Read gender&diversity 3: Gender policy: goals and actions

What is gender policy about?

The purpose of gender policy: working towards an organization which adopts gender perspective as the starting point of its internal and external policy;

The result of gender policy is characterised by the fact that societal norms regarding "masculinity" and "femininity" are broken and that women and men have equal access to power, authority and resources. This is visible in the goals, strategy, structure and culture of the organization.

Gender is not just the number of women in the management of an organization, or in the number of projects directed towards women. Gender aspects can also be found in the way in which decisions are taken, in the choice of external cooperative partners, in the manner in which the private lives of the staff are taken into account, etc. In other words: gender policy affects the whole organization.

Gender analysis

Anyone who implements or wishes to implement gender policy does so on the basis of an analysis of the organization. An analysis can be made on the basis of the following questions:

- External Policy -

• What are the goals of this organization? In which way can these goals explicitly contribute to the preservation or destruction of gender-stereotyped power relations and norms? Which assumptions underlie the goals of the organization in relation to gender?
• What are the products/services/activities/projects of this organization? How do they contribute to the preservation or destruction of gender-stereotyped patterns and relations?
• Who are the clients and beneficiaries of the products and services? Who aren't? What does this tell us about gender assumptions?
• Which clients and customers are satisfied with the products and services? Which aren't? What does this mean in gender terms?
• What is the image of this organization in the eyes of men and women, with and without positions of power?
• In which way have gender aspects been incorporated in a strategic study of the future? Have political, economic and social developments also been analysed in terms of their consequences for gender relations?
• How do the organization's external relations look? Can they be typified as organisations with successful gender policies?

- Internal policy -

• How many men/women work in the organization and in which positions?
• How many people with and without responsibility for caring for children and/or elderly people work in the organization? What problems arise when staff members wish to combine their work with caring tasks?
• Have measures been taken to promote the intake and promotion of women and to prevent undesirable outflow?
• Is there policy and have measures been taken to prevent and combat sexual intimidation?
• Which gender norms are illustrated by the way in which employees work together, provide leadership and communicate?
• Are new employees selected on the basis of their gender awareness and are gender aspects incorporated as a starting point in all training courses and programmes?

Gender Policy

A gender policy can be drawn up on the basis of the gender analysis. This will certainly include:

• main goals
• short term goals, detailed towards concrete results
• measures to achieve those results
• responsibilities
• communication plan
• budget
• timetable
• reportage and evaluation

Essential factors of success

• commitment among leadership of organization
• a "pioneer" for the gender policy with sufficient status, influence, expertise, sense of humour, strategic insight
• realistic attainable goals
• space to further detail, in a decentralised way, aims and measures
• "own interest" visible to staff and organization
• progress reporting on the basis of concrete results and figures
• participation and support in the organization
• make success visible.