Gender mainstreaming is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, policy or programme, in all areas and at all levels before any decisions are made and throughout the whole process. It is a strategy for making women's as well as men's concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes so that both women and men benefi t and inequality is not perpetuated. Gender mainstreaming is not a goal in itself but an approach for promoting gender equality.

This is one of the sectoral guides which help to make up the Gender Management System (GMS) resource kit. GMS is an innovative system developed by the Commonwealth Secretariat for gender mainstreaming. This guide deals with how to mainstream gender issues in education.

Im "Jahr der Chancengleichheit" wird der Begriff Gender Mainstreaming häufig in den Mund genommen, aber vielen ist unbekannt, was sich dahinter verbirgt. Wesentliche Ziele sind die geschlechtsneutrale Entgeltbestimmung, sowie verbesserte Beschäftigungschancen von Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt. Die beschäftigungspolitischen Leitlinien der Europäischen Union verankern den sogenannten Gender Mainstreaming-Ansatz in einem Gesetz.

The concept of gender mainstreaming has experienced an unexpected boom in the European Union and beyond since the United Nations World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995. Starting from the evolution of gender mainstreaming, this book examines the extent to which gender mainstreaming can be regarded as an innovation and as an institution in a complex organisation like the European Commission. By ensuring that the effects on both genders of all policies and organisational processes are taken into account, gender mainstreaming seeks to bring what are often marginalised as ́women ́s concerns ́ into the mainstream of the analysis. Gender mainstreaming is often regarded as a paradigm shift compared to previous concepts of equal treatment and positive action programmes.