Although some gender activists and analysts question the efficacy of gender mainstreaming to take forward women's demands, the South African government has pursued the strategy within a number of government departments including the Department of Education. This article explores how the strategy is being implemented in one provincial education department. Using data generated in 2008-9 through case study methods that employed aspects of an ethnographic approach, a key finding was that both the social justice aspiration and the technical interventions associated with the policy are considerably hampered by lack of resources and a clear policy framework. Many charged with implementing gender mainstreaming draw on memories of activism and international policy declarations give promise of a possibility of a transformative fix, although the absence of resources to secure this remain a matter for concern. (Contains 3 notes.)