Which Gender Is Being Mainstreamed in Global Politics?

Gender mainstreaming is a transnational policy process that has been underway for close to three decades. This paper aims to uncover “which gender is being mainstreamed in global politics” through conducting a textual analysis on twenty global policy documents. The text of the documents was coded into two categories of gender: abolitionist and affirmative. The predictions were that (1) there is a movement toward an affirmative concept of gender and away from an abolitionist one; (2) “women” are being replaced with “gender” in global policies; (3) there is a shift away from sex-based and toward gender-based provisions in global policies; (4) the affirmative concept of gender is being mainstreamed; and (5) that the abolitionist concept of gender is not being mainstreamed. It was found that, out of the five predictions, only the third one is supported by the evidence, i.e., the gender that is being mainstreamed in global politics is abolitionist. Although the results were almost entirely contrary to the predictions, it is important not to underestimate the potential implications of erasing sex-based provisions. In recasting provisions for women as “gender-based” one runs the risk of making them provisions for “femininity”, which consequently could mean limits to female political participation