Author:

Prof. Rebecca Chestnutt, Karin Ganssauge, Barbara Willecke, Elke Branek, Stephanie Bock, Sandra Huning, Anke Schröder, Anna Damrat, Pamela Dorsch, Susanne Hofmann, Cagla Ilk, Sybille Uken

Publisher:

Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung Berlin

Description:

For almost ten years, Berlin has been pursuing a highly ambitious concept to implement gender mainstreaming, a terminology coined by the EU to define the policy of implementing gender awareness at all levels of governance. This concept incorporates the awareness and consideration of social inequalities between people of divers genders into all areas and all steps of the planning and decision-making process. In other words, all ventures are examined in terms of their potential gender-specific impact and addressed in a manner that contributes to promoting the equality of all women and men.

During this process, differentiated needs are not simply acknowledged and differences taken for granted. Instead, their causes are identified with the goal of overcoming the assignment of gender-specific roles, dismantling structural in-equalities and enhancing the equality of all men and women.

This approach takes gender mainstreaming far beyond the promotion of women in previous decades, without intending or being able to replace older policy. They are really two complementary strategies, since gender mainstreaming serves to identify gender-specific inequalities in all areas and can therefore pinpoint where supplemental measures for the advancement of women are needed and will be worthwhile.

Page count:

43