'This Module is not only about Women and Gay People' Gender Mainstreaming in der europäischen Asylpolitik Von einem essentialisierenden zu einem intersektionalen Genderverständnis?

Contrary to gender mainstreaming’s initial objective to be implemented in all policy areas, questions of gender equality only played a marginal role in the field of European asylum policy for a long time. The few existing national gender mainstreaming approaches show significant discrepancies and international approaches reduce gender de facto to particularly vulnerable groups that are considered homogeneous – mostly women. Despite indubitably good intentions the underlying essentialism of this approach is problematic. A reductionist conception of gender (mainstreaming) cannot do justice to the complex identities and resulting discriminations of asylum seekers. The objective of this article is to analyse which gender conception is displayed in the current gender mainstreaming approach on the EU-level: in the recast directives of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and the accompanying training materials of the European Asylum Support Office (EASO). The article provides first findings of a (potential) shift from an essentialist to an intersectional gender conception.