ABSTRACT
Each of the states featured in Making Women Count possesses a sophisticated array of agencies or other institutional machinery for eliminating sex discrimination and promoting gender equality. In Spain, however, there is a single national equality agency, the Women's Institute. This chapter describes these individual bodies and their specific contributions to promoting equality. Most analyses of the effectiveness of state equality agencies focus on individual agencies. It examines integrated systems for addressing equality issues and analyses how they fit within the broader law and policy-making framework of that state. The broader relationship between equality agencies and other women's groups/feminist bodies is essential for proper consultation in the law and policy-making process. Mainstreaming requires continual effort and monitoring in order to keep pressure on bureaucrats to integrate gender equality issues into all parts of policy development. Equality bodies should more fully embrace the role of supporting greater co-ordination amongst non-governmental women's organisations.
