Gender mainstreaming at 25 years: Toward an inclusive, collaborative, and structured research agenda

Background: Gender mainstreaming has been central to the development agenda for advancing gender equality globally for nearly three decades. We examined key learning across gender mainstreaming models and experiences and assess key successes and challenges in actualising gender mainstreaming's transformative potential, in order to inform future research agendas.

Methods: We reviewed 27 years of peer-reviewed literature on gender mainstreaming (1995-2022) and described scholarly publishing trends on the topic based on a set of 528 articles and bibliographic data retrieved from the Scopus database and supplemental coding. The review provides a thematic synthesis of the extant literature, assessing the evidence base to identify gaps and opportunities for future research and collaboration with practitioners. We also contextualise recent research by tracing common threads of scholarly and practitioner discussions over the last two decades.

Results: Publications on gender mainstreaming have increased, primarily from authors with European and USA academic affiliations and funding. Gender mainstreaming in the health and law and policy sectors has been researched most frequently. Trends in co-authorship suggest increasing collaboration among academics, yet limited collaboration among researchers and practitioners. Widespread low citation counts raise concerns about engagement with the literature. Key challenges in gender mainstreaming identified include conceptual clarity, academic-practitioner disjunctures, politics, leadership and organisational culture, men's roles, intersectionality, monitoring and evaluation, and public health sectoral concerns.

Conclusions: The gender mainstreaming literature has expanded considerably over the last 25 years, yet there remain critical knowledge gaps, theoretical inconsistencies, weak research methods and evaluation processes, and implementation challenges. Funders, researchers, and practitioners have failed to prioritise bridging north-south and academic-practitioner divides in gender mainstreaming policy, programmes, and research. Integration of intersectionality also remains nascent. A more inclusive, collaborative, and structured research agenda on gender mainstreaming is needed to effect greater change in the face of persistent and new challenges. Engaging and empowering regional women's organisations, collaborative learning and research programmes, and joint research and advocacy groups; implementing gender-attuned editorial policies; and incorporating gender mainstreaming in educational curricula are recommended.