Download Gender Mainstreaming findet „Stadt“ (Gender

Gender Mainstreaming happens – in a town
Women and men live in a town!
The City of Graz is aware of its responsibility at the implementation of equality of
women and men at all levels and in all socio-political areas. A gender-sensitive
attitude, a gender-sensitive view point, has to reach all sectors of the administration
and all political fields.
This is why the City of Graz has started the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming
already in 2001.
After the decision of the city-government, the head of the public administration, Mr.
Martin Haidvogl, was – according to the top down strategy – assigned the Chief
Gender Mainstreaming representative for the implementation process.
From the beginning it was evident that the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming
can only be realised when
 there is a clear political declaration towards the implementation of Gender
Mainstreaming
 resources are provided
 gender expertise is built up
 a gender-sensitive based point of view is being realized into all sectors of
administration and policy
 and the implementation follows a structured procedure and strategic
considerations.
Above all, Gender Mainstreaming has to be identified as a managerial tool of
organisational development which is used in implementing equality of women and
men.
As an instrument of organisational development, Gender Mainstreaming follows
systemic rules of organisations and functions therefore according to these systemic
patterns.
The main aim is the change of structures and processes within an organisation, and
this stategy needs the awareness that Gender Mainstreaming is the job of executives
and has to be implemented top-down.
The organisational culture (shaping of opinions, informal dispersion of the topic,
engagement of single persons) is able to and supposed to support the
implementation.
GeM
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The method of the implementation process of Gender Mainstreaming in the City of
Graz was strategically well planned, which resulted in some modifications on the
structural level.
This means, it was knowingly accepted, that the implementation of Gender
Mainstreaming will neither be a “big seller” in media coverage nor on political stages.
Integrating the gender point of view into the strategic orientation of the organisation
and thereby changing structures und processes creates no acclaimed reports.
Successes and substantial changes, that can be “seen” and “felt” by the citizens as
well as the employees, take a long time to be brought on the way and need hard
detailed work throughout the process.
If the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming is being taken seriously – and not misused
by setting alibi-actions, it is evident that the implementation cannot be realised from
one day to the other.
During the last 6 years the City of Graz has bought know-how from external
professionals, has partaken in the EQUAL development partnership “Just GeM” with
a pilot project and at present is operational partner in the EQUAL development
partnership of POPUPGEM.
What kind of measures on a structural level have been implemented
in the City of Graz?
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At the beginning the general strategy of implementation into the
administrative body of the City was defined together with the members of staff. It
was agreed that Gender Mainstreaming should on the one hand be
implemented within the administration, in order to enhance the working
conditions of the employees, thereby acknowledging that the City of Graz is an
employer of considerable importance. On the other hand, it was agreed that
Gender Mainstreaming has to be brought into the products and services of the
City, in order to make sure that the citizens can experience equality and can
therefore also profit by the implementation process.
Consequently, all projects, measures and activities taken within the
implementation of Gender Mainstreaming can be ascribed to the pre-defined
strategy, namely to implement on an internal as well as an external level.
Basic Structure of Gender Mainstreaming in the City of Graz
Analyses and actions
taken on the level of
internal structures
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Analyses and actions
taken on the level of
products and services
for the public
Gender Mainstreaming needs a general political commitment to implement
equality and all political fields of action have to be reached and included by the
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implementation; the process has to be supported by a comprehensive political
and administrative basis.
This is the reason why the City of Graz has set up a supervision-team as
information-, propagation- and discussion-board. The supervision-team meets
three times a year and ensures thereby that relevant political and administrative
actors in the City are periodically informed.
The members of the team have been recruited on the highest level and it has
also been decreed that members can change according to (eventually
changing) thematic priorities:
 the Mayor of Graz
 the Councilwoman for social welfare, children, families, youth welfare and
women
 the Councilman for sports, economy and touristic development
 the chairpersons of the political parties in the City’s council
 The head of public administration/the chief executive
 the heads of the department for youth and families and for sports
 the project leaders
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During the developing partnership of POP UP GEM the City of Graz has
installed cross-departmental project-teams, consisting of high-level personnel
of each department that work on specific topics of Gender Mainstreaming.
One objective of these project-teams is to build up gender-expertise within the
departments, therefore making sure that (time) resources for the implementation
process of Gender Mainstreaming do not have to be necessarily centrally
provided. Other objectives are *) to increase resources considerably, *) to
clearly position gender-perspectives within the departments, and *) to genderanalyse departmental products and services.
All the departments of the City of Graz were analysed according to the genderrelevance of their fields of action. Those departments that showed a high need
for the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming on the level of their products
and services were selected as members of the pre-defined 4 project-teams.
The head of public administration decreed respective high-level personnel to
partake within the project-teams, thereby guaranteeing the integration of
Gender Mainstreaming in planning and decision processes.
The selected departments for the project-teams are:
 Project-team 1 („Internal administration“): ..........................................
Administrative Directorate, Department for IT-Solutions, Presidial
Department, Department for Human Resources, Independent Audit Court
of the City of Graz, the City’s Social Security and Health Insurance
Department
 Project-team 2 („for the citizens in their respective life-phases“): ....
Department for Social Welfare, Department for Children, Youth Welfare,
Families and Women, Health Department, Housing Department, Geriatric
Centre of the City of Graz
 Project-team 3 („subvention“): ..............................................................
Sports department, Department for Economic and Touristic Development,
Department of Culture, Department for Environmental Affairs
 Project-team 4 („planning and building“): ............................................
Directorate for Building and Planning, Department for Urban Traffic,
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Transportation and Planning, Department for Urban Planning, Department
for Open Space and Water
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Gender Mainstreaming is a managerial tool for organisational development,
therefore necessarily has to reach all areas of administration and policy. The
implementation of Gender Mainstreaming has to follow strategic
considerations.
The „Grazer Steuerungsmodell – GSM“ (a strategic managerial tool) combines
various reform-processes of the City of Graz, such as Produktkatalog catalogue of products, Aufgabenkritik – task review, Eckwertbudgetierung departmental global budgets, Kostenrechnung - cost accounting, etc.) and
evolves along a one-year circular flow, that strategically governs all
departments.
The Balanced Score Card is the central instrument of this strategic
governance. Strategic and operative objectives of the departments as well as
measures for reaching the objectives and specific operating figures are defined.
The Balanced Score Cards are the basis for the contracts that are signed
between policy and administration on departmental level, and allow for effective
evaluation of respective goal reaching.
Besides “regular“ strategic objectives, the departments have to define „Equality
Objectives“ for their products, services, measures and projects. These equality
objectives are included, on the same level as other strategic objectives, in the
Balanced Score Card. If it makes sense and is justifiable, the record of
operating figures has to carried out for women and men seperately, which
allows for controlling and analyses according to the strategic and managerial
objectives of Gender Mainstreaming.
The gender perspective is therefore “automatically” included in the central
strategic planning tool of the departments of the City of Graz.
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The Independant Audit Court of the City of Graz has to examine and audit the
financial conduct of the City of Graz. ................................................................
The area of audits concerns all departments of City of Graz regards to their
financial conduct as well as all institutions, where the City of Graz is either
share-holder or supporting via subventions. That means that all departments, all
share-holder-corporations, Maastricht-corporations and beneficiaries of
subventions and subsidies are concerned.
The audits encompass formal and material examinations. Both the financially
correct as well as the formally correct transactions are examined, based on the
principle of economic efficiency, parsimony and expediency.
Audits concerning projects include the examination of need for project and
plausibility of initial project costs and follow-up costs.
As a result of the Gender Mainstreaming implementation process at the City of
Graz the Audit Court has included gender-relevant aspects in the respective
audits. That means that each audit, that is conducted – either routine audit of
departments or audits on special demands - , includes gender-sensitive and
gender-relevant questions.
Each audit report contains the audit court’s statement regards to the correct
conduct and respective recommendations.
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The City of Graz plans to install a new data-based IT-solution for the
department of human resources. ......................................................................
Due to the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming and the resulting need of
analysing and evaluating internal structures, it is of major importance to be
able to have access to all relevant data of employment-structures, in order to be
able to receive answers to gender-specific questions.
Therefore, gender-specific questions were submitted as necessary
requirements for a new data-based IT-solution, to make gender-analyses
possible resp. easily manageable for the future. The first gender-analysis in
2001 had already shown that some data are hard to regain resp. are not to be
found at all, such as analyses at appointed dates, clear classification of various
working fields, etc.
.............................................................................................................................
Here are some examples of the questions that in future will have to be
answered regularly and routinely:
 How many female resp. male employees in regard to each level and
class of employment and in regard to extent of employment (full time,
various degrees of part time) are there?
 Analyses of age-structure: how many female/male employees at defined
age-classes.
 Analyses of duration of employment as well as duration at specific
hierarchical levels.
 Analyses of the time that applications for transfer take in regard to the
sexes as well as level of employment.
 Claims of parental leave resp. educational leave or any other periods of
leave, such as the sabbatical, split according to the sexes and according to
age.
 Analyses in regard to basic education and consumed further eduaction,
that is offered by the employer, again split according to the sexes.
 Analyses of vocational periods of leave (sabbatical, parental leave, etc.)
as a barrier for careerdevelopment/job enhancement.
 Analyses of positions (for each level of hierarchy, for leading positions, for
expert career positions, specially assigned tasks, such as project-leading,
team-leading, special expertise, coordination tasks, etc.) according to
female/male allocation.
 Analyses of spezial allowances according to the amount and female/male
allocation
 Analyses of life-time-income in regard to levels and classes of
employment und the respective allocation of the sexes.
 Analyses of measures that have been, should have been, shall be and are
taken for the equality of women and men in regard to the different levels
of hierarchy.
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Gender Budgeting is another important aspect for the implementation of
Gender Mainstreaming. The distribution of the financial funds of a public
administration, a city, a regional government or the state government, gives
testimony of chosen realities and priorities.
The City of Graz has chosen to consider the aspect of Gender Budgeting within
the general implementation process of Gender Mainstreaming and not to
consider it to be a seperate project.
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In general, Gender Budgeting is seen to analyse how much money is spent for
whom.
The City of Graz, however, analyses its products and services, and
consecutively connects afterwards the obtained data with the budget that is
needed for the respective product/service.
The basis for the synopsis of gender-analyses and budget-data, however, is
the creation of product-budgets, which means a dramatic change of paradigm
for a public administration. This huge reform has been started within the City of
Graz, it will take some time, however, until the whole budget is transformed into
a product-budget.
The department for youth welfare and families has developed and designed
a project called „Output-Oriented Gender Budgeting“, a project that combines
three main pillars of strategic management and controlling:
 strategic management by assuming that it is based on the definition of
result- and effect-objectives.
 budget planning and budget controlling by means of „budget-groups“,
that are assigned to the respective result-objectives. Changes in budget
volumes lead to changes in services/results, which can be seen in changes
of effects and effect-objectives.
 integration von Gender Mainstreaming into the department’s definition of
result- and effect-objectives, thereby being part of and influencing the
strategic management of the department.
For the realisation of this project it does not only need experts’ know-how in
regard to strategic management, Gender Mainstreaming and budget-planning
and –controlling, it also and urgently needs resources for the technical
realisation of this complex plan.
Unfortunately, for 2007 it was not possible to fund the necessary financial
resources within the budget of the City of Graz. The department for youth
welfare and families is nevertheless very much interested to implement this
complex pilot project.
Irrespective of a planned product-based budget it has to be mentioned that
cost center informations on product level are available throughout the City. A
combination of product-objectives and –measures on the one hand with cost
center informations on the other hand are therefore basically possible and in
many cases already in use.
Few other structural changes and adaptions are not completed yet. In addition, the
ongoing process of the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming will bring up other
necessities for structural changes.
Either way, the City of Graz makes obvious and ongoing efforts to make sure that
Gender Mainstreaming is lastingly transferred into all strategic and structural levels!
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What kind of measures have been taken to enhance genderexpertise on the level of the City’s employees?
In order to make sure that the gender-perspective reaches all areas of public
administration, it not only takes structural measures to be taken but also the active
enhancement of expertise on the level of employees.
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As to now, the City of Graz has 5 full-fledged Gender Agents at its disposal, all
of whom play a major role within the City’s implementation process.
All high level personnel, as well as the members of the trade union,
underwent special training within the scope of being member of the hearingscommission (part of the personnel-search-procedure at the City of Graz).
The City of Graz is aware of its position as a major employer in the region.
Within the implementation process, hiring new staff is therefore a critical
landmark considering the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming.
The City of Graz wants to make sure that gender-perspective is an integral part
within the personnel-search-process. The City acknowledges thereby that
women and men show differing but equal behaviour within the appointed
selection-procedure, and consequently ensures that the difference can be and is
perceived as equal. The City of Graz has obliged itself to give the job to the best
candidate, she or he has therefore the right to be perceived correctly and
accordingly.
The training was conducted by Module 3 of POP UP GEM, all in all, 79 persons
have attended the training.
The basic positioning of Gender Mainstreaming as a managerial tool
(following consequently the top-down-strategy) is being assured by the head of
public administration himself during the routinely held meetings of high level
personnel.
The members of the project-teams are – after going through a basic training in
Gender Mainstreaming – routinely and continuously supported by the projectleaders.
Furthermore, the members of the project-teams partake in meetings to special
topics, such as gender budgeting, gender-sensitive statistics, gender-sensitive
language, gender in urban and regional planning, etc., in order to enhance their
gender expertise.
The project-leaders have developed specific training- and consultingpackages to make sure that the needed know-how can be communicated
effectively. This follows the assumption that not all employees have to be fullfledged gender experts, but they should know what is necessary and what has
to be done in their fields of action.
 Therefore, the members of the Reform-Team of the City of Graz were
trained and consulted. This made the integration of equality objectives
into the Balanced Score Card possible.
 Furthermore, the Audit Court has received and still receives special
support in regard to gender-specific audit questions. In addition, one
member of the Audit Court is a full-fledged Gender Agent.
 The experts’ working group at the Department for Youth Welfare and
Families „Gender sensitive pedagogics at the childcare facilities of the
City of Graz“ is continuously being supported by the project leaders.
 The Department of Culture, with the support of module 1 within POP UP
GEM, has conducted a gender-survey of all cultural institutions,
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associations, single artists and scientific institutions of the City of Graz.
Results will be available by the end of May 2007.
 Another project on European level, “i2i - From Isolation to Inclusion”, has
been supported by the project leaders to bring in the gender perspective.
Partaking department is the Department for Social Welfare.
 The cross-departmental project „Healthy Employees“ that touches all
areas of the administration and all employees has also been supported.
The gender-perspective is an integral component of all measures to be
taken. One member of the respective project team is full-fledged Gender
Agent.
 The implementation of a “Guideline for gender-sensitive language for
official forms“ has been supported as well.
On the level of politics, special trainings and coachings were continuously
offered. Initially, the support was hesitantly accepted, this has changed
dramatically during the last year, which is a clear indicator that the
implementation of Gender Mainstreaming is successful!
Gender perspective - Act jointly!
The City of Graz has reached a lot within the implementation process of Gender
Mainstreaming during the last years and can point out many successful measures
that have been taken.
The success has been possible because the City has had and still has partners, who
helpfully influenced and supported the pursued way.
The EQUAL-projects „Just GeM“ and „POP UP GEM“ have managed to bring
together various influential people and institutions on the political and economic level,
in order to work jointly for the aim of reaching equality between the sexes. The
process of reaching equality has been started from differing view-points and
positions, with the joint aim to adjust all activities to the common objective.
The City of Graz is very much interested in continuing this successful process as well
as finding new partners, who want to join!
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