The Gender Impact Assessment provides help for policymakers in incorporating a gender perspective into policies that take account of the different needs, characteristics and behaviours of the users at whom they are aimed.

Although there are some policies where it is clear that gender plays a central role, there are other policies where the relevance of gender is less obvious. These are as a result sometimes labelled gender-neutral, for example: health and safety and regional or town planning. In these examples, it may be tempting to see such policies, goals and outcomes affecting people as a homogeneous group. If policies are mistakenly perceived as gender-neutral, opportunities will be missed to include the views of different groups of women and men in policy formation and delivery and, in turn, to misjudge the different effects on each group, and the systems and organisations that support them.