Actors and tools

This section pursues two complementary objectives. The first involves offering readers the main insights provided by current research on gender mainstreaming within the context of feminist governance processes. This entails deep reflection on the articulation of gender mainstreaming with different types of actors, ranging from civil society organizations and social movements (primarily the feminist movement) to various branches of government (judicial and legislative powers), through the realm of public opinion, and also the role played by bureaucracies and specifically femocrats or insiders in its development. The second objective takes us into a more technical but equally important terrain for analyzing the trajectories, origins, and outcomes of gender mainstreaming processes. In this section, therefore, we seek to situate readers in the role played by various tools for the design, implementation, and evaluation of gender mainstreaming. Among these tools, we highlight the functions fulfilled by gender budgeting actions and expert training and advisory services with a gender perspective to promote and strengthen gender mainstreaming throughout public administration. In general terms, we recognize that gender mainstreaming processes entail complexities that encompass both technical and politics aspects of public policies. This section also addresses the exploration of actions and processes of innovation, examining the extent to which gender mainstreaming contributes to new democratic participative mechanisms, budgetary transparency, or the strengthening of the public sphere and the transformation of the state and society. In this regard, while this section has outlined a governance dimension that includes political and movement networks and another, more technical dimension, more strictly tied to technical components of the policy process, it should be emphasized that these dimensions do not exist in isolation from one another. On the contrary, each chapter establishes cross-references that help weave reflections between the political and the technical. In this sense, the spotlights also contribute to expanding this fabric by offering examples that show how these elements are constantly intertwined. In addition, throughout the chapters comparative case analyses are also presented, covering national contexts that include countries from various continents.