Gender Mainstreaming

Gender mainstreaming generally means the process in which the Government and other sectors take into full account the perspectives of both sexes in the formulation of their policies. In the process, the different needs of men and women would be identified and appropriate services could then be provided according to their different needs. Gender mainstreaming is an effective strategy to remove the society’s preconceived notions of women and address the specific needs of different women groups.

The groundwork on which gender mainstreaming initiatives have been put forward was laid down by the Women’s Commission. The Commission has drawn on overseas experience in implementing gender mainstreaming and consulted various women groups and academia to develop an analytical tool in the form of a Gender Mainstreaming Checklist to assist government officials in carrying out gender mainstreaming. The Government has been applied the Checklist to more than ten policy/programme areas and is rolling out the Checklist to other policy/programme areas on an incremental basis.

To take forward the gender mainstreaming initiatives, all bureaux and departments have already designated a senior officer (a Directorate Officer in most cases) as a Gender Focal Point to help promote the implementation of gender mainstreaming as well as provide assistance and advice to relevant officers within their organisations.

To facilitate the gender mainstreaming process, gender-related training is provided to civil servants to raise their awareness and facilitate them to take into consideration gender perspectives in their work, including policy making and providing services to the community.

For details on the work of the Women’s Commission on gender mainstreaming in 2001-03, please refer to the Commission’s Report 2001-03.

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