Implement Gender Mainstreaming & Diversity Management
Karin Grasenick, Julia Trattnig | 29 September 2021
Gender Mainstreaming is a strategy that reflects who benefits – and who doesn’t – from which specific objectives, resources, or measures, originally with a clear focus on binary gender.
Diversity Management is a concept that stems from organisation management. Diversity Management addresses the challenges that arise when different individuals are supposed to collaborate effectively together.
The following table supports the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming & Diversity Management.
Implement Gender Mainstreaming and Diversity Management
Planning Cycle
- Analysis: What is the organisation doing, who is contributing, how are practices perceived?
- Planning: Based on the organisational purpose: what objectives should be set? Which specific measures and which resources are needed? How to create commitment and communicate it?
- Implementation What structures and processes, which competences are necessary?
- Monitoring and Evaluation What is the actual outcome?
Area Objectives and Strategies
- Is it clear how diversity contributes to organisational strategies and aimed achievements?
- Is diversity addressed in guiding corporate documents, e. g. vision and mission statement, organisational objectives, contracts, Charters or Code of Conducts, recruiting and leadership guidelines, …?
- What data is known about the potential workforce and its sociodemographic details? And who is actually contributing, at which hierarchy level, function or role, with which resources?
- What is known about the diversity of potential partners? And who is actually collaborating?
- What is known about the diversity of potential users? And who is actually participating?
- Which measures are already in place? Which aspects of diversity are addressed? How is their effectiveness measured?
Area Structures and Processes
- Which structural units are responsible for the implementation, at which hierarchical level? Do they have the knowledge, power, resources to implement diversity management in their area of responsibility?
- Are top management meetings in place dedicated to diversity strategies and measures?
- To which extent are decision finding bodies, meetings and workshops designed to include different hierarchical levels, expertise, and perceptions?
- Are operating procedures in place that support reflection and inclusion of diverse contributors?
- Which communication channels are used to provide ongoing information on diversity objectives, measures, and outcomes?
- Which procedures are foreseen to monitor and further develop EDI principles?
- Are leaders hold accountable? – By which processes and responsible units?
Area Individual Competences
- How is diversity expertise integrated on top management level? Who is responsible?
- Do those who are responsible have the necessary expertise to guarantee compliance with diversity principles? (e. g. responsible for organisational objectives and strategies, for collaboration with external partners and/or in teams, for user design, operating procedures)
- Which trainings offered for whom? (e. g. gender/diversity analysis, anti-bias, interdisciplinary collaboration, intercultural training, leadership, inclusive workshop design, mentoring, peer groups)
Gender Mainstreaming is a strategy that reflects who benefits – and who doesn’t – from which specific objectives, resources, or measures, originally with a clear focus on binary gender.
It is based on collecting and analysing the necessary data, addresses the language, and especially who is involved in decision making, has access to resources and services.
However, this strategy has also been heavily criticised for having produced only meagre results and thus of being unable to alter the mind set of responsible actors. Furthermore, scholars argue that it is better developed as policy approach than as concept and that the particularity of Gender Mainstreaming is not clearly defined and understandable. Lastly, some feminists reject the term “mainstream” due to its androcentric meaning as it reinscribes the position of women as deviation from a male norm (Bendl, 2012).
The European Union adopted the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming, defining it as
“the (re)organization, improvement, development and evaluation of the policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies, at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making”
(Council of Europe, 1998), based on the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997).
Diversity Management is a concept that stems from organisation management.
Diversity Management addresses the challenges that arise when different individuals are supposed to collaborate effectively together.
Cost savings and increased innovation capacity are advantages of professional diversity management: based on lower staff turnovers and lower absenteeism rates.
Furthermore, due to the diverse backgrounds and perspectives on tasks, people solve problems differently and can thus be more innovative.
However, the economic reasoning for diversity management without further references to affirmative action programmes against racial and gender discrimination in the US has been criticised (Köllen, 2021).
Diversity Management impacts organisational culture and how business is done. For this reason, it is crucial that top management is committed (O’Donovan, 2017) to analyse and set measures in three areas of intervention:
- objectives and strategies,
- structures and processes,
- individual competences.
The European Union itself can be seen as an ongoing project for diversity management as the diverse member states with their respective histories, languages, economies and (political) cultures come together to a joint governance centre in Brussels (Becker, 2004). Furthermore, 26 EU member states have developed and signed diversity charters. These charters as well as examples for good practices are available at the EU Platform of Diversity Charters, which was created in 2010 (EC, 2021a).
The above table supports the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming & Diversity Management.
References
Becker, Michael (2004): „Managing Diversity in the European Union: Inclusive European Citizenship and Third-Country Nationals. In: Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal, Vol. 7, Issue 1, 2004, p. 132-183.
Bendl, Regine/ Schmidt, Angelika (2012): „Gender Mainstreaming: An Assessment of Its Conceptual Value for Gender Equality.” In: Gender, Work & Organization, Vol. 20, Issue 4, July 2012, p. 364-381. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2011.00584.x
Council of Europe (1998): Gender Mainstreaming: Conceptual Framework, Methodology and Presentation of Good Practices. Final Report of Activities of the Group of Specialists on Mainstreaming, EG-S-MS, 98/2, Strasbourg: Council of Europe.p. 13.
European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE): Gender mainstreaming. URL: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming [23.07.2021]
European Commission (2021a): Diversity management. URL: https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/tackling-discrimination/diversity-management_en [23.07.2021]
O’Donovan, Deirdre (2017): “Inclusion: Diversity Management 2.0”. In: Machado C., Davim J. (eds): Managing Organizational Diversity. Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54925-5_1
Köllen, Thomas (2021): Diversity Management: A Critical Review and Agenda for the Future. Journal of Management Inquiry. 2021;30(3):259-272. DOI:10.1177/1056492619868025