Integrating Gender into Government Budgets: A New Perspective

Abstract

A government's budget represents a statement of its priorities. During the past 25 years, the international community has recognized that gender equality is essential for sustainable economic growth and full social development, and it has called upon nations to use their budgets to promote genderequitable resource allocation and revenue generation. More than 60 countries have answered this call by implementing gender-responsive budgets at the national and subnational levels. However, gender-responsive budgeting is virtually unheard of among public finance scholars and U.S. public administration scholars and practitioners. Here we define gender-responsive budgeting, discuss the need for it, describe the lessons learned, and discuss its potential as a budget reform. We hope our commentary will bring gender-responsive budgeting into the mainstream of research in the U.S. public administration community and into the practice of government budgeting.

The Journey to Gender-Responsive Budgeting: Lessons Learned from Higher Education

“…However, revenue and expenditure decisions affect women and men differently, and ignoring such differences has been described as "gender blindness" [47]. Thus, there is a clear need for developing GRB [48].…”

Gender responsive budgeting and the COVID-19 pandemic response: a feminist standpoint

“…Public administration scholars Marks Rubin and Bartle (2005) argue that social and economic structural differences between men and women cause marked differences in the impact of government resource allocation and expenditure; especially, in sectors such as public health, public education, public housing, public transport and the care economy. Structural differences between men and women refer to women earning less and saving less at interrupted intervals (as a result of taking time off or working part-time in order to raise children), women being over-represented in the unpaid care economy, women having discontinuous work histories and, women disproportionately being victims of sexual violence (Barnett & Grown, 2004;Marks Rubin & Bartle, 2005;Sharp, 2003;Stotsky, 2007). Hence, COVID-19 pandemic funding and stimulus packages, and, public budget statements which are presented as 'neutral' financial aggregates can hardly be unbiased or impartial if government revenue and government expenditure decisions have differential impacts on men, women, transgendered, disabled and minority populations (Elson, 1999).…”

“…Recognizing these inherent discrepancies of public resource allocation, developing and developed countries around the world have implemented gender responsive budgeting at the federal, state or local levels since 1985 (Marks Rubin & Bartle, 2005). GRB can be perceived as a fiscal innovation that helps translate gender commitments into fiscal commitments by applying a gendered perspective to the administrative processes and fiscal mechanisms (Chakraborty, 2014).…”

Pengarusutamaan Gender Dalam Program Gerbang Hebat Sebagai Strategi Pengentasan Kemiskinan Di Kota Semarang

“…Mengapa program pengentasan kemiskinan perlu berorientasi pada perspektif gender?. Ada beberapa hal yang menjadi alasannya, seperti yang dikutip dari beberapa literatur (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2003), (Rubin & Bartle, 2005), (Kelkar, 2005), (Women and Development Unit, 2004), (Holmes & Jones, 2010), (Moser & Moser, 2005), (Chen et al, 2016). Pertama, kemiskinan merupakan kondisi yang dialami oleh rumahtangga yang secara sistem tidak dapat mengakses kondisi kehidupan yang lebih baik.…”