An early aim of gender budget analysis or gender responsive budgeting was the concern to open up the budgetary processes of government to greater scrutiny and accountability and to make them more democratic through the increased participation of citizens, particularly women. Over the last thirty years, initiatives to adopt and implement gender budget analysis have been developing globally and in a number of countries within the European Union. This paper discusses the extent to which women’s organisations have been engaged in these initiatives as advocates outside government, as activists for institutional and feminist policy change and in providing specialist analysis - often in the absence of formal gender analysis by governments. With a particular focus on experiences in the UK, Scotland, Spain, and Austria this paper explores how engaged women’s groups have been and at what level of government; the nature of their engagement and focus for change; what change has come about; and the extent to which budget processes and the women’s organisations campaigning for gender budgeting have increased democratic participation in changing budgetary processes.
