The learning region! Integrating gender equality into regional economic development

Despite the growth in the literature on the 'intelligent region', relatively little attention has been paid to the issue of gender. This is surprising given the significance of gender to key elements of the intelligent region concept, and considering the current policy of the European Commission to mainstream gender equality. This article examines the economic, social and political imperatives for mainstreaming. it then explores the implications of this approach for key components of regional development: networking, the development of social capital and capacity building at the regional level. Three mainstreaming tools of relevance to regional economic development are described. The final section concludes with some observations on the significance of mainstreaming for regional development.