Gender mainstreaming in European commission development policy in Asia: a transformative tool?

This article examines gender mainstreaming in European Commission (EC) development aid to Asian countries through quantitative and qualitative study of program documents. First, gender mainstreaming is assessed as a set of techniques of policy practice focusing on gender mainstreaming language, its place in policy texts and inclusion in budgets and indicators. Next, it is approached as a philosophy or frame of analysis, evaluating its transformative potential and analyzing how the issue of gender (in)equality is tackled. I conclude that gender mainstreaming in EC-Asian relations has flourished as an expert-bureaucratic tool, but its transformative potential has been neglected. The intra-European Union agenda, as well as the lack of space for Asian civil society voices, are proposed as explanations