| Abstract: | This article utilizes the findings of a recently completed,eight-country research project to visit some key issues in thetheory and practice of gender mainstreaming. The research resultsindicate that gender mainstreaming is a diverse entity whenlooked at from a cross-national perspective but rather hollowwhen considered within the national setting. To the extent thatthere is a "common core" to gender mainstreaming in action acrosscountries, it lies in the tendency to apply the approach ina technocratic way and to be nonsystemic in compass. The argumentis advanced that this is at least in part attributable to particularitiesin the development of mainstreaming. The article suggests thatgender mainstreaming is underdeveloped as a concept and identifiesa need to elaborate further on some fundaments. In particular,the conceptualization of mainstreaming needs to be rethoughtwith special attention devoted to the understanding of the problematicof gender inequality that underlies it and the articulationof the relationship between gender mainstreaming and societalchange. |
