Category: EU

EIGE Gender Budgeting Report 2019: Mainstreaming gender into the EU budget and macroeconomic policy framework

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On april 10th 2019 the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) published a report on “Gender Budgeting. Mainstreaming gender into the EU budget and macroeconomic policy framework”. It presents the main research results of the gender budgeting projects of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The projects supported policy makers and practitioners from the EU and EU Member States to adopt a consistent and systematic approach to implement gender budgeting as the main tool of gender mainstreaming within EU economic governance and budgetary processes.

The report investigates, on the one hand, how gender equality policies are anchored in the EU budget and, on the other hand, describes in detail how the EU institutions and the Member States can contribute to gender equality through gender budgeting.Continue Reading EIGE Gender Budgeting Report 2019: Mainstreaming gender into the EU budget and macroeconomic policy framework

Sweden publishes Gender Procurement Guide

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The Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, SALAR, has published a guide on gender procurement, which informs on the legal possibilities of imposing gender equality criteria in public procurement on the one hand and contains practical examples on the other one.  While the term gender procurement is often used in a narrow sense, SALAR uses a more comprehensive approach: According to the association the concept of gender procurement revolves around ensuring that all citizens are offered equal services regardless of gender and aims to increase overall efficiency and quality of services.

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EIGE publishes Gender Procurement Checklist

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If the state does not provide any services by itself or if it procures products and goods, it usually concludes contracts with third parties. According to EIGE public procurement has a great potential to promote gender equality, both on the inside and on the outside. Whenever public procurement takes account of gender (equality) or gender mainstreaming principles, this is called Gender Procurement. As in Gender Procurement money moves from one party (the state) to another one, it is deemed to be part of Gender Budgeting.

According to EIGE the use of secondary or gender criteria is not only in line with public procurement laws (i.e. the EU Procurement Directives), but also Continue Reading EIGE publishes Gender Procurement Checklist

Latest book on Gender Budgeting in Europe

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Angela O’Hagan, Elisabeth Klatzer (Eds.)

 

“Gender Budgeting in Europe – Developments and Challenges”

  • provides a critical exploration of the historical and conceptual background to gender budgeting.
  • offers investigation of approaches to adoption and implementation from diverse parts of Europe over almost 20 years.
  • critically reflects on gender budgeting activity at different levels of government across a range of countries.
  • reaffirms feminist engagement in gender analysis of budget processes and economic policy.

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Study: “Gender Equality and Taxation in the European Union”

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Written by Gunnarsson, Asa; Schratzenstaller, Margit ; Spangenberg, Ulrike;

On 30th of May the study “Gender equality and taxation in the European Union” was presented to the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) in the European Parliament which provides an overview of gender aspects in taxation at Member State and EU level and deals with the gender-specific effects of taxation systems.

Although most Member States have abolished tax regulations that implicitly differentiate between men and women, tax systems and fiscal policy decisions still affect women and men differently. As tax regulations interact with gender-differentiated socioeconomic realities, gender gaps persist. In general terms, it can be safely stated that on average men earn more and are wealthier than women.

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Gender Equality: The Panacea for Economic Growth

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There are overwhelming differences between women and men in the EU …

  • Women are under-represented in STEM-disciplines. 75% of students are male.
  • The average gender gap is 11.6% in terms of employment; it gets higher with every child that needs to be cared for. Childcare duties have been deemed to be the major reason for part-time work for women in 2015 (39% of women would opt for part-time work due to children while only 4% of men would do so for the same reason).
  • Mostly, it is women who are employed in part-time work (2015: 32.1%, men: 8.9%) which entails higher risks of poverty for them.
  • Gender Pay Gap: On average, women earn 16.1% less than men.

Gender-segregated education and training, low employment intensity, lower wages, precarious employment models and unequal distribution of unpaid work are at the heart of these discrepancies.

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Gender Equality or Not? EIGE Study Proves that Gender Equality Makes a Difference!

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If the EU stepped up its efforts to improve gender equality, more jobs would be created, GDP per capita would increase and society would be able to adjust better to the challenges related to the ageing population. These are the main results of a new study by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), launched on the occasion of international women’s day on 8 March 2017.

“Equality between women and men is one of the EU’s fundamental values. It is about fairness. Now numbers talk: equality is a driver for economic growth. Gender equality will bring more growth to Europe”, said Vera Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality.

“Our study proves that gender equality is good for the economy and it cannot be disregarded if the EU wants to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth. For far too long, gender inequalities have been limiting women’s economic opportunities and we now have proof that gender equality is crucial for the entire economy”, said Virginija Langbakk, EIGE’s director.

The evidence confirms that improvements to gender equality would generate up to 10.5 million additional jobs by 2050 and the EU employment rate would reach almost 80%. EU Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita would also be positively affected and could increase up to nearly 10% by 2050.

Continue Reading Gender Equality or Not? EIGE Study Proves that Gender Equality Makes a Difference!

Gender Budgeting: The Most – or Only – Effective Tool to Achieve Gender Equality

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An article entitled Making women count – Why governments should introduce gender budgeting, which was published by the Economist on 23 February 2017, states numerous reasons why governments should introduce gender budgeting in their countries. Not only does gender equality “make sense”, but also governments should start to measure it and promote it via gender budgeting, for ”the way to a government’s heart is through its pocket”.

Initiatives, ministries and divisions for women’s affairs: They are all very important according to the article, yet, they might not be enough when it comes to achieving effective equality between women and men. Eventually, “what counts is what’s counted”: Only quantification and calculation will translate our efforts into numbers. Half of the job of creating a society in which women and men are truly equal is done by investing into things that make sense for both, women and men.

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Austria’s Gender Budgeting Blog deemed EU GRB flagship

At least since 2014, it has been clear to us that the Austrian Gender Budgeting model has become an international example of best practice. Back then, a Mutual Learning Seminars on Gender Impact Assessments organised by the “High Level Group Gender Mainstreaming” (HLG GM) featured the Austrian way of doing things.

From our point of view mutual learning is not exclusively about learning from others (other stakeholders and best practices), but it is also about learning with others and further developing your very own methods and approaches. In this case: our very own flagship model of Gender Budgeting. By launching the Gender Budgeting Blog, we have successfully applied our lessons learned at that seminar. Not only this, but also our way of seeing mutual learning has been acknowledged as yet another best practice example.

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