the declaration was endorsed by governments united nations and incorporated into many national constitutions eg canada egypt germany india the russian federation south africa and hirkey and other legal and policy provisions defining gender equality and gender mainstreaming gender equality describes the absence of obvious or hidden disparities among individuals based on gender disparities can include discrimination in terms of opportunities resources services benefits decisionmaking power and influence wikigender it encompasses the ability to anticipate the potentially differential impact of policy actions on women and men as well as the ability to design policy actions that are not genderblind but gendersensitive