Gender mainstreaming in the structural funds - establishing gender justice in the distribution of financial resources

The Structural Funds, which include a number of different programmes, are the main EU tools for redistribution of resources between regions and between different sections of the population. As such the Structural Funds are key instruments to achieve the Community goal of equality between men and women.

In the new regulations, equal opportunities between men and women are stated as an overall objective of all Structural Funds interventions. Furthermore, the regulations identify gender mainstreaming alongside specific gender equality actions as the main means to reach gender equality objectives.

At this stage there are clear indications that the integration of gender equality has not been followed through at national level in the drafting and putting in place of the Structural Funds programmes. Member states should be able to show how they have integrated gender equality, clearly stating how actions are expected to affect or benefit women and men respectively in each and every one of their programmes, as well as show how their programmes correspond to the overall aim of promoting equality between men and women.

The structural funds are the main EU resources to promote women's participation in the labour market. Structural Funds should therefore demonstrate their contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the European Employment Strategy, in particular the target set at the Lisbon European Council to increase the female employment rate to 60 per cent by 2010.

The main link of the Structural Funds with the Employment Strategy and gender equality is the European Social Fund (ESF) and the programmes developed under Objective 3, while programmes developed under Objective 1 and 2 very rarely include a gender perspective and only a small amount of resources are used for measures targeting women.

In this context, it is essential that the funds (not only, but including the ESF) contribute to an increased provision of care services, the most important measure for combining work and family life based on gender equality.

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