2. In Chapter 2, the family and the labor market are used to show that gender is not only a category for the description of individuals but is also a constitutive attribute of social structures and political strategies. 3. Gender policy objectives based on alternative concepts of gender are defined in Chapter 3. 4. Chapter 4 continues the debate over different gender policy strategies, and assesses the reach of anti-discrimination strategies, gender mainstreaming and approaches to managing diversity. 1 What is Gender? Deconstructive Approaches Gender mainstreaming is often viewed as a method for evaluating the effects of measures on men and women. The evaluation starts by compiling statistics differentiated according to male and female. However, this“counting” according to biological sex is only the first step. The next step is the interpretation of this data using gender analyses that define the research issue on the basis of the current state of knowledge in women’s, men’s and gender research. This includes the results of gender theory, because they are an aid in revealing personal presuppositions that are often not discussed in the interpretation of results and thus opening them to discussion. For example, the goal“gender equality” could be interpreted to mean granting each male and female what is rightfully theirs. The gender policy objective would then be to allow men to realize their masculinity and women their femininity. It would aim at ensuring equity for two different genders on the basis of their differences. Many differences between the biological sexes are maintained and many mechanisms left intact, simply because they correspond to personal assumptions about gender and differences between the genders. The question,“What is gender?” is enough to alienate many people. Nothing seems more certain than the fact that each individual has a gender and that there are men and women. The common concept of gender is based on concepts that are questioned to its core by recent gender theory and empirical studies. Stiegler 2002, pp. 17 – 23). 1.1 Critique of Biologism: Gender can be defined only on the basis of certain dimensions The assumption that gender is a purely biological fact of human existence and falls into one of two groups is very common. In its“Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World”, the Catholic Church states that differences between men and women are anthropological constants. “Their equal dignity as persons is realized as physical, psychological and ontological complementarity.”(II,8.) Thus, gender differences appear as part of one’s anatomy and are thus immutable and natural. The biologic approach to the human anatomy, or, as in the letter of the Catholic Church, the biblical texts on creation, in which God created man and woman, are the foundation for these basic assumptions. Recent popular science books about the differences between the genders are based on such assumptions and have become best sellers(e.g. Allen and Barbara Pease, 2000). 5