European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)
EIGE’s Gender Mainstreaming programming area
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European Institute for Gender Equality, Gedimino pr. 16, LT-01103 Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 215 7444
06/10/2020
The Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) tool is a self-assessment tool developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) to help parliaments at any level (European, national, regional) measure how well they respond to, and represent, the different needs and interests of diverse groups of women and men.
The GSP tool questionnaire is divided into five “Areas” dealing with different aspects of gender-sensitivity in relation to parliaments:
Area 1 – Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
Area 2 – Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
Area 3 – Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
Area 4 – The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
Area 5 – The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
Each Area is sub-divided into “Domains” that cover different aspects within the Area. Each domain includes indicators measuring relevant issues.
Four versions of the questionnaire exist, tailored to support the self-assessment process at each of the different levels at which parliaments are convened (European, national, regional with legislative power and regional without legislative power). A shorter “general” version can also be completed by external users, such as media representatives, general public or NGOs. The four versions designed for use within parliaments vary only slightly in terms of specific questions that are included/excluded. The general version includes fewer questions and excludes some domains for which the indicators rely on information that is unlikely to be available outside the parliament.
The GSP indicators presented in EIGE’s Gender Statistics Database cover all EU national parliaments and the European Parliament. These data were collected during May – July 2019 using the general version of the questionnaire. Data were collected by national researchers for each of the EU-28 and the European Parliament. This data collection comprised desk research and consultation with national contacts where information was not publicly available.
The GSP tool questionnaire is built around five "Areas" referring to different aspects of gender-sensitivity in relation to parliaments at any level (European, national, regional). Each Area is sub-divided into “Domains” and "Sub-domains" that cover different aspects within the Area. Each Sub-domain includes a series of indicators measuring relevant issues. Below is a list of Domains and Sub-domains under each of the five Areas. The full questionnaire informing the indicators, sub-domains, domains and areas is available in all EU languages from link.
Area 1 – Women and men have equal opportunities to ENTER the parliament
Area 2 – Women and men have equal opportunities to INFLUENCE the parliament’s working procedures
Area 3 – Women’s interests and concerns have adequate SPACE on parliamentary agenda
Area 4 – The parliament produces gender-sensitive LEGISLATION
Area 5 – The parliament complies with its SYMBOLIC function
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Unit of measurement
Most questions in the GSP tool questionnaire require yes/no answers.
Other questions require the numbers of women (W) and men (M) covered by the question (e.g. number of current women and men members of parliamentary committees). Some indicators present the actual number provided, while others present the relative proportions of women and men (i.e. W/(M+W) and M/(M+W).
Concepts and definitions
Gender budgeting: A gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures so as to promote gender equality.
Gender quotas: Generally, a gender quota is an instrument aimed at accelerating the achievement of gender-balanced participation and representation by establishing a defined proportion (percentage) or number of places or seats to be filled by or allocated to women and/or men, generally under certain rules or criteria. Such quotas can be legislative or voluntary. Legislative candidate quotas regulate the gender composition of electoral candidate lists and are binding by law for all political parties in the election; they are mandated either through national constitutions or by electoral legislation. Sanctions for non-conformity, such as financial penalty or rejection of candidate lists, can be put in place to deter political parties from violating a legislated gender quota. Voluntary party quotas are adopted by individual parties for their own candidate lists and are usually enshrined in party statutes and rules.
Major political parties: Major political parties are those with at least 5 % of seats in the national parliament (either the upper or lower house in bicameral systems). A list of the major political parties in each Member State is available here: https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/wmid_mapping_polpart.pdf
National gender equality bodies: Equality bodies are independent organisations that work to promote equality and combat discrimination in relation to one, some, or all of the grounds of discrimination covered by EU law, i.e. gender, race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and disability. EU equal treatment legislation requires Member States to set up an equality body. Most EU Member States have implemented the Gender Equal Treatment Directives.
Symbolic representation: Gender-sensitivity of the social meanings, perceptions, messages and physical spaces conveyed by parliaments.
Women's caucus:Women’s caucuses or working/reference groups are mechanisms created within national parliaments to strengthen cooperation among women engaged in political life. Such caucuses can bring women parliamentarians together across party lines in effective alliances around a common goal.
These, and other descriptions of key terms and concepts, can be found in Annex 2 of EIGE’s Report on Gender equality in national parliaments across the EU and the European Parliament.
The unit of analysis are parliaments, specifically the EU 28 national parliaments and the European Parliament as of April/ June 2019. For countries with bicameral parliaments, units of analysis are disaggregated into lower and upper houses. In the dataset, two sub-units are presented:
The statistical population is the EU-28 Member States and the European Parliament as of April/ July 2019.
Data were collected for the European Parliament and at national level for the EU-28.
April/July 2019
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Results are presented as one of the following units:
The reference period is April-July 2019.
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The score for EU-28 national parliaments and the European Parliament are publicly available through the EIGE website.
At the same link, users can find country-specific indicators and metadata from the general version of the questionnaire, available to download in spreadsheet format.
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No regular new releases.
Relevant publications can be found on the Gender-sensitive Parliaments page on EIGE’s website, including the following publications:
Data collected for the Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) tool is made available through EIGE's Gender Statistics Database the EIGE website.
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The methodology used to collect data for the GSP tool questionnaire is described in the document "Description of indicators and scoring model", available at this link.
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The data collection comprised desk research. Where information was not publicly available, this was gathered (insofar available) through consultation of national contacts.
The questionnaires used for data collection have been validated by checking that
conditional (child) questions do not have answers unless the response to the parent question is positive. Twelve validation checks were implemented on questions from Areas one to four. Questions from Area five are purely qualitative, hence such validation check has not been deemed appropriate.
The formulae used to apply scores by question are designed to ignore invalid answers.
Overall, the data from Gender-sensitive Parliaments (GSP) tool can be considered of good quality, collected from reliable sources and with careful application of a common methodology.
The tool is designed as a self-assessment exercise for parliaments; it supports the assessment of the gender-sensitivity of elected bodies at regional, national, and the European level through the analysis of the presence, role and positions of women and men across the organisation. Furthermore, the tool analyses how procedures and outputs of the assembly respect and promote gender equality.
All internal staff, including administrative staff and elected members, can benefit from the assessment, which highlights areas in which gender equality can be improved. The users of the data collected for the GSP data collection include – but are not limited to - parliament speakers, dedicated gender equality bodies, women’s caucuses, political parties and other stakeholders who have the power and interest to foster a greater participation of women in political decision-making and the implementation of a gender-sensitive parliament. The tool is also meant to be used to carry out regular self-assessments, in order to monitor changes in gender-sensitivity over time.
Other target groups that may find the tool useful include civil society organisations that can use this tool to support their awareness-raising and lobby activities regarding gender equality in parliaments and within political parties. Also, academic researchers and scholars interested in the topic of parliament gender-sensitivity can use the 'general' version of the tool for case studies on parliaments and as research material on gender and politics, and gender and institutional transformation. The external actors will not be able to assess all of the included indicators since some of them require internal assessment within the parliaments. Nevertheless, the 'General' version of the tool can be used to pursue collaboration with parliamentary members, bodies and parties, and to actively advocate for gender equality in political decision-making.
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The completeness of GSP data depends on the extent to which the organisations covered openly publish, or are willing to share, information. In several cases, information could not be obtained from national contacts and these data gaps are mentioned where applicable.
Overall accuracy of the data collected has been validated, as described under point 11, (Quality management).
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The GSP indicators presented in the Gender Statistics Database have been collected using a common, shorter “general” version of the questionnaire through desk research and consultation of national contacts. That said, inherent institutional differences between national parliaments exist that should be considered when making country comparisons. This is especially important when comparing unicameral versus bicameral parliaments.
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Data collected for the Gender- Sensitive Parliament (GSP) tool belongs to the same domain as the EIGE data collection on Women and men in decision-making, as the indicators refer to a political decision-making institution (the parliament). Indeed, the GSP draws on data from EIGE’s data collection on Women and men in decision-making. Data collected for the Gender- Sensitive Parliament (GSP) tool, however, has a broader focus on the overall gender-sensitivity in the organisation and working procedures of parliaments, whereas data on Women and men in decision-making focuses on the number of women and men in parliament.
The indicators from the Gender Sensitive Parliament (GSP) tool are consistent, as data have been collected using a common, shorter, “general” version of the questionnaire and have been scored using a consistent system across parliaments.
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There is no fixed revision schedule.
The GSP tool indicators presented in the Gender Statistics Database were collected through desk research using public available data sources. Specific data source for each Domain can be found documentation entitled "Description of indicators and scoring model" at this link.
Where information was not publicly available, it was gathered through consultation of national contacts.
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The data have been collected using a common, shorter “general” version of the questionnaire that has been completed by national contact points through desk research. Where information was not publicly available, information was gathered (insofar available) through consultation of national contacts.
Data validation procedures have been described at point 11 (Quality management).
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