Module 1 Gender Mainstreaming Session 6 Introduction • With the declaration of 1975 – 1985 as International Women’s Decade by United Nations Organizations, States and other organisations were prompted to formulate policies and implement them in order to enhance the status of women. Although many countries responded positively it was not easy to achieve its desired objectives. • One of the main reasons for this was the fact that States and other organizations did not dedicate themselves completely to enhancing the status of women. A remedy to address this was the promotion of gender mainstreaming. • In the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995, gender mainstreaming was introduced as a strategy for making a productive change in the status of women. This paved way for examining the manner in which the policies of government affect both men and women and influenced the formulation of policies in a manner which was productive to both parties instead of establishing entities to work for women. The Beijing Platform for Action emphasized the fact that formulation and implementation of all state policies on a gender equality based approach is the main strategy winning gender based equality and equity. Source: UN Beijing Declaration (1995) Objectives • To understand the concept of gender mainstreaming • To identify strategies that can be used in the implementation of gender mainstreaming • To understand the advantages for both men and women by using gender mainstreaming. Activity 1 Gender Mainstreaming • Deliver a short lecture using the information below: • • • • 62 Monitoring and recommendations relevant to improve the status of women globally were drafted in the first three World Conferences on Women conducted after the International Women’s Decade. However Governments of many countries did not dedicate themselves sufficiently to implement the aforesaid recommendations. As a result the international women’s movement recommended a strategy which was adopted in the 1995 World Conference on Women. This strategy was Gender Mainstreaming.