Rethinking Gender Mainstreaming in the era of austerity

3rd Equal is not enough Conference - Belgium, February 4-6 2015

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Rethinking Gender Mainstreaming in the era of austerity

Eva ALFAMA1, Marta CRUELLS1 and Maria DE LA FUENTE2

1. Introduction

Paper presented at 3rd "Equal is not enough" Conference “Exploring novel theoretical and empirical approaches to study (in)equalities”(S2 P7)

Antwerp – Belgium, February 4-6 2015.

Abstract

This paper addresses the implications of the present economic and political crisis in the Gender Mainstreaming strategy both at EU and Spanish level. In the first place, we will point out the main achievements and shortcomings of gender equality policies implemented in the last decades. Secondly, we will explore the gender dimensions of the crisis: both in the crisis genesis and its social impact, and in the policies developed to face it. Specific attention is given to the weakening of the democratic decision-making process in key areas of current political and economic governance. To conclude, we will identify the challenges, obstacles and opportunities that this new scenario poses for the implementation of gender mainstreaming, raising some questions regarding the need to rethink priorities, courses of action and tools of equality policies.

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In recent years gender equality policies have become widespread throughout Spain and

Europe: structures were consolidated, specific legislation developed and the elaboration

of plans and programs systematized, allotting them with unprecedented funding. It

could be said that never before have there been so many tools to include gender

perspective in public policies. And yet, progress in the effective introduction of the

1 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Correspondence to: [email protected].

2 Observatorio IQ.

3 A Spanish version of this paper will be published in the next number of the journal "Investigaciones Feministas" (http://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/INFE).


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principle of equality in the very heart of public action has been slow, uneven and full of

obstacles.

After 2008 pre-existing limits have become more apparent due to economic and

financial global crisis. The crisis has had -and still has- a great impact on society and

policies, entailing both substantial cutbacks on public spending and the development of

in-depth reforms in key welfare policies. What's more, these changes have been made

very quickly, under the constant pressure of financial markets and with hardly any

public debate. At European level we are witnessing – in different degrees depending on

the country – a structural transformation towards a more neoliberal model alongside a

deeper democratic crisis where financial requirements override democratic decision

making. These changes have sometimes come, as in the Spanish case, hand in hand with

the surge of conservative values and ideologies. As a consequence, the social role of the

state is often questioned, as well as other individual rights already recognized - like

abortion and the right to demonstrate or protest.

This paper examines how this crisis has influenced the Gender Mainstreaming strategy.

Does fostering gender mainstreaming in an intervened administration make any sense?

Is it possible to include a gender perspective in austerity policies? What can we learn

from the practically complete disappearance of debate concerning equality of men and

women in the measures undertaken in response to the crisis? What role should state

feminism and social movements fighting for social justice and equality play in face of

all this?

In this paper we aim to contribute to these debates by systematizing the main changing

trends, identifying current dilemmas of equality policies and posing some questions.

Drawing on the analysis of secondary sources, a connection is made between existing

literature on equality policies and recent works about the crisis from a critical and

gender perspective. We will start by sketching the development of European gender

equality policies and characterizing the gender dimension of the present day crisis, to

continue by pointing out the challenges and obstacles that the current economic

governance poses for the introduction of gender mainstreaming. In the next section this

analysis is applied to the Spanish case. Keeping all this in mind, in the final discussion

we will sustain the need to rethink the mission and strategies of both equality policies


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and state feminism in order to be able to go beyond the mere defence and maintenance

of previous achievements. From our point of view, the new scenario poses huge

challenges that needs to be addressed - mainly the correction of the gender-blindness of

socio-economic policies and structural reforms currently underway and the reversion of

the weakening of democratic mechanisms for decision making. We believe that to a

great extent, we are in a moment of accelerating change at many levels where the rules

of the game are being redefined. We find ourselves, therefore at a turning point and in a

potentially open scenario in which to reconsider the gender mainstreaming strategy, for

which we will contribute some reflections based on the experience of Spain.

2. Equality policies, crisis and gender

2.1 Gender mainstreaming: progress and shortcomings 20 years after Beijing

The process of institutionalizing gender equality policies has already travelled a

considerable path. While at the beginning the initiatives developed focused on

guaranteeing equal treatment, in the 80s (XX century) specific policies were aimed at

fostering equal opportunities and compensating existing inequalities, and in the nineties

the launch of Gender mainstreaming (henceforth GM) 4 was a step forward in an effort

to overcome the limitations observed up to that moment (Rees: 19985

This principle of Gender Mainstreaming has been assimilated by the main national and

international normative frameworks, as in the case, among others, of the EU Amsterdam

). Under the

premise that public policies are generally androcentric, the need to impact on the

mechanisms of (re)production of gender inequality was underlined. This implied, in

fact, changing the policy making process - in its design, implementation and evaluation

stages- to place gender perspective as a requirement and avoid biases, to involve new

actors and to reconsider the policy agendas with more inclusive priorities (Lombardo:

2005, Council of Europe: 1998). It is, therefore, a strategy entailing a deep

transformation of values, organizational cultures and routines of the public

administrations that more or less explicitly challenges hegemonic values and priorities.

4 In the UN Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, where thanks to the substantial mobilization of women and feminist movements all over the world, a turning point concerning gender equality was included in the world agenda.

5 Quoted in Daly (2005).


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Treaty of 1997. It has resulted in the set up of institutional structures working on this

issue (Gender Units, e. g.) and in the adoption of a variety of policy tools devoted to

reorganize the policy process from a gender perspective (Gender Impact Assessment of

programs, laws or budgets, gender training and awareness-raising of politicians and

civil servants, analytical and informative tools, mechanisms to foster institutional/civil

society collaboration, or the opening of horizontal spaces of cooperation across actors

and issues, among other matters) (Lombardo, Meier and Verloo: 2013).

This promise of change offered by GM, however, did not always materialize the way it

was expected to. Individual and institutional resistance – implicit and explicit,

intentional or unintentional – has been widespread and in the end, sustained and high-

rank commitment with gender equality has been quite scarce6. Comparative research on

the development of this strategy in different European countries shows that progress can

only be depicted as partial (Braithwaite: 2005, e.g.). Even in the countries with greater

outcomes (Sweden and Holland, according to comparative analysis done by Megaert et

al.: 2014), the mainstreaming of gender is not totally institutionalized7

It has also been pointed out that progress in the inclusion of gender equality has been

unequal according to different policy issues. Thus, policies related to social areas tend

to be more open to the gender mainstreaming strategy and to the introduction of

concrete measures to promote equality, whilst on the contrary, the hard core of the

public policy has been a lot more impervious to these initiatives (Lombard: 2005 and

2013). This is specially significant in relation with economic policies, a typically

gender-blind field

. The main trend

has been the integration of some tools and concrete actions to existing policies without a

significant change in the status quo rather than achieving a more far-reaching set of

changes in policy paradigms (Daly: 2005, drawing on Jahan, 1995).

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6 For a review of literature on this matter, see Lombardo, Meier and Verloo (2013), Woodward (2008), Benschop and y Verloo (2006), Mergaert and Lombardo (2014) or Alfama and Cruells (2013).

7 By institutionalization these authors understand the inclusion of a gender equality perspective in all stages of all policies and government levels.

8 Different authors have shown how EU macroeconomic, labour and commercial policies have ignored gender perspective, both in the European Labour Strategy and in the macroeconomic plans. See Lombardo (2013) and Allwood et al (2013), among others.

. The lack of gender perspective in tax, macroeconomic and labour


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market policies have brought to what Lina Gálvez calls a schizophrenic strategy (2012:

97) where institutional efforts to increase women’s labour market participation co-exist

with structural policies that discourage this same participation9. Regarding welfare

policies, authors like Sainsbury (1996), Orloff et al. (1999), Daly and Lewis (2000), or

Hobson et al. (2006) among others have maintained that both social policies and

academic investigation on the subject are strongly biased. They have shown that the

diverse welfare and care regimes presuppose - to a smaller or larger extent – a familistic

model where part of the caring needs are addressed mainly thanks to women's unpaid

work10

Behind the existing difficulties to introduce GM in economic and welfare policies we

find, in fact, a more fundamental and epistemological limitation: the reductionism of

hegemonic perspectives in the macroeconomic field

.

11

On the other hand, different experts have pointed out the difficulty of introducing a

transformation strategy as far reaching as gender mainstreaming in a context that is

. Focusing on the business

environment, the conception of work is biased, as work is uniquely understood as paid

work. That means ignoring not only the work involved in care ‒carried out mainly by

women‒ but also the dependence of the former on the latter, as well as the key role of

this dependence for the capitalist production system (Carrasco, Borderías y Torns:

2011). Summarizing, prevailing macroeconomic analysis ignore the complex inter-

relations existing between formal, informal and domestic economies, as well as the

economic role played by women and men in these spheres (Gálvez and Rodríguez:

2012, Pérez Orozco: 2014, Carrasco et al.; 2014, Benería and Floro: 2004). This

determines the reach of all policies within the frame of those analyses – whether they

are expansive or restrictive- making it difficult, therefore, to include the perspective of

gender in these fields.

9 De Villota (2006) and De Villota and Pazos (2013) have analysed this matter thoroughly in the Spanish case, with regards to tax incentives applied to inactivity.

10 However, recent scholarship shows a more nuanced insight. Caraway (2010) for instance notes that gender scholars have succeeded in becoming an integral part of existing welfare stat literature.

11 Many of the social democratic and progressive approaches also share this reductionist vision. In this sense, Pérez Orozco (2011) recovers Antonella Picchio’s concept of “short-sighted productivism” to refer to this bias.


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predominantly neoliberal, and therefore characterized by the withdrawal of state's social

and welfare agenda and the development of new ways of multi-level and public-private

governance (Kantola and Nousiainen: 2009, Bacchi and Eveline: 2003, Kantola and

Squires: 2012)12

2.2 Crisis and gender

. They underline that although not always made explicit, the GM is a

political and democratic strategy. Given that its very ambition is to re-define policy

making in a transformative and inclusive sense, this will necessarily entail a more

consistent citizens' involvement in order to be able to do away with resistance and raise

political commitment (Verloo: 2005 and Squires: 2005). This political and democratic

feature, however, is frequently lost in the practical implementation of gender

mainstreaming, that has been presented to a greater extent from a technical point of

view, as a process that is “beyond politics”, disconnected from feminist normative

desires and of a fundamentally consensual nature (Verloo: 2005).

In the present context of the economic crisis, these pre-existing restrictions become

more obvious, making the implementation of gender mainstreaming even more difficult,

as we will now argue.

Lately several authors have pointed out the gender dimensions involved in the economic

crises (Gálvez: 2013; Federici: 2014; Walby: 2009a, or Elston; 2010, among others).

In the first place, the crises come from economic processes that are unequal in terms of

gender: there are generally no -or very few- women involved in economic decision

making; they do not share wealth equally; and as we already stated the economy and

work involved in care is not taken into account in economic policies (Gálvez and

Torres: 2010). Actually, it is suggested that the strong gender bias present in the features

and governance of the financial system (regarding principles, objectives, practices,

12 The implementation of GM in this context has generally led to a less transformative version of the strategy, in which those gender issues that are more compatible with a neoliberal framework are underlined (e.g., the political representation of women, women's participation in the labour market or increasing support for women entrepreneurs) while more re-distributing or defamiliarising claims are pushed aside (increasing public care services, for example). Likewise, the New Public Management focus on auditing, efficiency and evidence-based policy and management, as well as the emergency of mixed public-private governance have also contributed to this depoliticization and technocratization, as it has placed part of the women's movement in a position of dialogue and cooperation with institutions, while marginalising the more critical voices (Kantola and Squires 2012).


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actors and the type of knowledge implied) could have played a fundamental role in the

financial crash (Walby; 2009a, 5).

In the second place, economic crises have an unequal impact on women and men on

account of their different socio-economic point of departure. To name just a few of the

relevant issues, there are more women living in poverty, and as their working conditions

are worse (part-time contracts, salary gap, vertical and horizontal labour market,

segregation, etc.) they have more difficulties to obtain access to social protection -

owing to its usual link with formal employment (Castro: 2013). Likewise, with the

decrease in available resources there is an increase in volume of work (specially

household chores, care, services) that falls disproportionally on women – with no pay

or through informal economy (Pérez Orozco: 2014; Gálvez and Rodríguez; 2012;

Benería and Floro: 2004).

In the third place, the measures taken in face of the crisis also contain noticeable gender

biases. Bettio et al. (2013), in fact, suggest that the greatest negative impact on women

and on gender equality have come from these policy reactions more than from direct

effects of the crisis –such as the fall in employment or credit. The several analysis of the

present crisis carried out to date underline that the gender perspective has been

generally absent in the response to the crisis, independently from the type of policies

which we refer to. It is therefore very interesting to closely examine what has happened

in each of these different initiatives13

a) Remodelling financial architecture and regulations, that were widely discussed

especially during the first stage of the crisis (2008-2009). Walby (2009a) shows how the

gender issue was not problematised nor addressed at any time, neither with the analysis

of the causes of the crisis nor with the actions proposed

.

14. She also holds that the

Recommendations of the Stiglitz Commission15

13 Typology based on Walby (2009a) and Ortiz and Cummins (2013).

14 This dimension would be specified for instance, in the exclusion of women – and the groups most affected – in decision making or the existence of masculine gendered dynamics in financial practices, such as, for example, a tendency to risk or a short-term view. See also Young et al (ed) (2011).

in 2009 would be a good example of

15 Commission of Experts of the President of the UN General Assembly on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System.


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this: despite including concern for equality and democratisation of decision-making in

the financial sphere, gender-blindness persisted.

b) Keynesian stimulus packages, launched in 2008 and 2009 as a counter-cyclical

strategy. They were also, generally speaking, considerably gender-biased since they

focused on giving support to very masculinised sectors such as the car industry (Bettio

et al.: 2013) or the construction sector, as we will later see in the Spanish case. As a

consequence, even if a huge amount of funds were mobilized, these were not used to

promote equality, wasting a unique opportunity16

c) Regarding the collapse of financial institutions, the main answer of governments and

international institutions has been to bail them out with public funds. These bailout

operations, most of them of substantial amounts, were subjected to certain conditions.

Walby (2009a) pointed out that except in a few cases no gender criteria ‒or social

criteria, for that matter‒ were included in these conditions

.

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d) Finally, we have the fiscal consolidation policies implemented in Europe as from

2010 in response to the increase of public deficit and to the European sovereign debt

crisis. These measures have focused on the reduction of public spending to balance

public accounts and have gone hand in hand with structural and liberalizing reforms

aiming to generate trust in financial markets. These adjustment measures have included,

among others, the reform of tax, labour market and pension systems, the privatisation of

public companies and services, or expenditure cutbacks, including cutting down on

employees and salaries (VVAA: 2014, Gálvez: 2013). Inasmuch as a great part of these

cutbacks affect services in which women are potential workers, users or possible

substitutes, it has had a negative impact on women- men equality perpetuating existing

.

16 80% of the 144 countries analysed in a recent comparative study increased expenditure during the first stage of the crisis, with an average growth that reached up to 3,9% of GDP (Ortiz and Cummins: 2013).

17 Promoting a more balanced composition of the Board of Directors and Bank managers (case of Iceland), the inclusion of gender equality objectives in the corporation objectives or the limitation of bonuses and salaries of executives and managers could have been some possible equality criteria to consider.


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inequalities and creating other new ones (EWL 2012)18. Thus, the gender perspective

has been absent not only in the very design of these measures19

In addition to the gender bias found in the different policy answers to the crisis, the

crisis governance at the European level has become in itself a strong obstacle to

implement the Gender Mainstreaming strategy. Deficits in EU institutional architecture

and economic governance have been made obvious, particularly concerning the lack of

influence of peripheral European countries and their elected representatives in the

decision-making, resulting in a weak public accountability of the choices taken. The

debt logic has been a key mechanism in this process

, but also in the broader

public debate on its social impact, where very little attention was has been given to the

gender issue (Bettio et al.: 2013).

20. The sharp fall in public revenue

and the spending increase due to the crisis, as well as the assumption of huge private

debts led to growing indebtedness of some European states. As a consequence tensions

have arisen between indebted countries who need liquidity and countries and

institutions representing creditors, which have affected to a great extent the institutional

structure of the EU. In a very short time, different mechanisms and procedures were

developed to define how indebted states should guarantee creditors the payment of the

debt and therefore generate positive expectations in financial markets and regulate the

risk premium. These mechanisms are general in some cases 21, and ad hoc in others22

18 Despite being the prevailing trend, a few partial exceptions in certain countries or regarding specific initiatives have been highlighted by comparative analyses (Bettio et al.: 2013 and Karamessini and Rubery: 2013).

19 Bettio et al. (2013), for example, show it in relation with National Reform Programs of the member states of the EU.

20 On account of this, the concept of debtocracy has gained attention lately. It pretends to show how the debt has been elevated as a de facto form of government by itself, through the prioritization of the interests of the financial debt over other democratic considerations and the consequent generation of a constant transfer of public resources to creditors. This concept becomes popular thanks to a documentary (Debtocracy) that shows the causes and impact of the debt crisis in Greece. See: www.debtocracy.org.

21 The main instruments to guarantee monetary stability in the Eurozone by means of financial bailouts associated to structural adjustments are the European Stability Mechanism created in 2011, its predecessor, the European Fund of Financial Stability, and the diverse Memorandums of understanding detailing the policy conditions that come with the financial support (Quién debe a quién: 2011).

22 That is, specially directed to one particular country.

.


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Besides, they were not always formal and explicit: Pavolini et al. (2015) suggest, for

example, that the influence of the European Union in countries such as Spain or Italy

were settled more through conditionality of the economic help received and "backroom"

diplomacy23 than through the regular formal procedures of political coordination. They

state, likewise, that EU "intrusiveness" has increased during the debt crisis. The policy

reforms to be carried out have gained concretion in its requirements, both in the content

and in the implementation process (regarding the timing and the monitoring process).

This type of logic can lead in some countries to a dynamic of “democracy without

choices” which Krastev warned of (2002)24

Otherwise, this new economic governance is not only aimed at the states in debt, but at

all the members of the Union

, in which due to the external dependence

citizens can change governments far more easily than they can change public policies,

with the resulting dangerous increase of popular frustration with the democratic process.

25

Summarizing, in spite of the pioneering role the EU has played in promoting the gender

equality agenda for decades, at EU level the answers to the crisis have been generally

gender-blind , whilst, at the same time, new governance mechanisms have been created

. Under the leadership of non directly-elected

institutions (that is, the European Council, the European Commission, the European

Central Bank and the so-called Community Troika made up of the two latter and the

IMF), the EU influence in public expenditure and in economic, fiscal and labour

policies of the Member States has been strengthened. Thus, decision-making are being

placed further and further away from the people, displacing the role of both national

parliaments and the European Parliament.

23 It is defined as informal negotiations promoted by European institutions to convince local policymakers to introduce the reforms proposed by the EU.

24 Quoted in Bosco and Verney (2012).

25 Among the new measures implemented to this end, we point out some: the Euro Plus Pact (2011), the European Semester (2010), the so-called Six-pack (in force since December 2011); the Fiscal Compact (formally, the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union, in force since April 2014 for all member states except the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom); and finally the Two-pack (since May 2013). Generally speaking, they are aimed at consolidating the financial supervision of state budgets and National Reform Programs of member states, speeding up intervention mechanisms with the object of ensuring the Growth and Stability Pact and the compliance with the debt and deficit ceiling.


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which tend to move the decision-making away from the citizens. We will argue that this

makes even more difficult to implement gender mainstreaming.

3. Evaluation of the situation in Spain

3.1 Progress and shortcomings of gender equality policies

Since the 80s, gender equality policies have experienced a substantial development in

Spain. Numerous structures, regulations and initiatives have been set up: Women's

Policy Agencies (Institutos de la Mujer) were created and several generations of gender-

equality plans were defined and implemented at national, regional and local level. GM

as a strategy began to be explicitly included in equality plans since 1995. It is worth

mentioning too the fostering of cooperation and coordination between different

departments and public administrations through the set up of formal committees, and

the creation of Women’s participation councils as well as Gender Observatories on

several issues – communication, health, gender-based violence, e.g. (Alonso: 2013).

Finally, in the decade of 2000 the approval of several specific laws of equality came to

complement and strengthen this framework with more 'hard' and binding instruments26,

at the same time that higher rank institutions were set up27

In short, gender equality was consolidated as a specific policy with a particular

machinery, and progress was achieved in key areas such as gender violence, inequality

of working conditions or attention to long-term care. Progress, however, has been

irregular. Actual implementation of gender mainstreaming policy instruments has been

(Alonso: 2013, Bustelo,

2014)

26 That is, the Constitutional Act 3/2007 of 22 March for effective equality between women and men at the national level, as well as twelve regional equality laws and specific regulation on how to carry out Gender Impact Assessments (Alonso: 2013). This trend to 'hard legislation' goes beyond equality laws to reach other gender-related policy issues: the 2004 Act against gender violence, the 2006 'Dependency law' (Law 39/2006 for the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Attention to Persons in Situation of Dependency, the first normative framework for long-term care), the legalization of same-sex marriage (Law 13/2005) or other initiatives related with equality such as the creation of a Council for promoting equal treatment and non-discrimination of people on account of race and ethnic group (Bustelo, 2014) have to be mentioned.

27 Namely, the Equality Policies General Secretariat ‒with a higher rank than the Instituto de la Mujer‒ (2004), the Special Government Delegation Opposing Violence Against Women (2005) and a new Ministry of Equality (created in 2008 and abolished in 2010 by the same government as part of budgetary cut measures) (Bustelo, 2014).


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slow, restricted, partial and uneven depending on different issues, regions and levels of

government28

Before the 2008 financial crisis, therefore, development of gender policies in Spain was

significant and the state feminism was consolidated. nevertheless, much work needed to

be done in the actual mainstreaming of gender in all policy areas and processes. All this

development, as we will proceed to see now, has been strongly affected by the ongoing

economic crisis and the political conservative turn

. The impact on economic policies has been very weak or even non-

existent in many cases. Paloma de Villota (2006, 2011), for example, points out the

regressive effect of the current fiscal model and Carrasco, Borderías and Torns (2011)

the need for the welfare state to re-define itself in view of care needs.

29

3.2 Crisis and gender

.

The first response of the Spanish government to the effects of the crisis was the set up

of what was known as the Plan E (Spanish Plan to Stimulate Economy and

Employment). This plan included measures oriented to foster fiscal stimulation (of up to

a 2,32% of the GDP), structural reform, the stabilisation of the financial system, and

making credit more available (Uxó et al 2009). One of its main programs was a

substantial local investment plan30

The gender-blindness of this program significantly reflects the weakness of the GM

strategy in Spain, specially considering that when it was designed, the Ministry for

(13.000 millions) aimed at compensating the

downfall in employment, reactivating the building sector and offering support to

investments made by local governments.

28 While at state-level the progress has been slow, regions show different commitment with gender mainstreaming varying between a lower or exceptional implementation in some of them, and a more significant and sustained implementation ‒with greater outcomes than the national level‒ in others. See Alonso (2013) for a detailed analysis of specific progress of each Autonomous Community and at state level.

29 After 8 years of a socialist government (President Rodríguez Zapatero, 2004–2011) with a significant leadership on gender policies, the conservative Partido Popular (PP) took office in 2011. The regional political landscape also varied from 7 of the 17 regions in conservative hands in 2008 to 12 regions with PP governments in 2012.

30 By means of the Fondo Estatal de Inversión Local (FEIL, State Fund for Local Investment) and the Fondo Estatal para el Empleo y la Sostenibilidad Local (FEESL, State Fund for Employment and Local Sustainability).


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Equality still existed and the last waves of the intense boost for equality that

characterized the government of Socialist Rodríguez Zapatero were still underway. The

mandatory Gender Impact Assessment required by the Equality Law 2007 was not done

(Alarcón el al.: 2011), nor a single reference to the terms 'equality', 'gender' or even

'woman' in the Plan informative documents 31, the follow-up reports available in the

Ministry website, or even in an extensive external report that analyses its impact32.

Likewise, local entities involved did not take into account the possible gender impact

when elaborating their investment proposals (Alarcón and Colino: 2011 and Alarcón et

al.: 2011)33. Finally, in spite of the fact that this program resulted in almost 700.000 new

work contracts during the 2009-2010 period34

The shift towards austerity policies started on 12 May 2010, when giving in to strong

international pressure President Rodríguez Zapatero spoke to Parliament. The most

substantial social cutbacks in 30 years were announced, for an amount of 15.000 million

euros ‒representing the 1,5% of Spanish GDP (Quién debe a quién 2011). From that

moment on, there has been one cutback in public spending after another, and several in-

depth reforms, being the most significant those of labour market (2010 and 2012) and

pension system (2011 and 2013). This new orientation was institutionalized by a

Constitutional Amendment (article 135 of Spanish Constitution) adopted in August

2011. With this amendment the principle of budget stability became a constitutional

mandate, as it set a strict debt ceiling provision

, due to its focus towards the building

sector, these jobs have probably been filled disproportionately by men.

35

31 With the only exception of one of the projects financed which included a women's center.

32 Observatorio Económico Local (2010).

33 In their analysis of Plan E implementation, they arrived however at more nuanced findings. While no gender analysis was done, the variation among local entities participant was very significant and the investment in public did not prioritize those that most contributed to equality (Alarcón and Colino: 2011); at the same time local equality officers assessed ex post that in their opinion 3/4 parts of the financial resources provided by the Fund were spent in issues favouring, to smaller or greater extent, women's welfare (Alarcón et al: 2011).

34 According to Ministry data. We did not obtain access to gender disaggregated data of this volume of contracts.

35 "The volume of public debt of all the public administrations in relation to the State’ gross domestic product may not exceed the benchmark laid down by the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union".

for both the national and the regional


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governments, while introducing the 'absolute priority' of debt and interest repayment36.

The change was highly controversial, as it was approved in a fast-track procedure in

only two weeks (in August, the most popular holiday period), with virtually no public

debate nor prior referendum and with a wide opposition of civil society. The following

signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the European Commission in July

2012, stating the conditions imposed on Spain by the EU for the bailout of the Spanish

banking sector under the strict supervision of the Troika37

Public debt was kept below European average before the crisis but with the bailout of

banks and saving banks (Cajas de Ahorros), there was an important transfer from

private debt to public debt (Fresnillo: 2012). Up to December 2012, it is estimated that

1.427.355 million Euros of public funds had been allotted to help the Spanish banking

sector, between capitalisation and liquidity measures (PACD: 2013)

strengthened even more this

austerity path.

38

The different National Reform Programs designed by Spain since 2011 in compliance

with the new forms of EU economic governance are in the same line of intensifying

. This, together

with the sharp drop in fiscal revenue and the growth of spending due to unemployment

benefits and fiscal incentives, have taken us straight from 41,1% of the GDP of the

public debt in 2007 to a 101,9% at the end of 2012 (Medialdea et al.: 2013). Hence, the

percentage of public resources allotted to payment of the debt and its interests

skyrockets in such a way that in 2014 it will represent 24% of the total budget,

exceeding the amount spent on pensions (Fresnillo: 2013). It is worth mentioning that

the banking sector bailout did not include any social or gender equality requirements.

36 It also states that the loans obtained to meet payment on the interest and capital of the state’s public debt "may not be subject to amendment or modification as long as they conform to the terms of issue", thus limiting the possibilities of debt renegotiation in the future. (Quién debe a quién: 2011).

37 Although the Memorandum conditions mainly apply to the financial and banking system, they also imply government: they affect taxes, employment and budgetary policies and establish restrictions to public deficit and the commitment of implement European Semester's recommendations. Moreover, it has been established the government's co-responsibility in the case of banks not being able to pay back the loans. The day after the signing, Mariano Rajoy announced cutbacks of 5.000 million Euros in two years, the largest in democracy and the fourth since he took office (El País, July 12, 2012).

38 Including the EU rescue. This amount was estimated by these authors drawing on official data, although they also underline that no public institution has informed clearly about the overall amount of funds allocated to banking institutions.


15

fiscal consolidation and promoting liberalisation39. They do not, either, contain any

reference whatsoever to the need of assessing the gender impact of the measures to be

adopted in order to avoid gender bias, nor do they include, in fact, sex-disaggregated

data on the diagnosis (Lombardo: 2013)40

In overall public services there has been a substantial budgetary and staff reduction

.

41;

mainly affecting women due to feminization of the public employment42. This has had

special impact on the health care sector, where, in addition to an increase in the

professional's workload, much more copayments have been introduced43 as well as other

saving measures and access’ restrictions44

The reforms of the pension system have limited the access and amount of contributory

benefits: the official retirement age was postponed from 65 to 67 years and the number

of salaried years used to calculate the initial pension was extended (from 15 to 25 years)

(in the case of the latter)

.

45. The part-time coefficient (involved in the calculation of

retirement benefits) was modified without solving the problem of people working part

time46; and a revaluation index and a sustainability factor was introduced to disassociate

the amount from the cost of living47

39 Having effect at state level but also at regional level, as shown in Del Pino et al. (2014).

40 This same author underlines the small presence in all recommendations of any concern for the welfare of those specially affected by the economic crisis except, perhaps, regarding improvement of job opportunities for the young. See pp. 7-8, for an analysis of 2011-2013 programs.

41 Substitution rate established for public administration staff, for example, is of 10% (Pavolini et al.: 2015).

42 77% of health care personnel and 66% of education employees are female (INE 1st Term 2014).

43 Public health cutbacks have also affected programs focusing on the prevention of violence and the services supporting children's health through school meals.

44 As from the Real Decreto of April 24, 2012, health care services have ceased to be totally universal.

45 Reforms introduced by Law 27/2011.

46 Reform introduced by the el RDL 11/2013.

. All in all, this means a relevant loss in pensioners'

purchasing power (Gala: 2014) that will predictably have a more negative impact on

47 Law 23/2013.


16

women, who have a less continuous and more uneven working career, contributing to

widen the already significant gender gap48

Public support for care is greatly reduced after having experienced a considerable boost

during the decade of 2000 thanks to the approval of 39/2006 'Dependency' Law

(Pavolini et al.: 2015). Implementation of this Law is to a great extent frozen and some

relevant aspects are modified

(Pazos: 2013, 2014, Gala: 2014).

49, while family policies such as childcare services50 or

public support for working parents51

Regarding tax collection policies, there's been an increase in indirect taxes

are lowered. In addition, funding of local social

services is dramatically reduced and a local government reform (Law 27/2013) lowers

its competencies. As we already mentioned, less spending on social policies have an

impact in an economic sector that is strongly feminized and transfers to the domestic

and/or informal care sector the handling of many of these tasks, increasing women's

workload (Benería et al: 2011, Gálvez: 2012, Pérez Orozco: 2012).

52

Aside from the mentioned public saving measures, successive regulations of the labour

market have made working conditions more flexible, lowering the cost of dismissal and

, co-

payment of medication, prices for public services such as transport, among others; while

new fees are introduced for previously free services (legal assistance, for instance). In

so far as they are mechanisms that in the majority of cases are applied independently

from the level of income, they have a regressive impact. This is added to a fiscal system

on earnings that discourages women's participation in the labour market and that has not

improved with successive fiscal reforms (De Villota: 2011, Pazos: 2013).

48 Average pension of women is 60% that of men according to Statistics of the Social Security and Employment Ministry. Some compensating mechanisms were set up (e.g. with new ways to acquire pension rights based on care to compensate women who leave the labour market to take care of family dependents, Law 27/2011) but they are not enough to compensate the higher penalization of these reforms for women (Pazos: 2013).

49 Like for instance the exclusion of family caregivers from Social Security payment list

50 Disappearance of program Educa 3, addressed to the schooling of under 3-years-olds.

51 The 'Baby cheque' program (financial support for working mothers) was cancelled while the extension in the right of non-transferable paternity leave (from two to four weeks) that was planned to be enforced in January 2011 was postponed sine die.

52 Modification of VAT types in Law 14/2012.


17

weakening collective agreement bargaining53

Regarding specific equality policies, they have experienced as a whole, a significant

cutback in budget and human resources, aside from the loss of political weight – made

clear by the disappearance of the Ministry of Equality in 2010- and even of its power

. This has added more precariousness and

partiality to women's already worse working conditions and hinders previous efforts to

include measures that favour gender equality in collective bargaining.

54.

In the 2010-2014 period, its budget has decreased 56,7%55

This ideological factor must be analysed regarding the Partido Popular development of

a conservative political agenda (in state government and in most regions) that could be

even considered as anti-feminist, and that can be translated in a return of the traditional

family model and the role of women as wives, mothers and care providers. Several

measures have been taken in that line. The most controversial being, undoubtedly, the

ultra conservative anti-abortion abortion law proposal

without counting with the

reduction of funds destined to gender violence. Paleo and Alonso (2015) give more

details on this data and explore the differences between regions according to the ruling

political party.

56

53 Mainly through Law /2012, although other less influential modifications have also been implemented giving more weight to part time agencies (RD 2/2012) and developing measures of support for entrepreneurs that introduce the new part-time contract linked to training (known as minijobs) for the young (RD 4/2013).

54 That is the case of local authorities, since Law 27/2013 leaves them without the formal competence on gender policies.

55 Data from the national budget.

56 Anteproyecto de Ley de la Protección del Concebido y de los Derechos de la Embarazada. It was withdrawn in September 2014 after significant mobilization.

that restricted the right to

terminate pregnancy in almost any circumstance and which represented a dramatic

setback in sexual and reproductive rights even in relation to previous law (1985). Other

related proposals, however, can also be mentioned, such as the withdrawal of the latest

contraceptives from the list of medications subsidized by the Social Security (Platero:

2014), the cutback in long term care policies already mentioned, the dismantling of the

local network of services to tackle gender-based violence (Ruiz: 2014), the restriction of

access for single women and lesbian couples to Assisted Reproductive Technology


18

treatments of the basic public services57

In short, in the last years the economic crisis and the shift to conservative governments

have substantially affected to gender equality and in particular to gender policies,

rendering visible the fragility of the progress achieved so far. From a perspective

covering the last 30 years, Bustelo (2014) highlights, however, that for the time being,

in essence, state feminism has managed to survive and to keep on developing. Even

with less institutional weight and resources, an important policy legacy persists

‒regarding discourses, gender machineries and policy instruments. In any case, the

debate on whether we are going through a temporary paralysis of equality policies or

witnessing the dismantling of and/or a deeper change in commitments with equality and

social rights is still open

(Platero: 2014), the returning to a discursive

framework of domestic violence in the speeches of those who are in charge of gender

equality policies or the approval of new regional equality laws focused on pregnant

women (Paleo and Alonso 2015).

58

4. And now what? Gender mainstreaming at a crossroads

. More research will be needed in the coming years to be able

to answer this matter.

In previous pages we have identified some of the main challenges and shortcomings that

the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming has to face in the present context, drawing on

feminist scholarship on equality policies and the economic crisis. Summing up, it was

argued that the effective transformation of the political agenda finds three general

limitations that hinder the introduction of more inclusive and fair priorities in the policy

responses to the crisis.

In the first place, the biases in the prevailing view concerning the economy, which due

to its focus on the financial and productive sphere, leaves aside the care and domestic

economy and is therefore incapable of seeing and setting out interventions in these other

fundamental spheres where people are reacting to the crisis (Pérez Orozco: 2014). In the

second place, the imperviousness of socio-economic policies to the gender perspective

57 El País, July 18, 2013.

58 See, for example, many of the articles mentioned in this paper, or, from a comparative point of view, Karamessini and Rubery 2013.


19

in general and to the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming in particular has become

evident. If in the previous period the unveiling of the gender bias in this supposedly

neutral economic field was already difficult, the onset of the economic crisis has made it

harder. Gender equality policies are still perceived as accessory, something to be done

away with when there is a need to make 'important decisions'59

On the one hand, the past development of gender equality policies is a very relevant

factor to take into account. Undoubtedly, the numerous gender machineries created at

all government levels, the many programs implemented, the great number of technical

and political employees in administration that have been made aware of and trained in

equality or the new policy set up, to name just a few elements, place us in a new

scenario. In spite of the current lack of resources, the disappearance of gender equality

from the institutional agenda and we cannot possibly think that all this development has

been in vain; even in those cases where conservative and/or anti-feminist agendas are

pursued. It is even possible to assert that never before did we have so many tools at

hand to include the gender perspective in public policies nor were we so clearly aware

of the existing gender bias. In particular, gender equality officers – or other specialized

. At the same time,

concerns for social justice ‒or even for social policies in a wider sense‒ have lost

weight in the political agenda, which does nothing but reinforce this evaporation of

gender equality issues.

The third limit is found in the weakening of democratic mechanisms of decision-making

in key spheres, in parallel with the growing influence of economic interests and the

prevalence of decision processes with little or no accountability to citizens. Although

this is no new phenomenon, it has undoubtedly accelerated in the present day, acquiring

unprecedented aspects in the EU through the dynamics of debt. In Spain, this process

goes hand in hand with the adoption of increasingly repressive measures aimed at facing

the social malaise caused by the crisis and the austerity policies.

These limitations, however, coexist with some significant strengths as from which we

consider that political strategies for equality can be (re)built in the short and mid-term.

59 In fact, cutbacks or devaluation of gender equality issues has frequently been precisely a mechanism to indicate and communicate the 'seriousness' with which the economic affairs are dealt with. See for instance the case of the cabinet reshuffle in October 2010 that led to the abolishment of the Ministry of Equality under the argument of budget savings in spite of the fact that its effects on this were limited.


20

actors such as gender units– embedded in public administrations are a very valuable

resource. They keep an ongoing concern for equality in their daily work, whether it has

or not an explicit relation with gender equality policies. Also with regard to social

attitudes and perceptions a great progression is done, since gender equality is being

more and more perceived as a core feature of the democratic and social model.

On the other hand, present times are not only full of obstacles but also some

opportunities that it is important to point out. In the Spanish context, for instance, the

worsening of the economic situation has gone hand in hand with a deep institutional and

political crisis, resulting in a broad claim for democratisation. The mainstream political

and organizational culture of public institutions is being more and more questioned

while more open, transparent and bottom-up decision-making processes are required to

enable citizens to argue and decide the common priorities and agenda. Certainly this

stance is related with the concerns about openness, democratisation and politicisation

raised by the Gender Mainstreaming strategy. The feminist movement, in fact, seems to

have grown and been revitalized, managing to mobilise massive demonstrations in the

streets, as result of the last conservative initiatives promoted by the conservative

government of Mariano Rajoy (Bustelo, 2014). Moreover, a greater –although not

always systematic– inclusion of gender perspective in some recent social mobilisations

can be noticed60

The first would focus on defence and maintenance on what already exists: structures,

budgets, services and mainstreaming tools (such as gender training, gender impact

assessment, etc.). This approach ensure as much continuity as possible. Thus, GM

continue to be developed, but in what we could call a peripheral way: most of times

only in specific programs or initiatives and frequently where less resistance have

appeared. It is clear that downgrading or cutbacks in gender equality structures can

.

From our point of view, therefore, the present moment raises important challenges that

call for a revision of the mission, strategy and tools of gender equality policies, of State

feminism itself and in particular of the gender mainstreaming strategy. In this context

we identify three main levels of action taken by equality institutions.

60 See Cruells and Ruiz (2014) for an analysis of the Indignados social movement (known as 15M movement).


21

greatly affect femocrats' capability to go beyond this level of action. Without denying

the great importance of trying to keep what it is already achieved, we maintain that

changes have been so deep and the impact of the crisis so significant that this type of

state feminism' intervention falls short. It has no

of institutional feminism has no sense if it is not framed in a reflection regarding what is

and what should be today's equality policy agenda and its resulting set of priorities. In

this sense, it would be important to assess empirically if this is actually the point we are

at ‒as is the case in most of Spain61

A second and more substantial level of action would focus on having an impact in the

negotiations of key policies. At present, this implies to include the gender perspective in

the austerity measures that are being taken and in the deep structural reforms that are

underway (pensions, local administration, employment, etc.). These all are measures of

major importance and on account of which not only is spending reduced, but also results

in significant modification of the features of the Spanish welfare state, socio-economic

relations frameworks and of the very role of public authorities. In this sense, it is

essential for femocrats to be able to shape the policies with a greater impact in citizens'

daily life. In a moment defined by tremendous pressure from financial markets, growing

EU interference and weak public accountability, the priorities and activities of Equality

bodies would probably have to be reconsidered, just as their relationship with the

governments they are a part of. Throughout this paper we have referred to the several

investigations that show how gender analysis and awareness have been mainly absent

when addressing the current crisis both at European and Spanish level despite the

widespread development of GM previously achieved. In light of these findings, the

capacity of Spanish equality actors to have some impact on these crucial measures has

been very limited. Besides, the present and general (although uneven) weakening of

gender machineries represents a core difficulty. In this context, how can these actors

, apparently. Further research on at what areas most

of the activity of gender machinery at present concentrate on, as well as on which

elements would eventually allow the development of more ambitious strategies would

be extremely useful from our point of view.

61 Here we should take into account, nonetheless, the characteristic regional heterogeneity of the gender polices developed in Spain, that have led to quite diverse dynamics regarding maintenance or withdrawal of public support for equality.


22

gain access to relevant decision-making spaces in a context marked by haste and the

vanishing of the equality discourse? Can equality bodies play this role of bringing in

feminist voices and priorities within economic and political decision-making processes?

Are they willing to do it? Should they do it? What conditions would be required to

ensure significant outcomes in this course of action? Since the survival of gender

priorities has been uneven in different settings, what can we learn from success and

failure of other countries' experiences?

At this point, however, we also wonder to what extent this is enough to counter the

prevailing neoliberal agenda, defined by its androcentric and antisocial bias. Even

imagining that one could, effectively apply the gender perspective to austerity policies,

would it be enough? Aren't they in fact two substantially antagonistic notions?

In this sense, it is worth noting that to be able to shape decision-making outcomes first

we would need to sit at the decision table. The problem is that this decision-making

table we refer to is moving further and further away from democratic channels. There is

where we would locate the third level of political intervention. It affects two aspects

pointed out in this paper: on the one hand the question of addressing the debate

concerning how to modify the political agenda (re-defining social and economic

priorities), and on the other hand, the need to recover, strengthen and open the

democratic decision-making processes. In fact Gender Mainstreaming strategy

addresses both dimensions, and great part of feminist scholarship has focused on

assessing whether or not gender mainstreaming can fulfill its revolutionary potential

(Verloo , 2005). Setting the agenda, however, is necessarily harder when decisions are

increasingly made outside the democratic public spaces and according to private

economic interests. Given that is in these spaces where gender mainstreaming has

eventually had some incidence, the need to recover democratic processes of decision-

making seems to be a prerequisite in order to be able to collectively discuss public

priorities.

This will depend undoubtedly on the balance of power between democratic forces and

finance and whether there is enough popular mobilisation backing this project of de-

financialisation and democratic radicalisation. In this way, in Spain the present

expansion of civil society organizations and movements –and even new political


23

parties62– demanding greater democratisation and a more social agenda could offer a

key opportunity for state feminism to create synergies and strengthen links with social

agents; thus reviewing and widening the idea of the 'velvet triangle'63

To conclude, it is important to keep in mind that we are living in potentially open times.

As Walby (2009b) points out, crises are moments of redistribution of value, potential

turning points to a different kind of society

. Obviously these

alliances would not necessarily be free from conflict nor can they be led by public

institutions. Nevertheless, from our point of view the support for empowerment

initiatives and the fostering of critical spaces and processes must be some of the key

elements of present equality agenda.

64

Literature shows that there is still a need for more comparative research concerning the

gender impact of the crisis, the way the crisis has been handled by public policies and

the strength of social changes achieved thanks to almost 20 years of gender

mainstreaming. Particularly, it would be necessary to analyse empirically up to what

point state feminism has opted in different contexts for the first, second or third line of

action, and the strategies, tools and alliances adopted in each of them; to discuss which

; and particularly, key moments in which

gender rules are reinforced, modified or subverted (Elston: 2010, Gálvez and

Rodríguez: 2011). Currently, mainstream political agenda seems to be widely

questioned by new ‒and old‒ social actors, while new and contested political practices

spread. Undoubtedly, it is still uncertain whether this would result in the deepening of

the neoliberal model resulting in more severe inequalities and a lack of democracy or in

a change of the rules of the game aimed at making social justice a real priority.

Inasmuch as we are witnessing one of this critical junctures, we need to figure out what

role gender mainstreaming, state feminism and social movements that foster these

transforming objectives might play in this scenario.

62 This would be the case of the new left-wing party Podemos or the many social movements' candidacies that are being set up to run in the local election scheduled to take place in May 2015 (see, e.g., https://guanyembarcelona.cat/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/priciples.pdf, http://ganemosmadrid.info/ or http://mareatlantica.org/.

63 Woodward (2004).

64 Although, as Klein (2007) pointed out, this critical junctures have been used to neoliberal restructuring, they can also represent an opportunity for more progressive change (quoted in Walby, 2013).


24

have turned out to be more or less useful in reaching both greater gender equality and

more effective inclusion of feminist voices in decision making processes. In any case,

such inquiries will be very useful to reflect on the development of feminist strategies in

the coming years.

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Rethinking Gender Mainstreaming in the era of austerity

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