Introduction: thirty years of gender mainstreaming – promises, limitations, and the future of equality

Petra Ahrens, Serena D’Agostino, Sophie Jacquot, Sonia Palmieri and Gisela Zaremberg

Chapter 1 in Research Handbook on Gender Mainstreaming, 2026, pp 1-7 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This Introduction presents the objectives of this Handbook: to offer a synthesis of existing research, to make the rich and dense scholarship on gender mainstreaming both visible and accessible to a broad audience, and to foster new debates and critical engagement for scholars. Gathering leading specialists from across regions and fields of study, and adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, the Handbook embraces a broad and inclusive understanding of gender mainstreaming, acknowledging its dual nature as both a political strategy comprising a wealth of policy instruments with profound political ramifications and a conceptual tool essential for policy analysis and feminist scholarship. This Introduction offers a critical and reflexive assessment of gender mainstreaming, interrogating its promises, limitations, and transformations amid rising global challenges against gender+ equality, but also reaffirming its relevance in this context. It also details the choices that have guided the Handbook's composition and presents its organization and structure.

Keywords: Feminist Scholarship; Gender Mainstreaming; Gender; Equality; Knowledge Production; Intersectional Approaches (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035353415
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