Jumpstart, potentials and hindrances: collaboration projects in gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting

Abstract

Many European organisations have committed to and formally adopted gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting strategies; however, their implementation has not been as effective as anticipated. The Department of Gender Studies at the University of Iceland has been collaborating with public sector organisations in Iceland, a City and a University, to advance implementation of these strategies. The collaboration entails post-graduate students analysing the problem representation and gendering of public activities and providing policy actors with research-informed advice on how to integrate a gender perspective in their management procedures and processes. Drawing on interview data with the policy actors involved in the collaboration projects, we found organisational noncommitment to gender mainstreaming and gender budgeting, lack of knowledge about these issues and a superficial approach to implementing the strategies. Based on the findings, we explored the potential explanations and the hindrances related to using collaboration projects to jumpstart structural transformative gender+ equality work.