Horizontal policy coordination and gender mainstreaming: The case of the European Union's Global Approach to Migration and Mobility

• This article analyses gender mainstreaming in the context of horizontal policy coordination.
• It finds that the structures and processes for mainstreaming gender and migration are parallel, rather than crosscutting or integrated.
• It finds that each crosscutting issue is seen as discrete, rather than interconnected and inherently gendered.
• It concludes that structural and conceptual obstacles prevent the gender mainstreaming of other forms of horizontal policy coordination, in this case, the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM).

SynopsisThis article asks how we can better understand the limitations of gender mainstreaming in the context of horizontal policy co-ordination. The Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (GAMM), which is the framework for mainstreaming migration into all of the EU's external activities, is taken as a case study to investigate what happens when gender mainstreaming intersects with another form of horizontal policy coordination. It finds that the structures and processes which have been set up in order to gender mainstream EU policy do not work well in the case of horizontal policy coordination. This is shown by the absence of gender mainstreaming in policy documents, and from interviews with policy makers and representatives from civil society organisations. This is a problem for gender equality, especially as horizontal policy coordination is on the increase.