two additional elements are usually included in definitions of gender mainstreaming the institutionalisation of gender concerns in order to transform attitudes culture goals and procedures and gender empowerment which is aimed at promoting womens participation in decisionmaking processes as well as having their voices heard and the power to put issues on the agenda by ensuring that institutions policies and programmes respond to women and men equitably gender mainstreaming also contributes to good governance if the needs and priorities of women and men are considered at each phase of the policy cycle design implementation monitoring and evaluation achieving substantive progress on addressing remaining gender gaps is much more likely as such applying gender mainstreaming to both the existing and new laws and regulations is of critical importance to close these gaps