Premium
Gender Mainstreaming: The Answer to the Gender Pay Gap?
Author(s) -
Eveline Joan,
Todd Patricia
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
gender, work and organization
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.159
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0432
pISSN - 0968-6673
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00386.x
Subject(s) - gender mainstreaming , mainstreaming , vulnerability (computing) , politics , gender pay gap , political science , action (physics) , argument (complex analysis) , government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , process (computing) , sociology , public economics , public administration , public relations , gender equality , gender studies , economics , law , special education , wage , philosophy , algorithm , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , linguistics , computer security , quantum mechanics , computer science , operating system
This article examines the argument that gender mainstreaming offers the way forward for closing the gender pay gap. It juxtaposes research on the process of gender mainstreaming with our account of the processes involved in Australian state government Inquiries into the gender pay gap since the late 1990s. We indicate that the continuous process of analysis and response that gender mainstreaming can offer demands political will, intensive links between research and action, and adequate resources — which means that gender mainstreaming is seldom delivered in practice. We use our account of the Australian Inquiries to argue that, provided adequate political and financial resources are in place, the gender pay gap can be narrowed through the institutional mechanisms of an industrial relations system but that the regulatory approach is limited by its vulnerability to changes in industrial relations policy. The article concludes that, whatever strategy is used to narrow the gender pay gap, it must be able to show those who use and observe it that gender itself is a continuous, effortful and political process.