Example 8: Introducing gender mainstreaming methods and tools

The Swedish Gender Mainstreaming Manual

The Manual was published in 2007 as an official report of the government. Its title is: “Gender Mainstreaming Manual - A book of practical methods from the Swedish Gender Mainstreaming Support Commitee (Jämstöd)”. It was published together with background material (“Gender Equality in Public Services - Some useful advice on gender mainstreaming. A book of ideas for managers and strategists”). Both publications can be downloaded on the governments website on gender mainstreaming.

Questions and answers

  • What does the example show?
    For the implementation of gender mainstreaming as a strategy to change organizational procedures and the organizational culture it is useful to have tools that create ownership for the process. The Manual contains well-tested tools and methods which can be applied to all different kind of tasks and working procedures.
  • Why is the example suitable for promoting institutional transformation?
    The tools were developed in the course of the implementation of gender mainstreaming in Sweden. They are therefore well adapted to the Swedish context.
  • What was the example’s line of action?
    The examples line of action is structured as follows. First it is sketched what gender equality means within the Swedish context; the focus is on understanding gender equality. Secondly the conditions are investigated which are needed for the successful implementation of gender mainstreaming and different methods are introduced. In the following steps additional methods and tools are presented and finally the organization is expected to evaluate the outcome of their doing from a gender perspective following the guidance of the manual.
  • Who was involved and in which way?
    The Ministry of Education and Research and the Swedish Gender Mainstreaming Support Committee (JämStöd)
  • Which lesson can be learned in terms of success factors?
    It is always difficult to transfer the idea of gender mainstreaming into practical action. When it comes to persons or actors who are not experts in that field it gets even harder. The published manual offers a step-by-step guidance to implement gender mainstreaming with a various and field-tested number of methods and tools.