Introduction: Gender Mainstreaming in Politics, Administration, and Development in South Asia

Abstract

This chapter introduces the concept of gender mainstreaming. It gives an account of its present status and development in the context of contemporary governance and policy-making both in general and in the context of South Asia in particular. It also looks at gender mainstreaming in light of globalization and technological development in South Asia. Recent technological innovations and development have serious consequences for how women are portrayed from a male perspective. While technology has been instrumental in empowering women, its easy accessibility has also enabled an increase in negative images of women, one example being the many pornographic sites portraying women as a commodity. Technological development, coupled with a negative view of women, has precipitated the recent sharp increase in the disparity between the female-male sex ratio, commonly assumed to be the result of the rapid spread of ultrasound and amniocentesis for sex determination, which has led to sex-selective induced abortions. This chapter acknowledges that in the context of South Asia, there is still a noticeable lack of research-based empirical studies on the broader gender issues, for instance, on access to resources, equality, participation in governance, voice in the public sphere, and the implications of all such matters for governance institutions and processes. The final section presents short summaries of the book’s chapters, highlighting how gender mainstreaming has fared in South Asia, challenges it has encountered when put into practice, and what its implications may be.