Federal level: The governmental body responsible for gender equality at the federal level is the Federal Minister for Education and Women’s Affairs, within the Austrian Federal Chancellery. The structure in charge of gender mainstreaming is the Department for Gender Equality policies and legal matters within the Directorate for Women and Equality. However, all ministries are responsible for accomplishing gender-mainstreaming objectives on the basis of five Resolutions of the Council of Ministers, which regulate the implementation of gender mainstreaming at federal level. Gender-mainstreaming working groups have been activated in many ministries. Since its establishment in 2000, the Inter-ministerial Working Group for Gender Mainstreaming (IMAG GMB) has played a crucial role in leading, monitoring and supervising the process of implementing gender mainstreaming at federal level.
Furthermore, dedicated offices are in place in several provincial governments to supervise the gender-mainstreaming process at the local level.
States level: Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy and a federal republic that is divided into nine states. For each of the nine states, a department for women’s affairs and/or gender equality has been created:
- Office of the Provincial Government of Vorarlberg, Women's Department
- Office of the Provincial Government of Tyrol, Department of Women and Equality
- Office of the Provincial Government of Salzburg, staff unit for Equal opportunity, Anti-Discrimination and Advancement of Women
- Office of the Provincial Government of Styria, specialist Department of Society and Diversity, Department of Society and Generation
- Office of the Provincial Government of Carinthia, Department of Women and Equal Treatment
- Office of the Provincial Government of Upper Austria, Directorate Steering Committee, Department Steering Committee/ Women's Department
- Office of the Provincial Government of Lower Austria, Women's Department
- Office of the Provincial Government of Burgenland, Department of Women's Issue
- City of Vienna, Municipal Department 57, Advancement of Women and Coordination of Women's Issue
The relationship between the national and regional level is managed through an annual steering meeting that brings together public officials from both levels. In addition, the national Interministerial Working Group for Gender Mainstreaming supports regional authorities through the systematic organisation of capacity-building initiatives (seminars, workshops and training) about topical issues such as gender budgeting, gender mainstreaming and legislation or regulatory impact assessments and their implications for gender equality at regional level. This interministerial working group has also published different guidelines (covering diverse topics such as gender in research, gender-neutral language, gender budgeting, and integration of gender mainstreaming in legislation) that provide in-depth and practical information along with advice for the states.