Background knowledge Gender & Social Sustainability

What is Gender Mainstreaming

The equalisation of women and men as transverse task shall be integrated in all fields of politics, activities and measures taken. Gender Mainstreaming therfore is a strategy that strives for a certain goal, working with specific instruments. Gender mainstreaming is the public policy concept of assessing the different implications for women and men of any planned policy action, including legislation and programmes, in all areas and levels.

Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality.

Gender Mainstreaming

• ought to analyse and comprehend the causes of lacking equality of opportunities of women and men
• points is’s view at women and men and their different positions in society
• targets the change of structures and beliefs that cause gender-specific disadvantages and discriminations
• is aligned to shape organisations, institutions and areas of life in the way that women and men can participate with equally without having to beeing „the same“
• poses as long-term strategy to achieve a de facto equalisation
• compiles strategies for all areas of politics
• is a political duty and anchored by law (Basis: Treaty of Amsterdam)

Gender Mainstreaming as political duty

Gender Mainstreaming was acceded to in 1997 as strategy of the European Union in the treaty of Amsterdam. In article 2 of the EU-treaty, the support of equalisation of men and women is defined as an assignment of the European Union. EU-treaty article 3, passage 2 records that the union within all activities works towards elimination of all inequalities and is supporting equalisation between women and men.

By ratifying the Treaty of Amsterdam, Austria commited itself by law to implement the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. The national fundamentals for the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming are formed by article 7, passage 2 of the Federal Constitution Law and several enactments of the Council of Ministers.

• Art. 7, psg. 2 Federal Constitution Law – forbiddance of discrimination due to Gender. „On national, regional and municipal level the commitment exists to work towards the factual equalisation of men and women. Measures taken to support the factual equalisation and to remove the very real inequalities are welcome.“
• Order by the Council of Ministers July 11^th 2000 to the duty of implemetation of the gender mainstreaming strategy in Austria – Installation of an overal ministerial working group “Gender Mainstreaming” (IMAG GM)
• Order by the Council of Ministers April 3^rd 2002 to the working program concerning the implementation of gender mainstreaming for the following years
• Order by the Council of Ministers March 9^th 2004 on the implementation of gender mainstreaming in sequel to the previous enactments.

In Austria there exist various strategies and measures of implementation on national and regional levels. A good overview about the national and international law fundamentals is given by the website of IMAG GM at: www.imag-gendermainstreaming.at
Following the recommendation of the Council on Research and development of Technology (RFT) the measures for implementation of gender mainstreaming in the area of research and technology are bundled in a joint-overal minitries-initiative. fFORTE is a joint initiative of the Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture, the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, and (since 2004) as well the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour.

The programme was brought to life in 2001. For the coordination of various ministerial activities, an overal ministerial working group on gender mainstreaming was set up on behalf of a recommendation of the RFT. With the pogramme FEMtech all activities of BMVIT within fFORTE are bundled. With the programme w-fforte, all programmes of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour are bundled within fFORTE.

Gender Mainstreaming viewed from research-policy

Women are under-represented in research

Women are clearly under-represented in research, namely within the doctoral students and scientists in the company-sector as well as in higher positions at universities and scientific panels. Various papers like the EC-report “She Figures” (European Commission, 2003A) or the report to the European Council concerning the equalisation of women and men  (EU Kommission, 2004), in which the actual situation of women in research in Europe is narrowed, lines out this situation. Austria in some areas is even at the bottom of the league. Especially in the company-sector, Austria with only 9 % women’s-share (1998) is farely below the EU-avrage of 15 %. Also the new data of the austrian statistic services (Statistik Austria) on employment of female scientists in the company sector only show a minimal change in the proportion of women between 1998 and 2002. [European Commission (2003A), She Figures: Women and Statistics – Statistics and Indicators, European Commission, Brussels, 2003; Commission of the European Community (2004), report for the council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee as well as the Committee of the Regions, Statement about equalisation of men and women , 2004]

Number of scientists to be increased

On the Summit of Barcelona, the European Council agreed, that the share of GDP that is spent on research & development within the EU, shall be raised from 1,9 % p.a. in 2000 to 3 % in the year 2010. Assuming that the expenditures in industrial research & development have as well to be doubled in this timeframe, the number of researchers therefore also has to be raised significantly. The EU-report on the situation of women in industrial research (2003) analyses the situation and presents a recommendation for the better benefit of this potential. In the Austrian Barcelona-report 2003, the outcomings of the national discussion-processes are summarised, whereas a significant part of the report is concerned with the European Commission’s areas of action comp in the context of Austrian Strategy for Research, Technology and Innovation (FTI). A high priority within the report’s topic of human resources is accounted for the support of women’s careers, whereas the elimination of ongoing under-representation of women in the scientific community is seen as of major concern regarding economic competitive capability. [European Commission (Ed): Frauen in der industriellen Forschung. Ein Alarmsignal für Europas Unternehmen. 2003, Österreichischer Barcelona Report] (German only)

Women are still „invisible“ within the scientific community or rather the exception: Statistics are still published mostly without mentioning the women’s share, relevant panels in which decisions concerning R&D are male-dominated, the public cliché on “Scientists and Scholars” is still stamped male,...  [Austrian Barcelona Report, page.21 ff, German]

Utilising the potentials of women as scientists

Also the Council for Research and Technological development in its policy paper ("2,5 % + plus - wealth due to research and innovation (2001)") refers to great importance of existing highly qualified human resources in conjunction with the competitive capability of the austrian economy and science. In this context the Council recommends actions, which should motivate and support women to choose professions in the field of research and technology, in particular natural science and technics.

Gender Mainstreaming in R&D programs

Gender Mainstreaming in research means to integrate gender-policy through out the process of conceptualisation, granting, conduct to the point of evaluation of the research-assignment. Several aspects are crucial in this manner: The gender-specific consideration of the object of research, the representativity of scientific staff as well as the gender-competence in regard to the target-group of the scientific project. It is the goal to initialize gender-relevant research and to lead to an equalisation of shares of women and men in this field.

The gender-shares in science is reflected on 3 levels:

• Equality of staff – abundance of perspective creates innovation
• Equality of content – science lives on utilizing the heterogenity of concerned participants
• Material equality – Equal distribution of resources concerning staff, factual and financial issues

What could positive effects of the implementation of gender mainstreaming in research and FTI-programmes be?

• If the needs and interests of both gender are taken into account, one is insured that the outcomes in form of products and scientific conclusions are aligned with the demand
• Better utilisation of available knowledge (human resources)
• Higher quality of programmes and projects due to closer evaluation and monitoring
• Adjustment of existing disadvantages for both gender, ensuring distributive justice (politics, administration,...).

Generally, the consideration of gender mainstreaming-principles within all levels of scientific-policies would be of great concern: The fact, that most of the measures in place do have different impacts on women than on men, due to their different circumstances of life, is still taken to little into account - in general political and administrative decisions as well as in scientific approaches. [Austrian Barcelona Report, page.21 ff German only]

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