Abstract
This chapter critically examines gender mainstreaming in EU development aid to assess whether or not the EU can be considered a leading and distinctive gender actor. To answer this question I will analyse the budget, gendered language and frame of high level policy programming documents. First I evaluate whether a shift has been made from a conservative Women in Development paradigm to a transformative Gender and Development paradigm to determine if the EU lives up to European and international commitments on gender equality and can be considered to be leading by example. Second I examine whether the EU advocates a distinctive ‘Europeanness’ in its gender policy towards developing countries. The chapter concludes that the shift towards a transformative Gender and Development paradigm has only partly been made. Moreover, I argue that rather than a distinctive ‘Europeanness’, the EU’s gender equality approach can be called a patchwork of approaches derived from other international institutions such as the UN or the World Bank. This implies that the EU is not the innovative leading gender power it claims to be.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Including the 1995 Council of Ministers Resolution on Integrating Gender Issues in Development Cooperation; the 1998 Council of Ministers Regulation on Integrating Gender Issues in Development Cooperation; the 2000 European Commission Communication on the European Community’s Development Policy; the 2001 European Commission Communication on the Programme of Action for the Mainstreaming European Parliament of Gender Equality in Community Development Cooperation; the 2004 European Parliament and Council Regulation on Promoting Gender Equality in Development Cooperation; the 2006 Joint Statement by the Council and the representatives of the governments of the Member States meeting within the Council, the and the Commission on EU Development Policy: ‘The European Consensus’; the 2007 European Commission Communication on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development Cooperation and the 2010 European Commission Staff Working Document ‘EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development 2010–2015’.
- 2.
With the exception of the issue of domestic or gender-based violence, where men are sometimes problematized, when they are conceptualized as perpetrators (but never as possible victims). Most CSPs however, leave men out of the picture when talking about domestic and gender-based violence and talk about the issue as a women as problem only.
- 3.
With the single exception of the Indian NIP, that proposes to increase efforts for a greater responsibility and participation of men in reproductive health, not a single other NIP mentions men explicitly as target group in the gender-inequality question.
References
Barton, C. (2005). Where to for women’s movements and the MDGs? Gender and Development, 13(1), 25–35.
Baroncelli, E. (2011). The EU at the World Bank: institutional and policy performance. Journal of European Integration, 33(6), 637–650.
Beetham, G. (2010). Gender, poverty and aid architecture. In S. Chant (Ed.), Handbook on gender and poverty (pp. 497–503). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Brym, R., et al. (2005). In faint praise of the WB’s gender development policy. The Canadian Journal of Sociology, 30(1), 95–111.
Budlender, D. (2004). Why should we care about unpaid care work? New York: UNIFEM.
Budlender, D. (2008). The Statistical Evidence on Care and Non-Care Work Across Six Countries (Programme Paper No. 4). Geneva: UNRISD.
Chant, S. (2007). Gender, cities, and the millennium development goals in the global south’ (New series working Paper, Issue 21). London: LSE Gender Institute.
Chant, S. (2010). The international handbook of gender and poverty: concepts, research, policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Council of Europe. (1998). Gender mainstreaming. Conceptual framework, Methodology and Presentation of Good Practices. Final Report of Activities of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
Debusscher, P. (2011). Mainstreaming gender in European commission development policy: conservative Europeanness? Women’s Studies International Forum, 34(1), 39–49.
Debusscher, P. (2012a) Mainstreaming gender in European Union development policy in the European neighborhood. Journal of Women Politics and Policy, 33(4), 322–344.
Debusscher, P. (2012b) Gender mainstreaming in European Union development policy toward Latin America: transforming gender relations or confirming hierarchies? Latin American Perspectives, 39(6), 181–197.
Debusscher, P., & True, J. (2009). Lobbying the EU for Gender-Equal Development. In J. Orbie & L. Tortell (Eds.), The EU and the social dimension of globalization. Abingdon: Routledge.
Debusscher, P., & Van der Vleuten, A. (2012). Mainstreaming gender in European Union development cooperation with sub-Saharan Africa: promising numbers, narrow contents, telling silences. International Development Planning Review, 34(3), 319–338. doi:10.3828/idpr.2012.19.
Elson, D., & Cagatay, N. (2000). The social content of macroeconomic policies. World Development, 28(7), 1347–1364.
Elson, D., & Sharp, R. (2010). Gender-responsive budgeting and women’s poverty. In S. Chant (Ed.), Handbook on gender and poverty (pp. 522–27). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
European Commission (2001). Programme of Action for the Mainstreaming of Gender Equality in Community Development Cooperation. COM(2001) 295, 21 June.
European Commission (2002a). Ethiopia—European Community. Country Strategy Paper and National Indicative Programme for the period 2002–2007.
European Commission (2002b). Syria Country Strategy Paper 2002–2006 and National Indicative Programme 2002–2004.
European Commission (2007a). Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Development Cooperation. COM(2007) 100, 8 March.
European Commission (2007b). Syrian Arab Republic Strategy Paper 2007–2013 and National Indicative Programme 2007–2010.
European Commission (2007c). Algeria Strategy Paper 2007–2013 and National Indicative Programme 2007–2010.
European Commission (2007d). Morocco National Indicative Programme 2007–2010.
European Commission (2007e). Egypt Country Strategy Paper 2007–2013.
European Commission (2007f). Ecuador Country Strategy Papers 2007–2013, 10.04.2007 (E/2007/621).
European Commission (2010). EU Plan of Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Development 2010–2015. SEC(2010) 265, 8 March.
European Council (1995). Resolution on Integrating Gender Issues in Development Cooperation. 12847/95, 20 December.
European Council (1998). Regulation on Integrating of Gender Issues in Development Cooperation. 2836/98, 22 December.
European Parliament and Council (2004). Regulation on Promoting Gender Equality in Development Cooperation. 806/2004, 21 April.
Gammage, S. (2010). Time pressed and time poor: unpaid household work in Guatemala. Feminist Economics, 16(3), 79–112.
Johnsson-Latham, G. (2010). Power, privilege and gender as reflected in poverty analysis and development goals. In S. Chant (Ed.), The international handbook of gender and poverty (pp. 41–46). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
McCrae, H. (2010). The EU as a gender equal polity: myths and realities. Journal of Common Market Studies, 48(1), 155–174.
Mohanty, C. (1991). Third world women and the politics of feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Moser, C. (1993). Gender planning and development: theory, practice and training. London: Routledge.
Moser, C., & Moser, A. (2005). Gender mainstreaming since Beijing: A review of success and limitations in international institutions. Gender & Development, 13(2), 11–22.
Molyneux, M. (2006). Mothers at the service of the new poverty agenda: progresa/oportunidades, Mexico’s conditional transfer programme. Social Policy & Administration, 40(4), 425–49.
Mukhopadhyay, M. (2007). Mainstreaming gender or “streaming” gender away: feminists marooned in the development business. In A. Cornwall, E. Harrison, & A. Whitehead (Eds.), Feminisms in development: contradictions, contestations & challenges (pp. 135–149). London: Zed Books.
OECD-DAC (2002). EC Development cooperation review. Paris: OECD.
Orbie, J., Del Biondo, K., Delputte, S., Reynaert, V., Verschaeve J., Bossuyt F. (2012) Still a Norm Taker? European Union Development Policy in the Shadow of the World Bank. Paper presented at the EUIA conference, Brussels, 3–5 May 2012.
Pető, A., & Manners, I. (2006). The European Union and the value of gender equality. In I. Manners & S. Lucarelli (Eds.), Values and principles in European Union foreign policy. London: Routledge.
Razavi, S. (2007). The political and social economy of care in a development context: conceptual issues, research questions and policy options. Geneva: UNRISD.
Roy, A. (2010). Millennial woman: the gender order of development. In S. Chant (Ed.), The international handbook of gender and poverty (pp. 548–53). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Saith, A. (2006). From universal values to MDGs: lost in translation. Development and Change, 37(6), 1167–99.
Santiso, C. (2003). Sisyphus in the castle: improving European Union strategies for democracy promotion and governance conditionality. The European Journal of Development Research, 15(1), 1–28.
Schech, S., & Vas Dev, S. (2007). Gender justice: the World Bank’s new approach to the poor? Development in Practice, 17(1), 14–26.
Subrahmanian, R. (2007). Making sense of gender in shifting institutional contexts: some reflections on gender mainstreaming. In A. Cornwall, E. Harrison, & A. Whitehead (Eds.), Feminisms in development: contradictions, contestations and challenges (pp. 112–21). London: Zed Books.
Verloo, M. (2005). Mainstreaming gender equality in Europe: a critical frame analysis. The Greek Review of Social Research, 117(B), 11–34.
Walby, S. (2005). Measuring women’s progress in a global era. International Social Science Journal, 2(57), 371–87.
World Bank (2006) Gender Equality as Smart Economics: A World Bank Group Gender Action Plan (Fiscal years 2007–10) September, 2006 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGENDER/Resources/GAPNov2.pdf Accessed 22 March 2012.
World Bank (2012). Implications of World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development for the World Bank Group http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEVCOMMINT/Documentation/23004019/DC2011-0011(E)WDR2012_Gender.pdf Accessed 7 April 2012.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Debusscher, P. (2013). Gender Equality in European Union Development Policy. In: Boening, A., Kremer, JF., van Loon, A. (eds) Global Power Europe - Vol. 2. Global Power Shift. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32416-1_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32416-1_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32415-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32416-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)