Public policy dilemma—gender equality mainstreaming in UK policy formulation

Representative Bureaucracy, Gender, and Policing: The Case of Domestic Violence Arrests in England

“…As a member of the EU, the UK has adopted various directives to promote equality of women and is obliged to mainstream gender equality in public policy and service delivery (see Council of Europe ; HM Government ). Yet despite the promotion of gender equality in public policy, there remains an implementation gap with persistent occupational gender segregation, discrimination, and poor policy outcomes for women (EC ; EHRC 2008; Miller ; UN 2010). The research we have carried out is therefore highly relevant since it provides an evidence base that an increase in the representation of women in policing organizations can indeed result in favourable policy outcomes for women within this gendered policy area.…”

Representative bureaucracy: a typology of normative institutional strategies for the representation of women

“…The EU, with various road maps, has shown a preference for a soft approach in the implementation of gender mainstreaming (Hafner-Burton & Pollack, 2009). An adverse impact of soft compliance is that mainstreaming initiatives and practices can disappear from policy and organisational agendas (Woodward, 2003;Miller, 2009). Additionally, there may be downgrading of the support infrastructure required for mainstreaming, for example budget squeezing, reductions in training and development provisionand indeed there is some evidence for this at EU level (see European Women's Lobby, 2007;Hafner-Burton & Pollack, 2009).…”

“…However, this only occurs when: (1) there are femocrats active within the public bureaucracy (see Chappell, 2002); and/or (2) there is an alignment of organisational policy goals where the public agency derives some benefit from the active representation of women (Newman, 1995). Femocrats are bureaucrats who champion or advocate for the active representation of women in public policy (Chappell, 2002), have a level of technical expertise to advance women's rights (Curtin, 2008;Miller, 2009;2012) and tend have seniority with commensurate authority (see Dolan, 2000). Dolan (2000:525) for example found that women in the senior executive service '…have already reached the pinnacle of their career service, attitudes or efforts geared towards improving women's status in the workplace may simply be less risky for them.'…”

High hopes? The gender equality duty and its impact on responses to gender-based violence

“…There is no conclusive evidence to suggest that women have benefited from any gender mainstreaming initiatives in Britain. This is partly due to inconsistent political commitment, the problematic conceptualisation of gender mainstreaming, policy and cultural impediments and the underrepresentation of women at policy formulation levels (see, for example Miller 2009). But if one takes as elements of successful mainstreaming effective structures and leadership at national level; developing a shared understanding and vision; involving a wide range of stakeholders, and; integrating gender equality standards and objectives into legislation and routine organisational procedures (Rees 2005) then there is cause for cautious optimism in Scotland.…”

“…Yet, the concept is generally considered underdeveloped and unsystematic (Daly 2005;Rees 2005) such that, in Britain, it has been difficult to discern the mainstreaming of gendered perspectives into general policy-making (Squires and Wickham-Jones, 2004). In its provision of a regulatory framework, the GED was seen to offer an opportunity for gender to be considered in policymaking in a way that the mainstreaming agenda had not previously achieved (EOC 2006b;Miller 2009). …”