ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the rhetoric and reality of Dutch equality policies, especially in the field of gender mainstreaming. In the Netherlands the representation of women on traditional political bodies has been possible from 1918 onwards, when male voters elected the first woman to Parliament. In the 1990s, women made up approximately one third of the membership of Parliament and the government. The Netherlands has developed a special instrument for mainstreaming, called Emancipation Impact Assessment (EER). In the early 1990s the Dutch government decided to prioritise the policy of including more women in political decision-making. The starting point in 1990 for 'women and development' was that the integration of women's emancipation in development policy should be guaranteed and that obligations should be attached to its implementation. One of the main tasks of the 'women and development' programme was to elaborate new policy instruments.
