Gender inequality remains the greatest challenge for many societies and this has implications for the sustainable development and well-being of societies. There exists gender inequalities with regards to access to resources such as land, healthcare, credit, information, education and decision-making power between races and between the sexes. The advent of democracy brought freedom for all South Africans and the new government understood gender inequality as a deterrent to the achievement of sustainable development for all and the building of a democratic state. The National Policy Framework for Women‟s Empowerment and Gender Equality provides a roadmap through which gender should be mainstreamed within government and elsewhere towards achieving the goal of gender equality. It stresses that the shift from inequality to equality requires the transformation of government and civil society. The efforts of the Department of Social Development towards gender mainstreaming are premised in this national framework. The purpose of the present research is to ascertain whether and how gender is being mainstreamed in the National Department of Social Development (DSD), specifically looking at the conceptualization, management and structures in place for gender mainstreaming. This is a qualitative research analysis, using in-depth interviews as primary data collection methods, as well as a review of official gender mainstreaming documents of the DSD. Eighteen officials in middle management from all the different branches (reflected in the organogram in Figure 1) of DSD were selected. Middle management refers to staff that have the rank of Assistant and Deputy- Director. These are members of staff who are directly involved in policy implementation and, in many instances, contribute to the development of policies. The findings indicate that the implementation of gender mainstreaming is varied in the Department, with considerable success towards the attainment of employment equity target of 50/50 women representation in senior management. According to the DSD Employment Equity Report 2007/2008, women constituted 48% of senior managers. The official reports of the DSD point to progress being made in gender mainstreaming within the Department. This includes working towards approving a range of service delivery policies that address concerns of women and men, in intensifying service provision to respond to people‟s vulnerabilities and to ensure sustainable development of communities. The respondents in this study argued that policy commitments to gender equality are not supported by political and administrative will and necessary resources. The majority of the respondents did not know that there was a Gender Focal Point, whose responsibility is the facilitation of gender mainstreaming in the Department. They struggled to define basic gender concepts with gender mainstreaming, mainly understood to be employment equity. The respondents were also not conversant with the Gender Mainstreaming Guidelines and did not know what is needed in implementing gender mainstreaming. The gap between the official reports of the Department on successful gender mainstreaming implementation and the negative perspectives of the respondents needs further investigation. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

The study deals with the causes of unjustified differences in pay between women and men in the banking sector. The purpose of this paper has been to examine how a gender project implemented in the private banking organizations from a gender-and implementation perspective. The aim of the project examined is to even unjustified differences in pay between men and women in the banking and finance sector. The main issues are: ● How has the project been implemented and what are the real and perceived results? ● How can the opportunities and barriers to successful implementation course with emphasis on gender? The method used is a qualitative study, where the empirical material consisted of focus group interviews. The two main conclusions that we can say is : First, the organization's managers needs to take action in practice for implementation to be successful in the organization, otherwise they constitute an obstacle to the implementation of equal pay for equal work. The barrier consists of the implementation cannot be realized without active management actions. From a gender perspective, this can be understood as the prevailing gender structures maintained and thus unwarranted pay differentials. Second, long-term need for equality implementation. A long-term approach is essential , from a gender perspective to gender patterns are deeply rooted in our culture. They are so ingrained in our way of thinking about gender which can´t change in just a few years. It requires long-term and duration to correct overcoming unwarranted pay differentials. Short-term work preserves gender structures and therefore constitutes an obstacle in the implementation of equal pay for equal work by segregating them or become a side issue.

Zugl.: Münster, University, Diss., 2006.

Pädag. Hochsch., Diss., 2006--Heidelberg.

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This thesis is about whether the political majority has an impact on gender mainstreaming at the committee decisions. Gender mainstreaming is the main strategy in Sweden in order to increase equality. It has been the dominant strategy for over 20 years, but gender equality is still not achieved. Political majority could have an impact on how municipalities work with gender mainstreaming. I study three municipalities, the municipality of Örebro, the municipality of Umeå and the municipality of Jönköping and how decisions have been made in the committee responsible for preschool and primary school in each municipality. Therefore, I study in this thesis if there are any similarities and differences between the municipalities with gender mainstreaming and if political majority can have an impact on gender mainstreaming. I have chosen to use a comparative case study to compare the gender mainstreaming of these three municipalities, using a qualitative content analysis. The analysis is based on the municipalities' gender equality plans, strategic plans and meeting protocols using the Municipal Population Model and the CEMR-declaration (Council of European Municipalities and Regions). The conclusions of the analysis are that there are similarities and differences in how municipalities use gender mainstreaming in their decisions. The similarities depends on that all municipalities are based on the same strategy and that everyone is based on the CEMR-declaration and the differences are that they have formed the goals different. The conclusion is that political majority does not have such a major impact on gender mainstreaming. Keywords: gender mainstreaming, municipalities, political parties, CEMR-declaration

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Gender inequality greatly affects the vulnerability of women in many areas of societal development. Gender mainstreaming is used as a strategy to include a gender perspective in policy and practice to decrease vulnerability. In regular development there is a discrepancy between policy and practice, but especially so in contexts of disaster. This thesis aims to examine how gender mainstreaming strategies are implemented in disaster risk reduction. The main purpose is to create an understanding of how such processes translate into practice both in relief efforts and resilience-building projects. A case-study of the Swedish Red Cross is the foundation of this thesis, looking at how these processes flow from theory to policy to practice. Semi-structured interviews with professionals from the field serve as the main method. A content analysis of IFRC policies regulating gender action will supplement the interviews. The results illustrate a discrepancy between the gender-focused policy and a women-centric implementation, and further highlight the role of donors and ‘the Tyranny of Urgency’. These results, and consequently this thesis, contributes to recognizing the feminization of responsibility in the field of development in general, but especially in the context of disaster.

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