L&R Social Research

The Implementation of Gender Budgeting in Austria

Lessons Learned from Existing Initiatives

Peter Prenner & Claudia SorgerL&R Social Research, Austria

8th November 2007, PrahaProject “Gender Budgeting in Practice”

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Political and economical context in Austria

Female employment rates in EU comparison among the highest

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Employment Rates 2005

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

DK SE FI NL UK EE AT PT SI DE LT LV CY IE FR EU-25

CZ BE LU BG RO ES HU SK PL EL IT MT

Women

Men

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Political and economical context in Austria

Female employment rates in EU comparison among the highest Female unemployment rate is one of the lowest

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Unemployment Rates of Women 2006

0

2

4

6

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10

12

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16

PL SK GR ES FR BE BG DE EU-25

PT MT CZ IT FI HU SI SE LV LU RO EE CY LT AT UK DK NL IE

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Political and economical context in Austria

Female employment rates in EU comparison among the highest Female unemployment rate is one of the lowestPronounced inequalities between women and men Very high gender wage gap

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Gender Pay Gap 2005

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

CY EE SK DE UK FI CZ NL AT DK LV SE BG LT EU-25

LU RO ES FR IE HU PL EL SI IT BE PT MT

Difference between men's and women's average gross hourly earnings as a percentage of men's average gross hourly earnings

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Political and economical context in Austria

Female employment rates in EU comparison among the highest Female unemployment rate is one of the lowestPronounced inequalities between women and men Very high gender wage gap

Difference between annual net income of women and men 34% (2004) Fulltime: gender pay gap 28% (2005)

High percentage of female part-time work Part-time rate women: 42.7%, men 6.4% (2006)

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Part-Time Rates 2005

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10

20

30

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60

70

80

NL CH NO UK SE DE DK BE AT EU 15

IS EU 25

FR LU FI ES IE IT PT RO PL HR LV MT CY SI EE LT CZ GR HU BG SK

Total Women Men

AT

IT

CZHU

BG

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Political and economical context in Austria

Female employment rates in EU comparison among the highest Female unemployment rate is one of the lowestPronounced inequalities between women and men Very high gender wage gap

Difference between annual net income of women and men 34% (2004) Fulltime: gender pay gap 28% (2005)

High percentage of female part-time work Part-time rate women: 42.7%, men 6.4% (2006)

Long parental leave (97% are women) Lack of child-care facilities for children under the age of 3 (only 13% in childcare

facilities, Barcelona objective 2010: 33%)

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Gender Mainstreaming as a precondition for Gender Budgeting

National Basis of Gender Mainstreaming: Article 7 of the Federal Constitution three resolutions of the Council of Ministers resolutions of the Land Parliaments and Governments in federal lands

Important impulses for the implementation of Gender Mainstreaming in Austria proceeded mainly from the European Structural Funds

Current period of the structural fund (2007 to 2013): Gender Budgeting has been anchored as a key task in the Operation Programmes for the Employment programme point (Target 2b)

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Initiatives of Gender Budgeting in Austria

A civil-social initiative initiated the „Working Team Women and Budget“ (2000) Publications on the topic Gender Budgeting Target: to get the topic of Gender Budgeting into Austrian political discussion

GB on Federal level IMAG Gender Budgeting (interministerial working group since 2004): support of ministries

in the selection of budgetary items for gender analysis Integration of Gender Budgeting into federal constitutional law (in process) GB in the Ministry of Finance: studies on tax system, lectures, gender audit to be

introduced in 2007 (based on scientific study containing manuals, checklists, etc.)

GB on Federal States level – various initiatives, e.g. Upper Austria, Salzburg

GB on Municipal level

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Gender Budgeting on Municipal Level

City of VIENNA capital city of Austria, approx. 1.6 mio. inhabitants (52,8% women) Comprehensive GB-approach: Gender Budgeting was implemented in 2005 by a

decision of the municipal government appointment of representatives for GB, financial coordinators in each group. All budgetary approaches are monitored from the viewpoint of gender relevance

City of TULLN Lower Austria, approx. 14.000 inhabitants (52,1 % women) Selective GB-approach: Gender budget analysis was carried out by a former local

councillor analysis of women representation in budgeting process and gender effects of single sectors of the communal budget

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Gender Budgeting on Municipal Level

Different preconditions for Gender Budgeting, concerning Tradition of Gender Mainstreaming and Promotion of Women Decisive power – absolute majority of a parliamentary party over the years Urban vs. rather rural context

Different approaches with Gender Budgeting initiatives Top-down vs. bottom-up Governing party vs. opposition party

Different status of implementation of GB-initiatives in Austria

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Gender Budgeting on Federal State Level

Gender Budgeting in Upper Austria (approx. 1.4 mio. inhabitants) : Started with analysis of current situation:

Direct benefit of expenditure: “Who benefits from the expenditure primarily, men or women?”

Impacts on employment: Analysis of the impacts of individual expenditures on employment and analysis of the structure of incomes

Internal and external effects of measures: Effect of expenditure on the division of unpaid work, on earning activity and Care Economy

Analysis was aimed at the definition and description of inequality according to gender, stipulation of concrete target criteria, development of appropriate indicators and proposals for the elaboration of a set of measures for overcoming gender disparities.

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Gender Budgeting in Upper Austria Long-term target of the pilot project: implementation of the financial political

method from the gender viewpoint in the budgetary policy of the land Itemisation Gender specific utilisation of budgetary means Development of a set of indicators Appropriate system of data Analysis of necessary framework conditions for the permanent implementation of

GB Center of analysis:

Selected parts of expenditure from education, the health service and sport of the land budget in the final accounts for 2003 and in the draft budget for 2004

Investigation of gender effects of expenditure in these three spheres Standards for the realisation of Gender Budgeting at the process level and measures for

the institutionalisation and realisation of Gender Budgeting in the land budget of Upper Austria were elaborated

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General conclusions from Austrian GB-initiatives

Political commitment and binding directives as precondition (top-down) Information and training of political and administrative staff GB involves people from different departments and different disciplines (economists,

social and political scientists, jurists, managers, …) needs coordination and transfer of knowledge needs resources

Relevance of gender issues in communal policies has to rise sensitisation Participation of women in policy making and in budgeting processes has to rise in

order to achieve gender equality Gender Budgeting is a continuous process, to be improved Problematic aspects concerning data and information:

Transparency – all data on budgets has to be accessible Availability – some data interesting is not available (traditional systems) Heterogeneity of budget principles – comparison and benchmarking is difficult