Gender mainstreaming in committees and delegations of the European Parliament

Publication UE/CE Publication internationale Ressource internet Texte intégral Etude UE

Publisher:

Publications Office

Publication date:

Luxembourg : 2014

The main aim of the study is to assess to what extent the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee (FEMM) of the European Parliament (EP) contributed to the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament activities in the period between July 2011 and February 2013. The analytical approach adopted in the study includes two relevant dimensions for the mainstreaming of the gender equality perspective within the policy-making process: institutional capacity and institutional learning. One of the prerequisites for the success of the gender mainstreaming strategy lies within institutional factors and conditions.

Four institutional capacity dimensions are relevant for an effective mainstreaming of the gender equality perspective in the policy process: the quality of civil servants and organisational characteristics; inter-departmental relations (organisational processes); the style of interaction between institutions and their social and economic environment; and evidence-based policies. Another important aspect in analysing if and to what extent the consideration of gender differences is internalized within EP’s parliamentary committees’ work concerns institutional learning. The issue is how to extract useful knowledge from gender mainstreaming interventions (“what works?”), in order to obtain similar results in different contexts. This leads to the social mechanisms theoretical framework, which is used for effectively identifying the success factors that ensured effective implementation of different policies/programmes/projects (in this case gender mainstreaming).

The analysis of how and to what extent FEMM contributed to the effective implementation of gender mainstreaming in the EP’s activities in the period between July 2011 and February 2013 yields evidence of a well-developed legal and institutional framework for gender mainstreaming. However, there is room for improvement in its internal procedures and networking among different bodies.