Not Waving but Drowning: Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights in the United Nations

This article addresses the concept of "gender mainstreaming", a movement that sought to replace the somewhat separate status afforded to "gender" in the United Nations system. The premise behind gender mainstreaming is that gender must be taken seriously as part of the mainstream "normal" institutional activities of the UN and other international bodies rather than left to peripheral, specialist women's institutions. In this article, the author challenges the bureaucratic methods of gender mainstreaming in international institutions, arguing that such an approach detracts from the way sexed and gendered inequalities form part of the fabric of the international system. The author argues that, in this way, gender mainstreaming has effectively drowned out the voice of the equality project. [Descriptors: Applying Human Rights Law - International, International]