Gender Mainstreaming and Resistance to Gender Training: A Framework for Studying Implementation

Resistance expressed by both organizations and participants in processes of gender training that are conducted to mainstream gender into policy-making poses a key challenge for gender mainstreaming. However, such resistance is relatively under-studied. This article explores resistance to gender training that emerges during the implementation of gender mainstreaming by determining the types and forms of resistance to gender training and by finding out just what this analysis of resistance tells us about the problems arising in the implementation of gender mainstreaming. We argue that analysing resistance to gender training—and identifying the types and forms of such resistance—can contribute to diagnosing problems in the implementation of mainstreaming and furthermore be used for improving this implementation. This study is based on data from participant observation in training processes and from the work conducted in two European research projects, QUING and TARGET, both of which debated the issue of gender training in expert meetings and forums made up of trainers, policy-makers, and academics.