Gender mainstreaming: What is it (About) and should we continue doing it?

Gender mainstreaming began to receive attention in Sweden and other Nordic countries in the late 1980s, and was established firmly on the global development agenda as a result of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. It has aimed at reducing the gap between policy intentions and actual results, and is a long-term, strategic process whereby "gender" is systematically integrated into all (development) systems, structures and practices. The purpose of gender mainstreaming is to prompt changes in institutional practice and to promote progress toward the goals of women's empowerment and gender equality, key policy concerns and goals that reflect a feminist heritage. The article examines the narrative of gender mainstreaming in the Swedish case. Considered one of the most "gender-equal" countries in the world, Sweden has embarked on implementation of a gender equality policy through gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming is based on the endorsement of a form of national feminist theory that underlies the models for gender analysis in most fields of Swedish policy and political decision making. Gender mainstreaming is bound up with "Swedishness", something that plays a significant role in the translation of policy into practice.