Policy Frames and Implementation Problems: the Case of Gender Mainstreaming (MAGEEQ)

Since Beijing 1995, Gender Mainstreaming has heralded the beginning of a renewed effort to address what is seen as one of the roots of gender inequality: the genderedness of systems, procedures and organizations. In the definition of the Council of Europe, Gender Mainstreaming is the (re-)organization, improvement, development and evaluation of 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. Although all member states, and some candidate states of the European Union have started to implement gender mainstreaming, this new strategy is still very much "under construction" and as such open to multiple understandings. Against this backdrop, Gender Mainstreaming has been chosen as the research case for a multi-disciplinary, international comparative study on policy framing: MAGEEQ.

MAGEEQ was a three-year research project funded within the European Commission's 5th Framework Programme that started in January 2003. Next to a comparative study on the framing of gender inequality as a policy problem in Austria, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, the project resulted in a conceptual framework on various dimensions of gender equality policy frames, a method for the assessment of inconsistencies in gender equality policy frames and in a set of debates at national and international level.

Building on the results of the MAGEEQ research project, a larger consortia of 9 partners was formed and began research project QUING (Quality in Gender+ Equality Policies) in October 2007. QUING is an Integrated Project funded by the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission, and will run until 2011. Building on the methodology of Critical Frame Analysis developed for the MAGEEQ project, QUING aims to address issues of gender and citizenship across EU 27 members states as well as Croatia and Turkey.