ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews how gender knowledge contestation analysis (GKC analysis) helps people to unpack the concept of resistance to reveal several dynamics involved. In Directorate General (DG) Research, gender mainstreaming (GM) obligations have been mobilised through several layers of documents and persons, which pertain to the whole of DG. Abstract commitments to GM, based upon a structural conception of gender inequality and articulating a normative commitment to gender equality are rooted in existing European Union (EU) Treaties and the Communication on Mainstreaming Equal Opportunities. To understand the perspective of Scientific Project Officers (SPOs) charged with implementing GM within Directorate N it is helpful to reconstruct an understanding of what GM might entail, based on the existing policy perspective and practices in Directorate N, and the gender knowledge articulated in interviews. Review of Directorate N's policy documents found written commitments to undertake GM in Directorate N both at the strategic level, in the Framework Programme, and in the Work Programme.
