Introduction

All over Europe, large housing estates are currently undergoing fundamental structural change. In terms of direction and aiming at good urban governance (UNCHS, 1998), the complexity of the problems encountered seems to produce a contradiction between a demand for top-down urban development involving the devolution of governmental responsibilities to governance-oriented structures, and a new esteem for bottom-up initiatives.

Assuming that urban governance needs to be gender sensitive to be equitable, sustainable, and effective, the question that arises is whether gender mainstreaming is an important issue for the restructuring of large housing estates and current urban and estate development policies. Has the implementation of the top-down gender mainstreaming strategy had an impact on local governance? The problem is to identify which urban or estate development policies and steering concepts may be efficient in supporting the political commitment to gender mainstreaming. Following a brief explanation of the gender terminology and its adoption in urban planning and governance, we examine the compatibility of gender mainstreaming and Healey's concept of collaborative planning, mainly from a German perspective, but also including Swedish and Italian examples.

Although these approaches have some similarities, this chapter reveals the differences that are particularly related to the different welfare systems in which each of the gender perspectives on urban issues is rooted, representing the “three worlds of Europe” (Esping-Andersen, 1990). Sweden is a Nordic country with a highly developed welfare system, within the social policies of which gender is strongly mainstreamed. Germany, representing Central Europe, is undergoing a change from a ‘supportive’ welfare state system to an ‘enabling’ approach and a retreat of the state. A similar top-down approach to mainstream gender is being realised in this context and there is a slowly increasing demand on changing breadwinner models. Finally, in Italy, as a Southern European country, the gender mainstreaming approach has gradually been incorporated into the political and social culture of a country which is still strongly characterised by a familistic welfare system. We then discuss different structural frameworks for the implementation of gender mainstreaming in urban and large housing estate development and the gender sensitivity (or blindness) of these developments.