Gender Budgeting in Europe

This edited volume provides for the first time a focus on activities in Europe to adopt and implement gender budgeting which has emerged globally as an approach to gender equality in public policymaking and public finance management over the last 20 years. It is a dynamic concept with methodological developments and practical approaches emerging at different levels of government and in different political and institutional contexts. This book intends to inform policymakers and gender equality advocates on the mechanics of gender budgeting and discuss the tensions inherent in conceptualising and putting it into practice. It draws on expert academic and practitioner perspectives on the challenges, opportunities, and practicalities of gender budgeting. The contributors are members of the European Gender Budgeting Network, a research and practice network that has existed since 2006. In the context of this book, given the range of practice currently developing we take a wider view of Europe than the European Union and will include perspectives from Turkey, Iceland, and other non-EU countries.

This chapter charts the historical development of gender budgeting as it travelled into use in Europe and critically engages in the different conceptual origins and definitions. First given institutional support within the Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995, a normative framework has developed across European countries but arguably gender budgeting has been variously and weakly implemented.

This analysis draws together arguments for gender budgeting as feminist policy change and the institutional resistances encountered in advancing such transformative change, as highlighted in concepts from feminist policy analysis, feminist institutionalism, and feminist economics.

Drawing on the experiences of feminist activists, academic analysts, and institutional actors engaged in the European Gender Budgeting Network, this chapter offers an overview of the state of play across levels of government (national, sub-national, local) in a range of European countries, including non-EU member countries.

Reductions in public spending and the dominance of austerity since 2008 have characterized public policy decisions in Europe. Decisions on resource allocation, public service design and reform, changes in social security spending and tax revenue, and in the fiscal rules applied by the EU have significantly affected women’s financial security and autonomy and their political and social status within EU member state countries. With case studies on Spain and Italy, this chapter argues that the entrenched paradigm has disregarded the impact on gender equality and the regressive effects of policy decisions, despite political rhetoric on the enduring importance of advancing gender equality.

This chapter raises a series of questions on how gender budget analysis can reveal central concerns of gender equality as advanced by feminist economics and feminist public policy analysts. It discusses the importance of engaging in budgetary processes and decision-making to identify and eliminate the gendered effects across multiple policy domains including the care economy, definitions of gender equality, and the relevance of gender analysis to economic policy and decision-making.

Offering an overview of distinctive methodological developments in gender budgeting (GB) and analysis of budget and public policy processes, this chapter discusses various approaches. It introduces examples of different applied and emerging methods for practical adoption and implementation of GB. While clearly visible conditions for the adoption and implementation of GB can be identified and characterised, sustaining gender analysis across the policy and budgetary process presents enduring challenges. This chapter sets out methodologies for attempting gender-responsive budgets and the various approaches adopted in divergent contexts.

Gender budgeting (GB) in Austria is often referred to as one of the “successful” cases of GB implementation in Europe. The system of integrating gender perspectives into performance budgeting is quite comprehensive and has received a lot of international attention. The chapter provides a critical analysis of GB implementation in Austria and considers whether this characterisation is justified.

Offering a brief outline of GB at the federal level, the first section explores key elements of GB implementation and the role of different actors with a particular focus on the role of civil society in the introductory phase of adopting GB and subsequently emerging strategies. The second section considers achievements and challenges exploring the extent to which the integration of GB in Public Finance Management Reform has been exemplary and how explicit gender equality objectives have been integrated. It considers the extent to which gender equality has been integral to the annual budget cycle and what evidence there is of such achievements, particularly in the context of austerity politics. The chapter concludes with some recommendations to strengthen GB in Austria and make it an effective instrument towards improving effective gender equality as mandated by the Austrian Constitution.

Gender Budgeting in Germany covers the approaches to gender budgeting by regional governments, with a focus on Berlin and Hamburg; local government, arguably the most dynamic agents regarding the strategy; and the federal level, with examples from individual ministries. Since the federal government in Germany has not followed through the implementation of a binding integration of gender perspectives into the national budget, the chapter also covers the challenges faced and the arguments against implementation as well as good examples and feasible pathways towards implementation.

Gender budgeting (GB) was introduced in Iceland in response to the worldwide financial crisis of 2008, as one of the methods to improve public governance at a state level and was enshrined in the Public Finances Act 2016. Following the initiative by the state, the City of Reykjavik began its own GB programme as did the largest academic public institution of the country, the University of Iceland. These initiatives are at different stages of the implementation process and have been received with various levels of enthusiasm. This chapter outlines the development of GB processes in Iceland at state, local government and public institutional level, and considers in particular the successes and hindrances relating to implementation.

Gender Budgeting (GB) was introduced in Italy in 2001. Numerous GB initiatives have been carried out since at the local level, although in absence of any organised attempt to build a common methodology and coordinate the different experiences. Taking advantage of the diversity of the Italian experiences, in this chapter we assess the main methodological approaches that have been concretely tried out on the ground. We identify three main approaches, respectively account-based, policy-based and capability-based gender budgeting. Based on our experience, our exchanges with other experts involved in GB and the available records, we briefly illustrate the main advantages and limitations of each approach.

This chapter considers developments within the Spanish territory, reflecting divergences in approach, methodology, and political and institutional engagement. It will explore developments and deficiencies in the national budget process, and distinctive models emerging in Andalusia, Euskadi, and at state government level. Contributors offer a variety of perspectives reflecting institutional opinions from the Junta de Andalucía and observations from academic analysis and activists working to support the adoption of gender budgeting in practice.

This chapter refers to gender budgeting practices in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, with particular attention to Poland, in relation to their historical and cultural context and current political debates. The author discusses how the character and scope of the gender budgeting projects have altered—from simple analyses of the budgetary allocations for the burning problems indicated by inhabitants, through the studies of unpaid and care works, to gender and well-being research projects conducted recently. The two latest case studies from Poland are critically examined and conclusions as well as directions of future research are put forward as an inspiration to academics as well as practitioners in the region.

This chapter follows up on research on Well-Being Gender Budget audits carried out in a selected number of municipalities in Turkey in 2013 and explores the sustainability of gender budgeting practices since then. The chapter traces the evidence of gender sensitivity in a limited number of municipal administrative bodies, strategies and activities that surfaced in strategic plans and performance programmes. A comparative analysis of findings identifies conditions for sustainability of the gender budgeting framework in local administrations in Turkey. Similarities and differences between the municipality budgets and programmes will also contribute to discussions in the academic and practitioner circles concerned with institutionalisation of gender budgeting worldwide.

As the governments of the United Kingdom (UK) have diverged through expanding devolution since 1999, so too have the responses to and forms of gender equality policy and specifically gender budgeting. This chapter explores the distinctive developments in each of the territories of the UK, considering the role and significance of civil society actors, governmental processes and political commitment.

Feminist engagement with the state has been a contested and variable approach to advocacy for feminist policy change. Gender budgeting has gained some purchase with key policy actors and in appropriate policy venues within formal institutions. However, challenges still remain. Drawing on experiences of feminist organisations and examples from across Europe, this chapter will explore how gender budgeting contributes to feminist activism and the contribution gender budgeting can make to transformative policy making. The authors discuss different ways in which feminist actors can engage with Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB), how gender budgeting can contribute to improving effectiveness of feminist work and contribute to the empowerment of feminist activists and organisations.

Budgets appear to be a neutral accounting technique but they need to be deconstructed to disclose political power relationships and open their apparently rigid framework. The political and analytical shift makes it possible to extend the macro political economy to include unpaid domestic work, to expand the notion of standard of living into a multidimensional space, and to include social welfare expenditure in a circular reproductive flow as part of what is necessary to enable men and women to live, work, and relate in a social context. This inclusion of real lives changes the concept of time and place, to be defined in relation to the complexity of the human body and its relational necessities and social norms.

This final chapter draws together the key themes, findings and challenges from the contributions and sets them in the context of political and policy changes in Europe as its borders, institutions, and processes are redrawn. The implications for autonomy within multi-level governance environments and the prioritisation of gender equality policy at all levels present challenges and opportunities for the sustained validity of gender budgeting as transformative feminist policy change.