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Gender Analysis in Policy

Maria Osman, Director, Department for Community Development, Office for Women’s Policy (OWP) was the guest speaker at the Social Statistics Consultative Group (SSCG) meeting in July this year.

Maria gave a very interesting and well received presentation on the topic of Gender Analysis in Policy, and its use as a tool in legislative, policy and program settings.

Maria explained that gender analysis is an important tool for government to identify whether current policy and legislative processes are gender neutral. Integrating a ‘gender lens’ into every aspect of public policy formulation will ensure that the differing experiences of women and men are acknowledged, and reflected in programs and services.

Gender analysis is not as simple as evaluating impacts of policies and programs on women and men, post implementation. It is not merely an ‘add-on’ to existing policy processes. The Council of Europe, for example, has adopted gender mainstreaming as a best practice model in government. Prerequisite tools include statistics disaggregated by sex, and gender analysis in policy formulation.

Gender based analysis (GBA) is used increasingly by governments around the world to ensure that policies and practices have equally beneficial effects on women and men. The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) endorsed gender mainstreaming as a key strategy in its Platform for Action.

An Australian Research Linkage Grant has been awarded to a consortium including OWP to run a three year project. The Gender Impact Assessment: A New Framework for Producing Gender-Inclusive Policy Project is a partnership with the University of Western Australia Business School, the Office for the Status of Women in South Australia, the University of Adelaide and the Department of Health.

The purpose of the project is to develop and test a self-assessment tool for government and community agencies so that gender analysis can be integrated into all aspects of strategy policy making and practice.

A training manual to assist agencies to integrate gender perspectives into their work is being developed as part of this project.

For more information please visit <http://www.womenwa.communitydevelopment.wa.gov.au>