Institut für sozial-ökologische Forschung (ISOE) (Hg.) (2003): Research on gender, the environment and sustainable development. Studies on gender impact assessment of the programmes of the fifth framework programme for reserach, technological development and demonstration. Authors: Schultz, Irmgard / Diana Hummel / Claudia Empacher / Thomas Kluge / Alexandra Lux / Engelbert Schramm / Stephanie Schubert / Immanuel Stieß / Doris Hayn / Johannes Ladewig / Karim Stiebig. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 205 S., 7 Euro + postage

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Introduction

During the period of June 2000 until April 2001, the European Commission launched Gender Impact Assessment studies in order to introduce a critical dimension in the way gender issues are treated throughout the 5th European Framework Programme for Research, Technology Development and Demonstration (RTD). These Gender Impact Assessments are part of a process started by the European Commission with the objective to take the gender dimension better into account within research policy. The results of these studies shall serve as a basis for the designing of future research policies at the Community level.

Following the structure of the 5th Framework Programme, the studies were carried out according to the specific programmes of the Framework Programme. The Institute for Social-ecological Research (ISOE), Frankfurt/M. Germany, was assigned to assess the Sub-Programme "Environment and Sustainable Development" (ESD). 1 The assessment consisted of four steps:

1. the review of the state of the art in gender and environment/sustainability research and the elaboration of an evaluation concept,
2. the analysis of the gender composition of participating institutions and bodies in the making and implementation of the 5th Framework Programme,
3. the analysis of the contents of the submitted proposals with respect to gender aspects,
4. recommendations for the increase of women's participation in research and for the inclusion of gender aspects in further research programmes.

The present publication is based on the results of the first step of this Gender Impact Assessment: The state of the art in gender and environment/sustainability research as well as the concept of a Gender Impact Assessment in this research field.

Consequently, the presentation of the state of the art in gender and environment/gender and sustainability research given here must be seen against the background of these European Gender Impact Assessment projects. Thus, the specific environmental issues focused and presented in this report, are those that where focused in in the Key Actions and Generic Activities of the ESD-Sub Programme. After an overview of the environment-debate within women studies/gender studies of the last 25 years, the state of the art report focuses mainly on gender and environment research in industrialised countries, neglecting the broader discussion on gender and environment issues in developing countries.

To begin with, chapter two gives an overview of four important lines of discussion in gender and environment-research/gender and sustainability-research: chapter (1) the debate on women, environment and development (WED-debate), chapter (2) the feminist critique of natural sciences and technology, chapter (3) the focus on everyday life and the environment & health-issue in environmental research and chapter (4) the debate on globalisation and sustainable development from a women's perspective.

Chapter three explains the theoretical background and the proceeding of the Gender Impact Assessment in environmental research. Taking the given overview of the scientific debate on gender and environment as a basis, it identifies three gender-relevant dimensions and gender-relevant priority issues, (general priority issues) in environmental research.

The chapters 4 - 9 present the state of the art of gender research in specific thematic fields of environment and sustainability research:

• Urban sustainability (chapter 4),
• Global change, climate and biodiversity (chapter 5),
• Sustainable marine ecosystems (chapter 6),
• Sustainable management and quality ofwater (chapter 7),
• Natural and technological hazards (chapter 8),
• Earth observation technologies (chapter 9) and
• Socio-economic aspects of environmental change ( chapter 10) .

Based on the state of the art in these thematic fields, in each chapter, specific priority issues for gender research are identified. These specific priority issues can serve as indicators for the assessment of gender impacts in these fields.

Apart from literature study (see bibliography chapter 12), the state of the art reports were complemented by interviews with gender experts that were carried out either personally, on the phone or by e-mail. Important gender experts and networks in the presented environmental research fields are listed in chapter 11.

I The results of the study are published under the title "Gender Impact Assessment of the Environment and Sustainable Development Sub-programme of the 5th European Research, Technology Development and Demonstration Framework Programme" in the same edition.  back