, the most relevant actors (e.g. managers) remain untrained.
  • The quality of training programmes remains an issue as there are no established mechanisms to ensure high equality through the setting of standards or the accreditation of gender trainers.
  • In some countries qualified gender-equality trainers are difficult to find, which impedes the quality of training. Training of trainers rarely takes place.
  • There are no formally or informally imposed quality standards for gender-equality training programmes or gender-equality trainers’ qualifications.

Read more on differing approaches to the provision of gender-equality training in the EU and Member States in the following:

EIGE (2016), Effective Gender Equality Training. Analysing the preconditions and success factors: Synthesis report

EIGE (2013), Mapping gender training in the European Union and Croatia: Synthesis report

EIGE (2014), Report on the Effectiveness of Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Gender Equality

Disclaimer: This information was collected through desk research and stakeholder interviews in the early stages of EIGE’s project on gender-equality training (2012–2013).

Previous efforts to develop standards for gender-equality competence development initiatives

To date, a number of efforts have been made to develop the gender-equality skills of civil servants in the EU and its Member States. However, these initiatives have not always achieved the desired results, as the quality of content, methods and trainers can vary significantly. As a result, it is worthwhile developing guiding standards for commissioning authorities on gender competence development.

low priority of Gender Equality Training in Member States

  • Gender-equality training is still considered a low priority in most Member States, both in policy and in practice. It is rarely planned in a systematic and integrated way. Therefore it often turns out to be a one-off effort and rarely helps civil servants to meet specific objectives set out in gender-equality programmes or action plans.
  • Quality standards present distinct advantages for commissioning authorities. They enable non-gender specialists to identify good providers and judge and compare the quality of different activities. Quality standards also lead to more uniformity in the practices of civil servants across the EU, making it simpler for national authorities to learn from one another.
  • The importance of improving the quality of gender competence development initiatives has led to several European studies, such as the GemTrEx, QUING and Pro(e)quality projects, as well as the creation of a Gender Training Methods Compendium. Most of these studies focus on gender-equality training, which is understood as the most effective method to support the implementation of a gender-mainstreaming strategy. The studies consider the possibility of establishing minimum quality standards in terms of the content of training or the profile of trainers.

We could start with ensuring the quality of the basics, that is, the quality, experience and motivation of teachers/trainers … This will lead to an improvement in the quality, equity and efficiency of training.

 

Mary Koutselini, University of Cyprus

There is a lot of training being done of very diverse quality ... For UN Women Global Training Centre, the quality of gender training is directly linked to its desired end result/impact: i.e. gender equality.

 

UN Women Global Training Centre, Dominican Republic

Quality of training is closely related to … its relevance to the very specific context of people’s working environment … [and to its] inclusiveness and (potential) impact on behavioural change.

 

Benedetta Magri
International Training Centre / International Labour Organization (ITC/ILO), Italy

Despite the extensive efforts to develop common quality standards, a number of challenges have been met in agreeing them. For instance, commissioning authorities might require new internal systems of monitoring and evaluation in order to ensure minimum standards are being fulfilled. Standardisation could be simplistic, failing to take into account context and potentially impeding innovation and flexibility. More generally, setting up quality standards raises wider questions of authority and accountability (what should the standards be; who should set them; etc.).

In some countries gender training is compulsory and on an extensive basis, in others it is not … This diversity should be taken into account in order to decide on standardisation and quality assurance.

 

Despina Charalambidou, Cyprus Gender Research Centre

Standardizing represents … a major challenge. Rather than standardization seen as one-size-fits-all training, we foresee a minimal quality common denominator.

 

UN Women Global Training Centre

My biggest issue with certification of consultants is who will hand [it] out? Who can get it?’

 

Alice Marshall, Add Gender AB, Sweden

To date, there has been no general agreement about quality standards. EIGE held a consultation meeting with gender-training experts in October 2013 and hosted online discussions with members of the gender-training community in 2012 and 2013. It also organised a European conference on gender training and mainstreaming in November 2012 and commissioned a study on practices, advantages, challenges and options in relation to quality assurance mechanisms for gender-equality training.

More on EIGE's work on gender equality training

  • Designing effective Gender Equality Training

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Download the Gender Equality Training guide EN (528 KB)

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