Gender mainstreaming (GM) has arguably become the most popular innovation to promote gender equality among national governments all over the world. It creates quite some initiatives and tools for feminists and women’s movement activists to participate and collaborate with governmental bureaucrats in the policy making processes. Since 2008, all legislations and mid- or long-term policies and programs in Taiwan are required to conduct Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) at the planning stage, so as to assess their different implications for women and men. This initiative is seen by some feminists as a direct channel to engage and influence the bureaucrats as well as the policies. Yet the worry about feminists being co-opted by the neoliberal technocratic state is also common.
This paper reviews the experiences of GM with a particular focus in GIA in Taiwan, and addresses the above-mentioned concerns. It summarizes five problems found in the current practice of GIA, which exemplifies the formalist, paper-work inclination of GM as a whole. The author further reflects the deep-rooted challenges and pitfalls of technocratization, depoliticalization, and co-optation against any progressive governmental reform given the neoliberal and neo-technocratic manageralism that dominates most governments. The paper concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of oppositional women’s movements.
