Formalise structures for EDI

Karin Grasenick, Julia Trattnig | 29 September 2021

One possibility to ensure EDI principles in governance structures is to create certain units dedicated to these issues.
For the governmental level, Women’s Units or Women and Equality Units are examples of such institutional structures for EDI issues (Squires/Wickham-Jones, 2004). On a national level, the correspondent government unit would be a ministry (e.g. the OECD suggests to create “an institution for gender equality with adequate level of responsibility and position within the governmental structure” (OECD, 2018: 18)).

The aim is to ensure that gender mainstreaming activities – or more generally speaking EDI related objectives and principles – are indeed implemented at different levels and in different units. For such areas of responsibility, sufficient expertise, resources, visibility and authority are necessary. Given the cross-cutting nature of EDI, dedicated units cannot be successful without full commitment and collaborative alliances of key stakeholders and decisions making units.

Without sufficient resources, visibility and authority to ensure the implementation of EDI principles, power and influence are very limited. It is thus essential that these units have clear responsibilities in order to be heard and taken seriously. Therefore, it is suggested that these units are located within the highest possible level of governance (OECD, 2018).

Additionally, the direct involvement in the decision-making structures, sufficient competences and commitment of top leadership are of crucial importance.

Another critical issue is that these units or teams are often made up of an above-average number of women, i.e. the work on these issues is mainly led and carried out by women. This is a reproduction of gendered work which is creating a paradox since it is work aiming to create equality for both men and women, in all their diversity (Caffrey et al., 2016).

Such units or persons are usually established to support the implementation of EDI principles in governance structures and/or to specifically counteract discrimination. Examples are

• Gender unit, equality and diversity unit, central equal opportunities office
• Gender and Diversity Advisory Committees
• Working Groups for Equal Treatments
• Ombudsperson, Anti-discrimination Offices