Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Multinational firms, innovation and productivity. By Davide CASTELLANI and Antonello ZANFEI. Recent books: Children of the 21st century: From birth to nine months. Edited by Shirley DEX and Heather JOSHI. Gender mainstreaming — an innovation in Europe? The institutionalisation of gender mainstreaming in the European Commission. By Verena SCHMIDT. The labour movement in Pakistan: Organization and leadership in Karachi in the 1970s. By Zafar SHAHEED. New ILO publications: Civil society, participatory governance and decent work objectives: The case of South Africa. By Konstantinos PAPADAKIS. International Institute for Labour Studies. Social protection and inclusion: Experiences and policy issues. The new offshoring of jobs and global development. By Gary GEREFFI. Winners or losers? Liberalizing public services. Edited by Ellen ROSSKAM.     

Caught between the orientalist–occidentalist polemic: gender mainstreaming as feminist transformation or neocolonial subversion?*

Here we provide a critical reading of gender mainstreaming as a potential emancipatory force that has been co-opted within orientalist–occidentalist polemics. This remains a critical period in the “mainstreaming” debate, where feminist reappropriation is necessary to repoliticize the concept and reorient development sector focus from tokenistic inclusivity to social transformation. We consider two sides of the debate. In the first scenario, the requirement for gender mainstreaming in international development discourse has not only failed to address its original feminist goals, but has become (or remained) an extension of orientalist, neocolonial projects to control and “civilize” developing economies. Here, a putative concern for gender equality in development is used as a means to distinguish between the modern, civilized One and the colonial, traditional Other. In the second scenario, gender mainstreaming is held up as all that these “othered” occidentalist forces stand against; an exemplar of the inappropriate imposition of “western” moralistic paradigms in non-western contexts. Ultimately, the co-optation of gendered discourses in development through these orientalist–occidentalist polemics serves to obfuscate the continued depoliticization of mainstreaming. A critical question remains: can gender mainstreaming ever transcend this discursive impasse and reassert its feminist transformatory potential?     

Organizational perspective to gender mainstreaming in the Finnish state administration

Gender mainstreaming has been celebrated as a new policy strategy for change in gender relations. However, its transformative potential seems to be lost in the process of implementation. The aim of this article is to evaluate the policy effectiveness of gender mainstreaming and its ability to bring about change in gendered social structures and practices. Previous research has focused on gender mainstreaming as a policy strategy. This article provides a new perspective on the problems of implementation by approaching gender mainstreaming from an organizational perspective. Gender mainstreaming takes place in certain organizational contexts, implemented by local actors. This article reveals the practices of implementation in the Finnish state administration, specifically in the Ministry of Defence. The analysis is based on a discursive reading of thirteen group and individual interviews collected in the Ministry of Defence in 2012. The article pinpoints two interlinking problems concerning implementation of gender mainstreaming on the organizational level. First, the state officials, who should implement gender mainstreaming, do not have enough information to do so successfully. Second, there is resistance toward gender mainstreaming on the organizational level. This article suggests that negotiations about gender, gender equality and gender mainstreaming as complex issues concerned with social power relations should be included in the process of implementing gender mainstreaming.     

Gender Mainstreaming in Theory and Practice

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.     

Gender mainstreaming and evaluation in the EU: comparative perspectives from feminist institutionalism

This article presents a focused comparative analysis of the institutionalization of two governance practices in the European Commission that levy distinct challenges to the gender status quo: gender mainstreaming (which overtly challenges gender bias) and evaluation (which does not have explicit feminist aspirations). With reference to five dimensions, we identify evaluation as relatively strongly institutionalized, and gender mainstreaming as relatively weakly institutionalized. We draw on the explanatory power of feminist institutionalism to unpack these findings, arguing that a feminist institutional perspective can shed light on this variation, as it provides greater insight into the formal and informal institutions that constrain, enable and shape the implementation of evaluation and gender mainstreaming. We assert that the notion of path dependency, the logic of appropriateness, and the concept of layering serve as useful tools to understand the gendered nature of the European Commission. This research provides insights into the institutional factors that impact the implementation of gender equality strategies (such as gender mainstreaming). In turn, this contributes to the development of more effective strategies to promote institutional change toward greater equality.     

Gender Mainstreaming: An Assessment of Its Conceptual Value for Gender Equality

Evaluations of gender mainstreaming show that there has been limited change to gender equality and it has been very fragmented across EU countries. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the heuristic and conceptual value of the term gender mainstreaming as a metaphor for gender equality. Our results from applying an image‐schematic model of metaphor evaluation show that gender mainstreaming represents a nonsensical metaphor for gender equality. We conclude with recommendations for reconceptualizing gender mainstreaming.     

Beijing fifteen years on: the persistence of barriers to gender mainstreaming in health policy

In 2010, fifteen years after the Beijing declaration on women's rights, the UN Commission on the Status of Women met to review progress in gender mainstreaming. Reports on gender equality by member states revealed differences in the degree of change achieved in this period, while highlighting common barriers to gender mainstreaming. The same barriers have long been identified by academics and activists, but prove remarkably resistant to strategies to address gender inequalities. This paper reviews approaches to gender mainstreaming in the context of health policy, and suggests that a model of the obstacles to gender mainstreaming, which identifies barriers as essentially pragmatic, conceptual, or political in origin, might enable a more explicit discussion of the factors underlying this resistance and the ways in which they might be challenged.     

BBC Radio 4 and the experiential dimension of disability

In April 1998, BBC Radio 4’s programmes were rescheduled and a commitment was given that disability would become a mainstream issue for the network. Does He Take Sugar?, the network’s weekly programme which presented in‐depth treatment of disability issues was dropped. You and Yours, Radio 4’s weekday consumerist programme, was given the remit to include disability‐related coverage in its content. While mainstreaming yielded the possibility of increased coverage, the accompanying risk was that insightful treatment of disability would be lost. However, findings from an analysis of the series No Triumph, No Tragedy demonstrate that, post mainstreaming, meaningful exploration of disability continued on Radio 4. Crucial to this, it is argued, is the fact that the series was conducted by a disabled presenter.     

Innovation and Its Governance Process in Italy

Almost everybody, almost everywhere, speaks and writes about innovation: highly qualified and esteemed people covering key offices. Basically, the matter is debated within the framework of conferences, meetings, symposiums, articles put out in specialized, niche newspapers as well as in mass-circulation ones. Apparently it sounds positive, as innovation seems to have become the main theme, towards which the best efforts are worth being directed. The issue of China and India is now in the limelight. The way out is easy: just more innovation. And what about global competitiveness of Italy, or brain drain? What of GDP increasing less than the average in Europe? Tourism dropping off? Industrial delocalization increasing? What of such an inefficient public administration? The answer is one and only: There is a need for more innovation! That makes a lot of sense somehow; the negative aspect is that, most of the times, the core meaning and the fundamentals of innovation are not really deepened and understood; poor attention is paid to the reasons why the situation of Italy is unsatisfactory as regards innovation or to the main problems to be figured out for such a stalemate to be overcome. This short essay is going to focus on these issues, with a view to foster debate leading to prompt and realistic decisions.     

Is Mainstreaming Transformative? Theorizing Mainstreaming in the Context of Diversity and Deliberation

This article locates mainstreaming within a typology of inclusion,reversal, and displacement and maps these three approaches tomainstreaming, outlining the strengths and weaknesses of each.It focuses on the potential of the transformative approach andsuggests that, if augmented by the resources of deliberativedemocracy, this transformative model of mainstreaming is bestplaced to respond to the increasingly important demands of diversity.It suggests that deliberative mechanisms, such as citizens’forums, could be useful in enhancing this transformative modelof mainstreaming.     

Mainstreaming disability in policies: the Flemish experience

Although research on gender mainstreaming (GM) is extensive, literature on disability mainstreaming (DM) is scarce. This article builds on the experience of GM to explore the conditions affecting DM, focusing on the first Flemish policy cycle of DM (2010–2014) in two policy domains: employment and education. We found no substantive difference in the conditions necessary for the successful implementation of DM compared with that of GM. Also, developments specific to the policy domains had more influence on the inclusive character of policies than did the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities or the Flemish approach to DM.     

Integrating or Setting the Agenda? Gender Mainstreaming in the European Constitution-Making Process

The European Union (EU) constitution-making process has adoptedan "integrating" rather than an "agenda-setting" approach togender mainstreaming. This argument draws on analysis of boththe European Constitutional Convention and its product—theConstitutional Treaty. Five indicators of application of mainstreamingserve as reference points for exploring how it has been appliedin the EU Constitutional Convention: a broader concept of genderequality, the incorporation of a gender perspective into themainstream, equal representation of women, the prioritizationof gender policy objectives, and a shift in institutional andorganizational culture. The article provides a tentative explanationfor the failure of the EU constitution-making process to adoptan "agenda-setting" approach to gender mainstreaming.     

Gender Mainstreaming: The Answer to the Gender Pay Gap?

This article examines the argument that gender mainstreaming offers the way forward for closing the gender pay gap. It juxtaposes research on the process of gender mainstreaming with our account of the processes involved in Australian state government Inquiries into the gender pay gap since the late 1990s. We indicate that the continuous process of analysis and response that gender mainstreaming can offer demands political will, intensive links between research and action, and adequate resources — which means that gender mainstreaming is seldom delivered in practice. We use our account of the Australian Inquiries to argue that, provided adequate political and financial resources are in place, the gender pay gap can be narrowed through the institutional mechanisms of an industrial relations system but that the regulatory approach is limited by its vulnerability to changes in industrial relations policy. The article concludes that, whatever strategy is used to narrow the gender pay gap, it must be able to show those who use and observe it that gender itself is a continuous, effortful and political process.     

Bureaucratic Role Perceptions and Gender Mainstreaming in Canada

Since the mid‐1990s, governments have adopted gender mainstreaming (GM) as a strategy for achieving gender equality and improving women's social, economic and political conditions. Yet, studies indicate that GM continues to be unevenly implemented, both within and across countries. To explain this outcome, this paper focuses on the local implementers of GM — the gender focal points — and how they understand GM and interpret it in their everyday work. Drawing upon interviews with gender focal points in the Canadian public service, we explore how bureaucratic role perceptions shape how these local actors understand GM and how they navigate the complex terrain between bureaucratic neutrality and the equality agenda of gender mainstreaming. Our exploratory study shows no common understanding among our interviewees, revealing how the meaning of gender mainstreaming varies depending on whether the public servant views himself or herself as policy analyst, policy advisor or policy advocate. Based on these insights, we conclude with suggestions for future research on gender mainstreaming.     

非主流主流化:大学生兼职的社会学分析

社会发展、学校改革、家庭贫困、个人原因等使大学生兼职由非主流化走向主流化,甚至庸俗化。大学生兼职的动机由锻炼自己变为养活自己,在社会贬低大学生与大学生自我贬低的双重打压下,大学生兼职主流化、庸俗化不可避免,这要求社会、学校与家庭认真对待大学生兼职主流化、庸俗化问题,积极引导大学生兼职,防止因为兼职所带来的负面影响制约大学生成长与进步。     

Gender differences and equality issues in Europe: critical aspects of gender mainstreaming policies

Gender mainstreaming is the major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality. Clear intergovernmental mandates for gender mainstreaming have been developed for all the major areas of work of the United Nations and the European Commission, including disarmament, poverty reduction, macro-economics, health, education and trade. The evaluation of equal opportunities mainly focuses on qualification measures for unemployed women and improvements in childcare facilities, and on consideration of gender mainstreaming in other policy areas as well as macro-economic effects on employment and unemployment of women. It is evident that the promotion of qualification measures and childcare facilities increases the activity rate of women, although there remain doubts about the quality and sustainability of many measures and the impact on families. In particular this article focuses on the relation between gender mainstreaming and equality issues to examine whether and how the debate on the topic is a real way to improve equality without missing gender differences and women's rights.     

Re‐inventing the Gendered Organization: Staff Attitudes towards Women and Gender Mainstreaming in NGOs in Malawi

Gender inequality within non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) is constructed on a daily basis through the gendered norms, attitudes and practices of individuals within them. The continual re‐invention of a gendered organization ensures the maintenance of the status quo and therefore the privileging of male/masculine interests over female/feminine interests. Gender mainstreaming is an approach designed to alter the status quo and facilitate women's empowerment. In Malawi, many NGOs have adopted gender mainstreaming as a strategy to address gender inequality both within their organizations and with the communities where they work. Gender mainstreaming initiatives involve a variety of activities including hiring more women staff members, designing policies within the organization to promote gender equality and educating staff members about gender issues through training workshops. While these strategies represent important steps forward for gender equality, it is not clear to what extent these policies and initiatives are translating into meaningful change within the organization.     

Displacement and Empowerment: Reflections on the Concept and Practice of the Council of Europe Approach to Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Equality

This article measures one of the foundational texts of gendermainstreaming, namely, the final report of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming(Council of Europe 1998) against theoreticalconcepts of displacement and empowerment. While the Councilof Europe process approach is shown to be a fundamental "displacing"asset, there are important shortcomings, such as its consensualistpremise, lack of space for oppositional politics, and generaltechnocratic understanding of gender mainstreaming, hinderingempowerment. The ambivalence of its articulation of the goalof gender equality is particularly problematic in view of thelogic of the dual agenda in gender mainstreaming. More explicitpower analyses are highly needed.     

Force of Circumstance: Feminist Discourse in a Matrilineal Society

The present paper discusses some of the ways feminist discourse was articulated on Bougainville both during and after the secessionist war that took place on the island between 1989 and 2000. Inspired by feminist discourse, non-governmental organisations have reconfigured Bougainvillean women into newly organised spheres of influence (as moral agents, peacemakers or victims) that potentially distort the matrilineal structure of their society, which is the true source of the women's power and authority. Gender mainstreaming has become a major platform for social and political change managed by outside agencies in what is now the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. The present paper engages with current feminist debate that challenges the universal application of the concept of gender and gender mainstreaming, and especially considers the indigenous African critique in relation to matrilineal societies.     

Framing the corporate responsibility-reputation linkage: The case of Tata Motors in India

This study, focusing on the emerging economy context of one of India's largest automotive companies, Tata Motors, analyzes the thematic framing of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate reputation. Five CSR frames are shown: institutionalization, community development, modernization, mainstreaming, and nation-building. Reputation is framed via: heritage, nationbuilding, technological advancement, global footprint, and responsibility. The findings suggest how firms may better align their CSR efforts with regular business, and their larger public relations campaigns with wider social perceptions of their responsibilities.