Gender Integration

• To what extent are legislative buildings physically accessible?
Are there adequate facilities for women? Are there childcare
opportunities, lactation rooms, etc.?
• What training and professional development opportunities
exist for legislators in general and specifically for women
legislators?
• How equitably are resources, such as training, research,
support staff, offices, and supplies, allocated? What research
bodies exist to support parliament with data and expertise
on gender equality and women’s rights issues?
Legislation and Policy Development
• Does the legislature engage in gender-responsive budgeting?
Are there national efforts or mandates related to genderresponsive
budgeting? How effective are these efforts?
• How is the legislature engaged in promoting gendersensitive
and inclusive public policy?
• How does the legislature monitor and evaluate progress
and implementation of gender equality-related laws, policies,
and procedures?
Outreach and Consultation
According to the Inter-Parliamentary
Union, a gender-sensitive parliament is
one that:
1. Promotes and achieves equality in numbers
of women and men across all of its bodies and
internal structures.
2. Develops a gender equality policy framework
suited to its own national parliamentary context.
3. Mainstreams gender equality throughout all of
its work.
4. Fosters an internal culture that respects women’s
rights, promotes gender equality and responds to
the needs and realities of MPs—men and women
—to balance work and family responsibilities.
5. Acknowledges and builds on the contribution made
by its men members who pursue and advocate for
gender equality.
6. Encourages political parties to take a proactive
role in the promotion and achievement of gender
equality.
7. Equips its parliamentary staff with the capacity
and resources to promote gender equality, actively
encourages the recruitment and retention of
women to senior positions, and ensures that gender
equality is mainstreamed
Source: “Plan of Action for Gender Sensitive
Parliaments, International Parliamentary Union, 2012.
http://www.ipu.org/pdf/publications/action-gender-e.pdf
• What mechanisms does the legislature have for soliciting
public input? How, if at all, are these mechanisms designed
to facilitate equal opportunities for participation by women
and men? Equal participation by youth, children, LGBTI
individuals, persons with disabilities, or minority groups?
• To what extent are civil society organizations engaged in
monitoring the legislature? If so, do they have measures of
representatives’ effectiveness to help track the influence of
female representatives? Do they track the degree to which
elected representatives address gender issues in their discussions
of legislation or the budget?
SECTION II. Integrating Gender into
Legislative Strengthening Programming:
Challenges and Opportunities
1. Legal Framework
Challenge: Enshrining equality in the legal framework related
to parliament.
Opportunities:
• Identifying legal barriers to participation. Train stakeholders,
including CSOs, political parties, and government
officials, to conduct a gender analysis of the laws and policies
related to elections and parliament to identify any barriers
to the full participation of women in the political process.
For example, is the equality of all people enshrined in the
constitution? Do all citizens have the right to run for elected
office? Do voter registration or identification laws have
a disproportionate or negative impact on the ability of
women or minority groups to vote? Are there any special
measures in place to strengthen voting among traditionally
marginalized groups?
38 USAID | Gender Integration in Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance (DRG) Programming Toolkit