From 19-23 June 2018, the National Commission on Women Affairs and Socio-Demographic Policy of Kasachstan organised a study visit to Vienna featuring Gender Budgeting in which mostly members of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy of Kasachstan participated.
Head of Department III/1 Gender Equality Policies and Legal Matters in the Federal Chancellery, Continue Reading Kazakhstan goes Gender Budgeting
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.
Continue Reading Study: “Gender Equality and Taxation in the European Union”
Interview with Oliver Rohbeck, Berlin (in German only)
31/05/2017: This day marked the date when the fourth report on the impact-oriented impact assessment (WFA Bericht) was submitted to the National Council . The report is a summary of the results of the internal evaluations carried out by the ministries and other supreme organs. It is compiled by the Federal Performance Management Office, which is part of the Federal Chancellery. The report includes evaluations of 54 projects, which were carried out by the respective budgetary bodies.* The following 5 projects were deemed to have had a significant impact on the dimension of “Equality of women and men”:
They afflicted the sudimensions “direct services to natural or legal persons or companies”, “physical and mental well-being” and “other important effects”
Continue Reading Report on Outcome-Oriented Impact Assessments 2016
In Austria, differences in primary incomes prevail. While full gender equality would require changes in the distribution of primary incomes, it might be worthwhile taking a look at gender-related effects of taxes and tax reforms. A study scrutinising the Austrian tax system highlights that not only female wage earners as well as self-employed ones receive only about two third of the average wages of male counterparts, but also that their income-related taxes do not ease this problem as redistributive effects vary widely: By way of example, social security contributions are mainly regressive so that they may actually increase income discrepancies. As income taxes are progressive, the overall effect would be slightly positive if it was not for tax reliefs that come with the 13th and the 14th monthly salaries or the tax-fee profit margin for self-employed people, which, once again, diminish any positive redistributive effects.
Continue Reading Austrian Income Taxes and Their Effects on Women and Men
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.
Continue Reading Austria’s Gender Budgeting Blog deemed EU GRB flagship
Anna Zachorowska is Erasmus Coordinator at the Institute of Economics, Finance and Management der Jagiellonian University, Poland.
I am an academic whose main area of research is feminist economics. I am writing mainly about macroeconomics and gender. Since I was theoretically interested in this subject in 2012, a group of human rights activists from Krakow asked me to become a part of project concerned with the city of Krakow. This a group of activists we have prepared a gender budget of the city of Krakow.
The project that I was personally involved in was a national project concentrated on the second biggest city in Poland – Krakow. Additionally I was also involved in the report concerning the possibility of adoptation of Austrian gender responsive budgeting in Poland, within the European project Exchange of good practices on gender equality.Continue Reading POLAND: Looking Beyond Our Nose