This paper provides assistance in creating greater understanding of the mainstreaming approach and its practical implications and in identifying entry points for moving the analysis further in various concrete contexts.

Articles discuss how gender mainstreaming has been understood in different organisations; provide examples of good work, which supports the empowerment of women; and look beyond gender mainstreaming to what new possibilities exist for transformation.

In theory, the EU’s ‘Gender Mainstreaming’ policy should mark it out as a trail-blazer in gender equality, but gender equality activists in Europe confront a knotty problem; most civil servants and policy makers can’t understand how to ‘mainstream’ gender. Making Gender Equality Happen argues that we should take this problem seriously. In this book Cavaghan uncovers the social processes that make gender appear irrelevant to so many policy makers using a new method, gender knowledge contestation analysis. Building on this new perspective Cavaghan identifies: barriers to effective gender mainstreaming; mechanisms of resistance to gender mainstreaming; and the steps towards positive change, which gender mainstreaming can yield, even when results stop short of ‘transformation’. These findings present fresh perspectives for policy makers and activists aiming to make gender equality happen. Cavaghan’s new method also opens fresh avenues in feminist EU studies, which are particularly relevant in the wake of the financial crisis, as the EU seems to be stepping away from its commitments to gender equality.

This book explores the issue of gender inequality through the lens of the Millennium Development Goals, particularly the first one of halving world poverty by 2015.

This is the consensus built up in a series of workshops in different regions of the Commonwealth on what is the most effective way of applying Gender Management System principles and methodology to the health sector. This manual should assist other countries in adapting mainstreaming.