Gender mainstreaming in the United Kingdom: Current issues and future challenges

Abstract

Gender mainstreaming (GM) has been hailed as a 'potentially revolutionary concept' a significant policy innovation, and even a paradigm shift for thinking about gender equality in policymaking processes (Rees). Despite the rhetoric about GM, there are growing concerns about its ability to realize its perceived potential. Increasingly calls are being made to evaluate GM to better understand the complexity of factors inhibiting or leading to its promotion and operationalization. In some jurisdictions, the need to move from GM to equality or diversity mainstreaming has been recognized and alternative frameworks to GM are in their nascent stages of conceptualization and implementation. The purpo..