Gender mainstreaming moves gender equality from the margins to the mainstream— embedding a gender equality perspective into the design, implementation and evaluation of all development programs. Thirty years on from the landmark World Conference on Women, nearly every donor and government requires gender mainstreaming. There are some successes to celebrate, but gender inequalities also persist stubbornly.
Pacific Island countries have the lowest level of female political representation in the world. Women in Asia and the Pacific work the longest hours in the world, with 80% of unpaid care work in the region done by women. Climate shocks and conflict are widening these gaps.
The Australian government is renewing its efforts to foster gender equality. Building on the International Development Policy, it has committed to using all tools of foreign policy to advance gender equality through the International Gender Equality Strategy. The current parliamentary Inquiry into gender equality as a national security and economic security imperative will yield further recommendations on what more can be done. But in an era of competing priorities and strained budgets, can we expect more momentum, or more marketing to cover limited wins?
This International Women’s Day, we asked three experts: "When does ‘gender mainstreaming’ become ‘gender washing’?”
Gender mainstreaming carries an implicit promise: that we understand inequality well enough to design against it. It suggests ambition, fluency, and systems mature enough to confront the structural drivers of discrimination and violence. But all too often, it can slip into something more comfortable: compliance.
This mainstreaming approach makes us focus on whether gender was included, not whether power was challenged. Meanwhile, the ambitions of shifting norms, redistributing decision-making power, and strengthening survivor-centred, justice-oriented organisations in our region remain far-off.
Australia’s development program is not short on policy commitments or funding for gender equality, and it should be applauded for this. Yet in Papua New Guinea alone, up two in three women experience violence, double the rate globally. That disconnect should give us pause. If our approach to gender is sufficiently mature as to be mainstreamed, why are outcomes so stubborn?
Pockets of change are becoming visible, but we’re yet to see a proper breakthrough despite the corporate rhetoric. In the PNG context, shifting social and cultural norms that dictate load-sharing responsibilities and the distribution of resources between men and women continue to drive inequitable gender outcomes. Policies and strategies alone are not enough to shift the dial, and without a commitment to addressing problematic norms, gender washing is our only destination. Long-term, brave decision-making is vital.
Programs deliver what they are measured against. If we measure short-term outputs workshops and gender markers, we will get workshops and gender markers. If we measure long-term structural outcomes like safety, justice, and functioning institutions, we are more likely to build them. We must not substitute process for progress.
We must deploy mainstreaming to build and amplify ambition, not soften it.
Renat Muruket is the Femili PNG Communications and PR Manager. Renat is a trained Communications and Media Studies professional, with experience in research and editorials at EBC Publications. At the Lab, we love Renat’s sharp reporting at Femili PNG and her crucial work helping address family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea.
Jocelyn Condon is the Executive Director of Femili PNG Australia, the Australian support organisation for Femili PNG. Jocelyn has extensive experience in international development, including as Chief Operating Officer at the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), and worked for the International Labour Organisation in Timor-Leste. At the Lab, we admire Jocelyn’s leadership, commitment to accountability and safeguarding, and her sharp thinking.
The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) established gender mainstreaming as a strategy to embed gender equality and women’s rights across key sectors, including macroeconomics, poverty reduction, peacebuilding, media, and environmental justice. For small island states, many newly independent and developing national women’s agencies back in 1995, the practical application of gender mainstreaming has proven complex.
Mainstreaming has sometimes led to reduced resources and insufficient staffing for gender-focused programs. The misconception that mainstreaming eliminates the need for specialised expertise on women’s needs and rights has undermined accountability and weakened progress toward gender equality, including the role of the women’s rights and feminist movements.
Don’t get me wrong, increasing the number of women in politics is important, but without transforming power structures, formal recognition and representation remain limited. True equality requires challenging discrimination and violence, including against people of diverse sexual orientation in small communities.
Pacific Island feminist peacebuilding and women’s rights organisations and networks are a good example of getting the balance right. They persist in addressing the leadership, power, and equality deficit and are redefining what equitable representation means in all levels of decision-making not just elected positions.
To prevent gender washing:
• Strengthen accountability – ensure gender mainstreaming is accompanied by clear accountability mechanisms and adequate resources for specialised gender expertise.
• Promote inclusive leadership – support feminist organisations and initiatives that redefine equitable representation at all levels, not just elected positions.
• Transform power structures – move beyond increasing women’s participation in politics; address discrimination, violence, and structural barriers, including those affecting people of diverse sexual orientations.
• Focus on outcome – treat gender mainstreaming as a means to achieve equality, justice, and fundamental changes in power relations, not as an end in itself.
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is a Fijian feminist with forty years of experience in gender, media, communications, and peacebuilding. She has had a vast career, including co-founding the Pacific Women Mediators Network and femLINKpacific, leading civil society contributions to the Pacific Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), and has served as an advisor to UN Women on gender equality and WPS. At the Lab, we admire Sharon’s ability to see the whole and advocate for what’s needed to achieve real change.
Gender mainstreaming becomes gender washing when it stops short of changing who leads, who decides and whose knowledge counts. And it’s not just about what we do in the aid and development sector, it’s also about who we are and how we do it.
This matters because diversity and inclusion are not simply moral imperatives. Research demonstrates that more diverse and inclusive leadership teams are widely perceived to perform better.
The humanitarian sector illustrates the challenge. Evidence shows women remain under-represented in the most senior leadership roles, while international staff are significantly more likely than local staff to hold top positions. We also see women systematically under-represented in formal peace negotiations and security decision-making. When the people designing responses do not reflect the communities they serve, gender mainstreaming risks becoming procedural rather than transformative.
Gender washing is also evident when organisations adopt the language of ‘gender equality’ without changing how decisions are made. Strategies mention gender. Proposals include a paragraph. Indicators are added. Yet, leadership remains unchanged, and programmes continue to reflect the same perspectives that produced gender inequality in the first place.
Real gender equality work is harder. It means investing indiverse leadership pipelines, measuring success not by policies written but by power redistributed, and intentionally connecting conflict prevention efforts withgender equality. Having women-led organisations (both diaspora groups in Australia and those overseas) in the drivers’ seat is one way to take us in the right direction.
Beth Eggleston is an innovative thought leader and expert in humanitarian action, advising and delivering cutting-edge research to improve the effectiveness of the humanitarian sector. In a previous life, she worked in civil-military coordination and implemented humanitarian reform with a focus on Afghanistan, Liberia and Timor-Leste. At the Lab, we admire Beth’s bold leadership, her balance of innovation with pragmatic insights and commitment to enabling the humanitarian sector to perform at its best.
