Gender Mainstreaming in Academia Flowing Between Policy and Bureaucracy

This article examines how gender mainstreaming, as the predominant approach to gender equality in Europe, operates both as a strategy and a means of action within academia. The context is the European Union’s mandate for institutions to implement a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) that fosters gender equality between women and men and combats discrimination through gender mainstreaming, as a prerequisite for research funding. We delineate a distinction between gender mainstreaming as a strategy and as a means of action. This distinction serves as a framework for empirical studies on how Norwegian Universities and Research Organizations (UROs) articulate their rationale and methods for engaging with gender equality policies, as well as the policy areas they prioritize. Our analysis reveals that arguments for gender equality characterized by consensus are more prominently featured in the GEPs than those that might entail potential conflict. Furthermore, we explore how these various arguments contribute to either the integration or transformation of gender equality in academia, and how gender mainstreaming may have inadvertently undermined the politics of gender equality. This article contributes to the body of knowledge by highlighting the necessity for agenda-setting with binding priorities in gender mainstreaming, aligned with the current academic context.