Andrea Krizsan

GENDER EQUALITY POLICY OR GENDER MAINSTREAMING

The aim of this article is to analyse some of the core conceptual and implementation issues underpinning the process of introducing gender mainstreaming strategy in Hungary. It examines the approach of Hungarian policy makers to gender mainstreaming and evaluates the political framing of some crucial aspects of gender equality. Our argument in this article is twofold. First, we observe that the concept of gender mainstreaming as a cross-sectoral and comprehensive policy tool for achieving gender equality has only been sporadically present and this has mostly been located at the rhetorical level. Hungary has no comprehensive gender equality strategy and no distinctive gender equality policy instruments currently in place. Rather, the promotion of equal opportunity on all grounds has become a powerful policy approach in the last two to three years, often neglecting the specific requirements of gender equality. Secondly, we argue that the influence of the European Union (EU) accession process has had two stages, as far as gender equality policy is concerned in Hungary. The first stage, has referred primarily to the de jure harmonization of Hungarian legislation with relevant EU directives, but has brought very little harmonization at the policy level, and brought limited de facto realization of the rights imposed by the directives. The second stage, identified from mid-2003, is coterminous with Hungary joining the different EU level policy processes. This second stage signaled a shift from legislative harmonization to a more focused policy approach. This stage may be characterized as a direct process of EU-isation on Hungarian policy concepts and tools, such as gender mainstreaming. However, it is too early to judge the practical implications of this development.

The quality of gender equality policies: A discursive approach

Can the quality of gender+ equality policies be defined in ways that apply across different policy contexts and different policy moments? In light of different scholarly debates and empirical material from gender violence policy debates especially in Southern and Central Eastern Europe, this article discusses dilemmas around defining the quality of gender+ equality policies. It proposes a two-dimensional model. The first dimension links quality to procedural aspects: empowerment of women’s rights advocates at different stages of the policy process, and transformation with reference to prevailing contextual legacies. The second dimension is more substantive, and includes genderedness, intersectionality and the structurally transformative focus of policies. The article illustrates how within the framework set by these criteria, the quality of gender equality policies is constructed through policy debates in ways that are dependent on the different discursive, institutional and structural factors specific to various policy contexts.

Group self-determination, individual rights, or social inclusion? Competing frames for ethnic counting in Hungary

Abstract Despite increasing demand from policymakers and academics alike, effective policies on ethnic data collection for social inclusion purposes are still absent in most of Europe. This paper proposes to explain the failure to produce these policies by the coexistence of and tensions among contradictory frames on ethnic counting. An in-depth analysis of Hungarian policies reveals that three mutually inconsistent policy frames connect ethnic counting to ethnic diversity in many different ways. These frames are group self-determination, individual rights, and social inclusion. This paper illustrates the tensions among the three through a discussion of two core but divisive aspects of collecting ethnic statistics: defining ethnic classifications for counting and defining membership in ethnic groups for policy purposes. Tensions among the three result in inconsistent and inefficient policies of ethnic counting.

Frames in Contestation Gendering Domestic Violence Policies in Five Central and Eastern European Countries

The article looks at the translation of international norms on domestic violence to the national level in five Central and Eastern European countries. It argues that translation brings a concept of domestic violence, which stretches gender equality ideas underpinning international norms so as to be easier to endorse by mainstream policy actors, and results in policies framed in degendered individual rights terms. The potential for keeping gender equality in focus is then guaranteed by gendering policy processes through empowerment of gender equality actors at all stages. Absence of ownership of the policy by gender equality actors risks co-optation by frames contesting gender equality.

Meanings and Uses of Europe in Making Policies against Domestic Violence in Central and Eastern Europe

The major Europeanization exercise that has been unfolding over the past ten years, and has so far brought about the new membership of ten countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), has also been the catalyst of new thinking in the burgeoning field of European integration research and, within that, of new analyses of gender equality policies. Most commonly, these analyses (Sloat, 2004; Falkner, Treib and Holzleithner, 2008; Avdeyeva, 2009; Sedelmeier, 2009) have focussed on those gender equality fields that formed part of the core conditionality criteria for accession, mostly related to inequalities in employment and other areas of the economy. In this literature, Europeanization is largely construed as a unidirectional, top-down process of the adoption of norms that are defined at the European Union (EU) level and then transposed to candidate and accession countries under the threat of consequences for non-compliance (Roth, 2008).

The changing nature of European equality regimes: explaining convergence and variation

This paper maps the changing nature of European equality regimes in order to establish the extent of variation or convergence across Europe and to evaluate the role of transnational policy paradigms and state-level institutions in shaping the emerging European equality regimes. We identify two significant tendencies in respect to European equality institutional regimes. First, a growing complexity in the institutional arrangements designed to address inequalities, with pre-2000 institutional arrangements increasingly augmented by newer equality institutions that adopt a judicialized approach to dealing with inequalities. Second, a Europe-wide tendency to widen the scope of equality policy thinking from a very small number of privileged inequality grounds (most frequently gender and ethnicity) to a much wider range of inequalities to be addressed by state policies. The overall impact of these two changes has been to create equality regimes characterized by a wide variety of forms and levels of protection for the different inequalities. This suggests that while a transnational policy paradigm has framed the evolving nature of equality regimes across Europe, the implementation of this paradigm is moulded by the power dynamics embedded in national and local equality institutions, creating a fragmented and complex patchwork of equality regimes that defy easy regional classification and complicate overly generalized narratives about the influence of global policy paradigms.

Overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention and for assisting women victims of rape

The study provides an overview of the worldwide best practices for rape prevention and for assisting women victims of rape. It reviews the international literature and offers selected examples of promising practices. It addresses the comprehensive range of policies in the fields of gender equality; law and justice; economy, development and social inclusion; culture, education and media; and health. It presents a wide-ranging set of examples of best practice. It concludes with a series of recommendations, based on the social scientific evidence presented in the study.

Institutionalizing Intersectionality: A Theoretical Framework

This collection focuses on the politics of multiple inequalities in Europe. It does so from the perspective of prior gender equality policy. It aims to evaluate the ways in which multiple inequalities are being addressed institutionally in Europe, and to identify the changing patterns of institutionalization. Using country-based and region-specific case studies the collection offers a comparative analysis of the multidimensional equality regimes that are emerging in Europe, and analyses the potential that these have for ‘institutionalizing intersectionality’.

Ombudsmen and Similar Institutions for Protection against Racial and Ethnic Discrimination

The message conveyed by the Directive is that, in order to put equal treatment principle in place, it is not enough to issue new legislation and leave it to regular judicial procedure for implementation, but that additional efforts are necessary. Bodies combating discrimination and promoting diversity are one major pillar of such additional efforts. This chapter briefs about ombudsman type institutions but will reflect on common sets of working principles that ground the work of most of these bodies. It attempts to show how several features required by bodies working towards implementation of equal treatment can be related to or even derived from classical ombudsman institutions. The chapter shows how ombudsman institution, a centuries-old but flexibly adopted institution, can be seen as having informed idea for the bodies proposed by Directive. It then discusses about substantiate necessity for having specialized agencies beyond courts for dealing with racial and ethnic discrimination. Keywords: equal treatment; ethnic discrimination; new legislation; Ombudsman institution; racial discrimination

European Equality Regimes: Institutional Change and Political Intersectionality

The analysis offered in the preceding chapters reveals that the past decade has been characterized by a tremendously dynamic European equality institutional arena. There have been ground-breaking changes, both in what is meant by equality policy and with respect to its institutionalization. These changes have occured at both a domestic and a European Union level. This volume has sought to capture this dynamic and to consider its likely implications for the emergence of a more intersectional approach to equality policy. Each of the chapters in the volume has addressed three key issues, to which we now return by way of conclusion, in order to draw out the comparative lessons embedded within the individual case studies.