Gender budgeting is a method of examining a government budget to determine how it impacts on women and men, girls and boys of different social and economic (and racial) groups. (Winnie Byanyima MP, Uganda)
‘Gender-sensitive budgets’, ‘gender budgets’, and ‘women’s budgets’ refer to a variety of processes and tools aimed at facilitating an assessment of the gendered impacts of government budgets. In the evolution of these exercises, the focus has been on auditing government budgets for their impact on women and girls. This has meant that, to date, the term ‘women’s budget’ has gained widest use. Recently, however, these budget exercises have begun using gender as a category of analysis so the terminology ‘gender-sensitive budgets’ is increasingly being adopted. It is important to recognise that ’women’s budgets’ or ‘gender-sensitive budgets’ are not separate budgets for women, or for men. They are attempts to break down, or disaggregate, the government’s mainstream budget according to its impact on women and men, and different groups of women and men, with cognizance being given to the society’s underpinning gender relations. (Sharp, Rhonda: 1999)
This section of the Women'sNet website aims to give you an introduction to gender budgeting, and provides some links for more information.
