Gender, Politics and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism (Gender and Politics)

Gender, Politics and Institutions

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Gender and Politics Series Series editors: Johanna Kantola, University of Helsinki, Finland and Judith Squires, University of Bristol, UK This timely new series publishes leading monographs and edited collections from scholars working in the disciplinary areas of politics, international relations and public policy with specific reference to questions of gender. The series showcases cutting-edge research in Gender and Politics, publishing topical and innovative approaches to gender politics. It will include exciting work from new authors and well-known academics and will also publish high-impact writings by practitioners working in issues relating to gender and politics. The series covers politics, international relations, and public policy, including gendered engagement with mainstream political science issues, such as political systems and policymaking, representation and participation, citizenship and identity, equality, and women’s movements; gender and international relations, including feminist approaches to international institutions, political economy, and global politics; and interdisciplinary and emergent areas of study, such as masculinities studies, gender and multiculturalism, and intersectionality. Potential contributors are encouraged to contact the series editors: Johanna Kantola, ([email protected]) and Judith Squires (judith.squires@ bristol.ac.uk) Series Advisory Board: Louise Chappell, University of Sydney, Australia Joni Lovenduksi, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK Amy Mazur, Washington State University, USA Jacqui True, University of Auckland, New Zealand Mieke Verloo, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands Laurel Weldon, Purdue University, USA Titles include: Jonathan Dean RETHINKING CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST POLITICS Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay (editors) GENDER, POLITICS AND INSTITUTIONS Towards a Feminist Institutionalism

Gender and Politics Series Series Standing Order ISBNs 978–0–230–23917–3 (hardback) and 978–0–230–23918–0 (paperback) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

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Gender, Politics and Institutions Towards a Feminist Institutionalism Edited by

Mona Lena Krook Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women and Gender Studies, Department of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis, USA and

Fiona Mackay Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, School of Social and Political Science, Edinburgh University, UK

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Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion © Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay 2011 Foreword © Joni Lovenduski 2011 All remaining chapters © respective authors 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–24588–4 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

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Contents Foreword Joni Lovenduski

vii

Acknowledgements

xii

Notes on Contributors

xiv

1

Introduction: Gender, Politics, and Institutions Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay

1

2 Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment: Candidate Selection in Post-Devolution Scotland Meryl Kenny

21

3 Discursive Strategies for Institutional Reform: Gender Quotas in Sweden and France Lenita Freidenvall and Mona Lena Krook

42

4 Gendered Institutions and Women’s Substantive Representation: Female Legislators in Argentina and Chile Susan Franceschet

58

5 Gendering the Institutional Reform of the Welfare State: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland Michelle Beyeler and Claire Annesley

79

6 Gender and Institutions of Multi-Level Governance: Child Care and Social Policy Debates in Canada Joan Grace

95

7 The Institutional Roots of Post-Communist Family Policy: Comparing the Czech and Slovak Republics Hana Hašková and Steven Saxonberg

112

8 Gendering Federalism: Institutions of Decentralization and Power-Sharing Jill Vickers

129

9 Gendered Institutionalist Analysis: Understanding Democratic Transitions Georgina Waylen

147

v

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10 Nested Newness and Institutional Innovation: Expanding Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court Louise Chappell

163

11 Conclusion: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism? Fiona Mackay

181

References

197

Index

225

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Foreword Does institutionalism need a concept of gender? And does feminism need institutionalism? Probably the answers to these questions will turn on what we think is good social science. Good feminist social science is simply good social science; it is no more or less than good practice. It should concomitantly be impossible to imagine a good social science that ignores gender. Yet this is precisely what most political science does, and the new institutionalism, despite its concern with power relations in institutions, is no exception. Arguably, good institutionalists should realize the importance of gender relations to the configuration of institutions. But they do not. They need to be reminded, and feminist institutionalism, exemplified by the essays in this groundbreaking volume, is the reminder. How does the incorporation of a feminist perspective change institutional approaches to the study of politics? To set the scene it is useful to ask what feminist scholars want from political science. Broadly there are two possibilities: the explanation of gendered outcomes, including the current order or state of play, and predictions of future developments in the gender regimes that are so identified. Both entail the specification of contexts, the collection and analysis of evidence, and the theorization of political relationships, but for feminists these are inevitably gendered in some way. They may be gender neutral or balanced in their configurations and effects. Gender may be defined simply as a scale of masculinity and femininity along which behaviour and attitudes may be ordered. This is evidenced by the presence of codes, norms, and behaviour that reflect accepted (but possibly changing) dimensions of masculinity and femininity. Gender is always present in social life. In short, institutions are gender regimes (Connell 1987, 1990) and feminists use institutionalist approaches to answer questions about power inequalities in public life. When feminists adopt institutionalist research strategies that include gender, they seek to illuminate and change the status of women. In this endeavour the crucial feminist contribution to institutionalism is the addition of concepts of gender. Feminism therefore genders institutionalism. Why do feminists need new institutionalism? Probably the answer to this question starts with the politics of social science. Steinmo reminds us that the important battles in the social sciences are struggles over vii

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the meaning of science defined in terms of its predictive capacity. But such a focus often distorts research and obscures the importance of explanation. In general institutionalists are more interested in explanation than in prediction (Steinmo 2008). I think the same is true of feminist institutionalists, and that preference is one of the bases of a scholarly affinity between the two approaches that I highlighted more than a decade ago (Lovenduski 1998). Both explanation and prediction require an ability to characterize the institutional context and environment in order to identify their most salient features. Feminist political scientists want to discover and explain gender effects in political life, a project that inevitably leads them to focus on how political institutions are formed and sustained and how gender is embedded in them. Many feminists are also interested in prediction but are unwilling to pay the high cost of overlooking the gendered dimensions of institutions – which is a risk when concentrating on prediction at the expense of explanation. Institutions are the rules that structure political and social life. They are configurations of ideas and interests which are expressed as the ‘formal rules, compliance procedures and standard operating practices that structure relationships between individuals in various units of the polity and the economy’ (Hall 1986: 19–20). Political institutions express and necessarily contain a normative element – the norms, principles, and ideas that hold a given institutional structure together and provide the ‘compass’ for the assessments of attempts at change. This order consists of collectively constructed values and principles that are protected and maintained by accepted rules of the game. The rules take precise meaning through the actions of the individual organizations (parliaments, executives, and political parties) that they constitute, and they also structure, largely but imperfectly, the interactions that take place between and within these organisations (March and Olsen 1989: 107). March and Olsen, the founders of modern or ‘new’ institutional theory, provide the central insight that history is encoded into institutions. The ‘new institutionalism’ therefore permits a focus on process and offers a conceptual toolkit that includes formal and informal institutions, critical junctures, path dependence, feedback mechanisms, logics of appropriateness, and, more recently, institutional convergence and layering. It invites consideration of the roles of ideas in determining the interests of actors operating in a specific institutional context. All social scientists make methodological choices that carry advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of new institutionalism are frequently set out as the expansion of definitions of institutions (usually

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in relation to old institutionalism, in which institutions were narrowly defined in organizational terms) to include norms, values and ideas, incentive systems, and its ability to explain the persistence of social structures. The disadvantages turn around the problem of explaining change, a particular challenge for a feminist project to explain how changing gender relations might alter institutions. An equally important criticism is that institutionalists tend to underestimate agency because the repertoire of action is so constrained by the rules of the game that actors may be thought of as trapped by institutions. Critics regard institutionalism, and particularly historical institutionalism, as an approach that overprivileges stability, pointing to the frequency with which change is explained as an effect of an exogenous shock and the resulting crisis. This was once fair comment. Institutionalism has been a weak approach to explaining internally generated change because institutions are defined partly in terms of their capacity to inhibit change. But as Thelen points out, institutional stability may conceal considerable adaptation, rendering the differences between change and stability rather less stark. Moreover ‘sometimes power begets power and institutions reinforce and magnify the position of their creators; but sometimes institutions provide interesting and unintended opportunities for marginal groups to exercise leverage well beyond their apparently meagre power resources’ (Thelen 2003: 216). Feminist institutionalists recognize that political explanation is about ideas, interests, and institutions, which are intertwined. In common with their colleagues they want better scholarship and better explanation. The proponents of feminist and institutionalist political science share a desire to answer real-world questions. But the shared interest in how institutions work in general has not to date extended to a common interest in how that working is gendered. While feminist and institutionalists agree that such answers require empirical investigations of institutions and their effects on political decisions and outcomes, for feminists those institutions are gendered in various ways. For the most part new institutionalists do not use a gendered approach, and feminist studies of institutions so far available, if acknowledged at all, are rarely engaged by them. The exclusion of consideration of gender risks crucial elements of ideas, interests, rules and processes, portents and causes of change, and instances of agency being ignored, and hence impairs the institutionalist project. If a central question of institutionalism is what it means to maximize power in a given situation then the institutionalist researcher is required to provide a detailed and complete account of the aspects of the political environment that frame the choices and

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x Foreword

strategies of the political actors who operate within it. They must also have an understanding of the perceptions of political actors, of their interests and their (ideas about) environment, and have an understanding of both internally generated change and the agency of institutional actors. In making gender a central concern and conceptualizing institutions as, inter alia, gender regimes, feminism contributes to each part of the institutionalist project. Feminist institutionalists think that changing gender relations are an important source of both internally and externally generated change. They investigate these components of institutions for the ideas they express about women and men, femininity and masculinity. Mapping the formal architecture and informal networks, connections, conventions, rules, and norms of institutions is the first step in constructing an institutional analysis. The way the analyses then proceeds depends on which of at least four different strands of new institutionalism is adopted: historical, sociological, rational choice, or discursive (Mackay and Waylen 2009).1 Each suggests a slightly different map of gendered processes. There is considerable common ground among the different kinds of institutionalists. They all see institutions as rules that structure behaviour. Where they differ is about the nature of those beings whose behaviour is being structured (Steinmo 2008: 126). While all of the new institutionalisms have something to offer feminist scholarship, historical institutionalism is especially adaptable to the concerns of feminist political scientists who seek to explain gendered outcomes in different contexts. Historical institutionalists think that human beings are both norm-abiding rule followers and self-interested rational actors whose behaviour depends on which rules and which contexts obtain. These are all matters for empirical investigation. To gender historical institutionalism it is necessary first to identify and record differences in the effects of the rules and the nature of interests among and between women and men. Next the researcher must construct an account of processes through which these differences came to be present. Finally their impact on gender relations in the institution should be assessed. The feminist sociological institutionalist would identify the social norms and explicate their gendered effects, producing an account of the mutually constitutive character of the gender regime of the institution they are studying. For example they might explore how logics of appropriateness may support or undermine gender stereotypes of performance in a legislature. In a feminist rational choice institutionalist analysis, gender relations would form part of the account of the context in which individuals calculated costs and benefits of their actions. Differences in the

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decisions between and among women and men would be recorded and explained in terms of the differences in their calculations that might, in turn, depend on gendered labour markets. Finally feminist discursive institutionalists consider the gender ideologies found in the institutional discourses focusing on how ideas about women and men and masculinity and femininity are present in its rules. They echo the initial insight of Schattschneider (1960) that control of the definition of a problem determines its solution, recasting this idea in the language of discourse analysis. Hence conflict over meaning is termed an interpretive struggle. Notably, discursive institutionalism explains change in institutions as the result of changes in ideas; hence changes in ideas about gender relations are predicted to change institutions. Inevitably the foundations of feminist institutionalist analysis are fine-grained descriptions of gendered environments accompanied by explanations of how gender constrains or enhances agency and affects stability and change. This might take the form of consideration of the options not discussed, actors marginalized, or micro-political economies not identified because they are obscured by unexamined assumptions about gender relations. In short, feminist institutionalism both enhances analysis and makes for more effective explanation. Feminists bring to the study of institutions a specific lens that makes visible constitutive, gendered power relations and the processes that support and undermine them. In identifying changing gender relations as a potential cause of institutional change feminism increases the capacity of ‘new’ institutionalists to model causality. There is now a foundational body of feminist research that offers gendered institutional analysis (see Lovenduski 1998). Since 2006 the Feminist Institutionalist International Network (FIIN) has explored the interplay between feminist approaches to gendered institutions and new institutional theory, publishing work that synthesizes insights from each approach in order to address issues of gender, politics, power, and change (www.femfiin.com). This volume builds on those foundations, offering new research on gender in institutions that is theoretically grounded in terms of both feminism and of the new institutionalism. JONI LOVENDUSKI Notes I am grateful to Dermot Hodson and Alan Ware for comments on this essay. 1. See also the recent ‘Critical Perspectives on Feminist Institutionalism’ in Politics & Gender, 5: 2, 2009.

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Acknowledgements This volume is the product of many conversations, workshops and conference panels, and an ongoing seven-year dialogue about the promise of a feminist institutionalism. The idea was sparked at the European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR) Joint Sessions of Workshops in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2003, by a workshop convened by Fiona Mackay and Petra Meier, and bore fruit with the establishment in 2006 of the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN; for more details, see www.femfiin.com). Since the founding of the network, we have debated and shared findings at the Gender Research Network Launch Conference in Manchester, England, in June 2007; the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference in Pisa, Italy, in September 2007; the European Conference on Politics and Gender, organized by the Gender and Politics Standing Group of the European Consortium for Political Research, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in January 2009; and the Midwest Political Science Association National Conference in Chicago, Illinois, in April 2009. In April 2008, we also organized a six-day workshop on ‘Gender, Politics, and Institutions: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism?’ for the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops in Rennes, France. The task of putting together this volume was made possible thanks to the encouragement and assistance of a number of important people. For financial assistance, we are grateful to the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh and the Centre for Political Economy at Washington University in St. Louis for funding our attendance at several key workshops and panels. We also appreciate support from the University of Edinburgh Campaign Small Projects Scheme, and the School of Social and Political Science Strategic Research Fund for enabling us to set up the FIIN website, run by FIIN coordinator Meryl Kenny, which has facilitated communications among members of the network and beyond. All panel participants over the years, and especially those who participated in the ECPR workshop in Rennes, have contributed to the broader conversation that has led to the publication of this book. We thank our co-directors, Louise Chappell, Meryl Kenny, and Georgina Waylen for their support. We acknowledge our debt to Joni Lovenduski, whose work inspired us to embark on the project, and we thank her also for writing the foreword. We record our appreciation xii

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Acknowledgements xiii

of Alison Howson, Amber Stone-Galilee, and Liz Blackmore at Palgrave, as well as the Gender and Politics Series editors, Judith Squires and Johanna Kantola, for their enthusiastic support and patience. Finally, we very much appreciate the editorial assistance of Mindy Sher and Meryl Kenny in the very last stages of pulling this manuscript together. We hope that the final product reflects a shared collective enterprise to forge a synthesis between feminism and institutionalism.

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Contributors Claire Annesley is Senior Lecturer in European Politics at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). She has been a fellow of Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen and a visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung. Her research interests include gender and politics, comparative European politics, German politics, and welfare capitalism. She is the author of articles on the adult work model appearing in the Journal of European Social Policy and Parliamentary Affairs, as well as co-editor of Women and New Labour: Engendering Politics and Policy? (Policy Press 2007). Michelle Beyeler is Lecturer in the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern (Switzerland), where she teaches research methods and comparative politics. Her research covers various topics such as care policies, monetary policies, comparative welfare states, and social movements. Her overall focus is on the mechanisms and conditions of political reforms and change. She has published articles in Global Social Policy and Mobilization and is the author of The Paths to Price Stability (Haupt 2007) and the co-editor of The OECD and European Welfare States (Elgar 2004, with Klaus Armingeon). Louise Chappell is Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in the School of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of New South Wales (Australia). In 2008 she was a visiting fellow in Political Science at Leiden University (the Netherlands). Her book Gendering Government (UBC Press 2002) was awarded the American Political Science Association’s Victoria Schuck Award in 2003 for the best book published in the field of women and politics. Her recent publications include The Politics of Women’s Interests (Routledge 2006, co-edited with Lisa Hill) and The Politics of Human Rights in Australia (Cambridge University Press 2006, with John Chesterman and Lisa Hill). Susan Franceschet is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary (Canada). She specializes in gender and politics in Latin America and is the author of Women and Politics in Chile (Lynne Rienner 2005). She is currently engaged in a project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council xiv

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entitled ‘Gendered Mandates: The Impact of Women in Politics in Latin America’, exploring the impact of female legislators, ‘femocrats’, and women’s movement organizations on policy outcomes that advance women’s rights in Argentina and Chile. Lenita Freidenvall is a researcher in the Department of Political Science at Stockholm University (Sweden). She has published widely on women and politics, gender quotas, and candidate selection. Recent publications include Electoral Gender Quota Systems and Their Implementation in Europe: Report to the European Parliament (2008, with Drude Dahlerup and in cooperation with International IDEA) and Kvotering (2008, with Drude Dahlerup). She has also written reports on gender and constitutional reform on behalf of the Swedish National Working Commission on Constitutional Reform. Joan Grace is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Winnipeg (Canada). Her research interests include women’s relationship to the state, women’s collective action, and feminist critiques of institutionalism. She was awarded a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for her project ‘Coming to Grips with the State: Women’s Political Activism in Western Canada’, which analyses women’s policy advocacy in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Recent publications have appeared in Canadian Woman Studies and Canadian Public Administration. Hana Hašková is Researcher in the Gender and Sociology Department in the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic). Her research focuses on gender, reproduction, intimate lives, and family policies, as well as women’s civic organizing in post-socialist Europe. She coordinated the Czech research team for the ‘Enlargement, Gender and Governance’ project on women’s civic and political participation in post-socialist Europe and is currently coordinating the Czech research team for the international project ‘Gendered Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: The Impact of Contemporary Women’s Movements,’ funded by the European Union’s Sixth Framework Program. Meryl Kenny is an Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK). Her doctoral thesis, entitled Gendering Institutions: The Political Recruitment of Women in Post-Devolution Scotland, used feminist and new institutional theory to explore the gendered dynamics of political recruitment in Scottish political parties. Her research interests include women and comparative politics, political recruitment, political representation, and territorial

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politics. Her recent publications have appeared in Politics & Gender, Politics, and Scottish Affairs. Mona Lena Krook is Assistant Professor of Political Science and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University in St. Louis (USA). In 2008–2009, she was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is the author of Quotas for Women in Politics: Gender and Candidate Selection Reform Worldwide (Oxford University Press 2009), which employs a combination of feminist and institutionalist theory to analyse the adoption and impact of quotas for the selection of female candidates to national parliaments around the globe. She is also co-editor with Sarah Childs of Women, Gender, and Politics: A Reader (Oxford University Press 2010). Joni Lovenduski is Anniversary Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London (United Kingdom), and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her recent books include Feminizing Politics (Polity 2005), State Feminism and Political Representation (Cambridge University Press 2005), and Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament (Cambridge University Press 1995, with Pippa Norris). She is co-editor of The Politics of the Second Electorate (Law Books 1981, with Jill Hills) and Gender and Party Politics (Sage 1993, with Pippa Norris), as well as the author of many articles and essays in edited collections on issues of gender and politics. Fiona Mackay is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations in the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK). Her research focuses on gendered dimensions of constitutional change and devolution in the United Kingdom. She is the author of Love and Politics: Women Politicians and the Ethics of Care (Continuum 2001), co-author of Women, Politics and Constitutional Change: The First Years of the National Assembly for Wales (University of Wales Press 2007, with Paul Chaney and Laura McAllister) and co-editor of Women and Contemporary Scottish Politics (Polygon 2001, with Esther Breitenbach). Steven Saxonberg is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic). He has written extensively about the collapse of communism in Central Europe and the transformation process, as well as postcommunist gender relations. He is the author of The Fall: A Comparative Study of the End of Communism in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary

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and Poland (Routledge 2001) and The Czech Republic Before the New Millennium (Columbia University Press 2003). Jill Vickers is Distinguished Research Professor in Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada) and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2003. Her books include Politics As If Women Mattered (University of Toronto Press 1994, with L. Pauline Rankin and Christine Appelle), Reinventing Political Science: A Feminist Approach (Fernwood 1997), Gender, Race and Nation (University of Toronto Press 2002, with Vanaja Druhvarajan), and The Politics of Race: Canada, Australia and the United States (Golden Dog 2000). She has led several Canadian organizations and was Parliamentarian of Canada’s National Action Committee on the Status of Women. Georgina Waylen is Professor in Politics at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom). She is the author of Gender in Third World Politics (Lynne Rienner 1996) and Engendering Transitions (Oxford University Press 2007), which was co-recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Victoria Schuck Award in 2008 for the best book published on women and politics. She is also the co-editor of Gender, Politics and the State (Routledge 1998, with Vicky Randall), Towards a Gendered Political Economy (Macmillan 2000, with Joanne Cook and Jennifer Roberts), and Global Governance: Feminist Perspectives (Palgrave 2008, with Shirin Rai).

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1 Introduction: Gender, Politics, and Institutions Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay

Gender, Politics, and Institutions – and the international network of scholars involved in this collaborative enterprise1 – is animated by the desire to find new tools and analytical frameworks to help us to answer some of the big questions and real-world puzzles about gendered power inequalities in public and political life. For example, how are formal structures and informal ‘rules of the game’ gendered? How do political institutions affect the daily lives of women and men, respectively? By what processes and mechanisms are such institutions produced, both reflecting and reproducing social systems, including gendered power relations? How do institutions constrain actors, ideas, and interests? Finally, what is the gendered potential for institutional innovation, reform, and change in pursuit of gender justice, and what are its limits? The ‘institutional turn’ in feminist and mainstream political science has been well documented. However, despite some common preoccupations, there has been little dialogue between mainstream new institutional scholars and institutionally oriented, feminist political scientists. As such, this edited collection breaks new ground by seeking to integrate gender and neo-institutionalist perspectives.2 In initiating this conversation, Gender, Politics, and Institutions sets the agenda for a ‘feminist institutionalism’. We begin in this chapter by providing a brief overview of institutionally focused research in feminist political science (FPS) and new institutionalism (NI), mapping key concepts, theories, and methods within each broad approach. We then identify concerns that are common to both fields and argue that each offers innovative tools for understanding the dynamics of political stability and change, and that there is considerable potential for the two approaches to mutually inform one another to devise innovative tools for understanding 1

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2

Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay

dynamics of political stability and change. We conclude with a brief discussion of each of the subsequent chapters in the volume, which taken together cover a number of major topics in feminist and institutionalist research, affording an opportunity to explore the contours, and assess the added value of a synthesized approach.

An institutional turn in feminist political science From its earliest days, an important strand of FPS has been concerned with institutions of state and society, particularly in explaining the chronic minority of women in ‘conventional’ public institutions and political life. This research has evolved over time in response to changing political developments. Academic interest has mirrored and paralleled growing political activism and advocacy around the political under-representation of women, the promotion and institutionalization of gender equality as a social and political goal, and the increased presence of women – including feminists – in political and state organizations, and as legislative, political, and bureaucratic actors. Fuelling this interest, the last three decades have seen substantial institutional change with significant consequences for women, for gender relations, and for gender equality. These changes include broad restructuring trends in many advanced, democratic welfare states involving processes such as marketization, regionalization, decentralization, and constitutional reform (see for example, Banaszak et al. 2003). Meanwhile, efforts at institutional redesign have been experienced globally in both peaceful and violent transitions to democracy, sparking new processes of state- and institution-building in successive waves of democratization across Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia (Waylen 2007). In the course of these developments, demands for gender equality have become part of broader political discourses of democracy and modernization, as new international norms have diffused through global institutions and networks (Krook 2009; Towns 2010). Early feminist work on gender and institutions, however, generally overlooked the role of institutional processes and practices in reinforcing and reproducing gender inequality (Witz and Savage 1992). More specifically, the causes of gender inequality were understood to exist at the macro-level, rooted in a stratifying system or structure known as ‘patriarchy’. Institutions and organizations, therefore, were not the direct cause of inequality in, and of themselves. Rather, they were interesting only insofar as they illustrated or reflected a ‘more general set of

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patriarchal practices’ (Witz and Savage 1992: 7). Indeed, a line of feminist research influenced by Ferguson’s (1984) critique of bureaucracy viewed the institutions of the state and state bureaucracy as inherently and uniformly patriarchal. Subsequent literature shifted from a focus on universal structures – such as ‘power’ and ‘oppression’ – to the dynamic structuring of gender relations, in which relations of power operating through institutions are seen as a crucial part of the ‘structure’ of gender (Connell 2002: 59; see also Connell 1987; Walby 1990; Watson 1990). As a result, gender scholars increasingly scrutinized the ‘black box’ of the state and its institutions, against a backdrop of growing theoretical and empirical interest in variations within and across countries. In particular, real-world feminist engagements in and against the state provoked a theoretical reconsideration of political institutions, challenging preconceptions of ‘the state’ as essentially and monolithically patriarchal. The experience and study of the ‘femocrat’ phenomenon in Australia, in particular, led the way to the framing of new and more nuanced conceptions of states and gendered power relations (Franzway et al. 1989; Sawer 1990, 2003; Watson 1990). Several interrelated insights can be drawn from this and other work. First, state institutions are not monolithic but can only be understood when broken down into a number of institutional arenas or spaces (Chappell 2002a; Connell 1987, 2002; Franzway et al. 1989; Watson 1990). Second, while state institutions, variously defined, are historically the products of the ‘mobilization of masculine bias’ (Burton 1991: 14), and both produce and reproduce patriarchal power relations, they are historically variable in their composition and effects, and are theoretically open to change (Eisenstein 1991; Franzway et al. 1989; Sawer 1990; Watson 1990; see also Abrar et al. 1998; Ferree and Martin 1995; Halford 1992; Kantola 2006). In parallel to these trends, more complex understandings of ‘gender’ have emerged. This has shifted focus from near-exclusive attention to women at the individual level, ‘documenting sex imbalance and sexism’, to increasing interest in institutional-level analysis, analysing the underlying structures which underpin ‘institutionalised advantages and disadvantages’ according to gender (Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995: 44). Because ‘gender’ is a social construction, simply attending to the status of women in politics can only describe gendered patterns of access. It ‘cannot explain the persistence of inequality and permutations of exclusionary practices that operate within political institutions’, nor capture the gender norms and discourses that underpin institutional dynamics (Lovenduski 1998; Mackay 2004: 111).

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As the centre of gravity of FPS scholarship has gradually moved from a focus on ‘women and politics’ to more relational and institutionallevel conceptions of ‘gender and politics’ (Beckwith 2005; Childs and Krook 2006a; Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998; Mackay 2004), studies have begun to map the complexities of institutional gender dynamics. They highlight, in particular, the multiple ways in which gendered power relations and inequality are constructed, shaped, and maintained through institutional processes, practices, and rules (Annesley and Gains forthcoming; Chappell 2002a; Hawkesworth 2003; Kathlene 1995; Katzenstein 1998; Mackay 2006). Research in this area is theoretically and empirically eclectic, frequently drawing upon insights from other disciplines, most notably from work on gender and organizations in the field of sociology (see Acker 1990, 1992; Cockburn 1991; Savage and Witz 1992). Yet, while institutionally focused FPS is internally diverse, work in the field shares a number of common preoccupations and insights. As a body of literature, FPS is characterized – at a minimum – by three key features (Driscoll and Krook 2009): expanding the definition of ‘politics’ to include not just formal processes related to government and elections, but also informal actions embodied in social movements and interpersonal relations (Fraser 1989; Okin 1979; Phillips 1998); incorporating ‘gender’ as a relational concept and an analytic category (Beckwith 2005; Hawkesworth 2005; Kulawik 2009; Lovenduski 1998; Scott 1988); and generating insights that may be used to pursue political change (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2007; Lovenduski 1998; Waylen 2009). Institutionally focused FPS extends this work by raising fundamental questions regarding the scope and nature of the ‘political’. It not only highlights interconnections between formal and informal institutions (Lovenduski 1998; Phillips 1998; Randall 2002), but also calls attention to the boundary work involved in demarcating the ‘political’ from arenas, issues, and actors deemed ‘social’ or ‘private’, and therefore ‘nonpolitical’ (Fraser 1987; Kulawik 2009; Weldon 2002). Nonetheless, research on the gendered effects of formal institutions is by far the most extensive. FPS scholars, for example, have analysed the impact of electoral systems on women’s political representation (Caul 1999; Kenworthy and Malami 1999; Matland 1995; Norris 2004; Reynolds 1999; Rule and Zimmerman 1994). They have explored the role of political parties in promoting and constraining women’s behaviour as legislators and social movement activists (Kittilson 2006; Lovenduski 2005b; Lovenduski and Norris 1993; Norris and Lovenduski 1995; Opello 2006), as well as the complex relationship between state feminism,

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women’s movements, and female politicians in pursuit of substantive policy change (Annesley 2010; Chappell 2002a; Chappell 2002b; Lovenduski 2005a; Mazur 2001, 2002; Outshoorn 2004; Outshoorn and Kantola 2007; Stetson and Mazur 1995; Weldon 2002). In light of their interest in change, institutionally oriented FPS researchers have also paid close attention to the gendered implications of the changing institutional and legal arrangements as a result of devolution and European integration (Brown et al. 2002; Chaney et al. 2007; Mackay 2006; Ostner and Lewis 1995; Vogel-Polsky 2000); the gendered impact of regime change, such as transitions to democracy (Waylen 2007); and the political opportunity structures that inform women’s movement interactions with the state, including territorial divisions of power, and processes of state reconfiguration (Banaszak et al. 2003; Brown 2001a; Chappell 2002a; Dobrowolsky and Hart 2003; Grace 2006, 2008; Haussman et al. 2010; Kantola 2006; Vickers 1994, 2010). Although they rarely use the language of ‘institutions’ and ‘institutionalism’, FPS scholars have similarly examined the importance of informal institutions, which NI researchers define as the practices, discourses, and norms that shape formal institutions, but which may also contradict or undermine formal rules (Helmke and Levitsky 2004). Like mainstream institutionalists, therefore, many studies in FPS confer the same status on the formal and the informal aspects of political life, although they often do so implicitly rather than explicitly. Numerous scholars, for example, analyse the gendered impact of political practices, such as the parliamentary procedures and cultures that act as constraints on the ability of female legislators to represent women (Carroll 1984, 2001; Childs 2004; Dodson 2001, 2006; Franceschet 2005; Rosenthal 1998); informal practices and condoned rule-breaking through which male politicians may reassert masculine political dominance (Kathlene 1995; Liddle and Michielsens 2000; Puwar 1997, 2004a; Shaw 2000); and the de facto rules of political parties that influence candidate selection procedures (Freidenvall 2006; Lovenduski and Norris 1993; Kenny 2009; Krook 2009; Norris and Lovenduski 1995; Perrigo 1996). Along similar lines, work by institutionally focused FPS researchers explores the constraining power of – but also the political opportunities afforded by – existing political discourses (Bacchi 1996, 1999, 2005). They note, for example, how actors of various kinds articulate their positions for and against gendered political change in relation to widely accepted values like ‘fairness’, ‘democracy’, and ‘equality’ (Freidenvall 2005; Holli et al. 2006; Krook et al. 2009). Finally, a wide range of studies in FPS have assessed the powerful role of norms ‘that prescribe and proscribe

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“acceptable” masculine and feminine forms of behaviour, rules, and values for men and women within institutions’ (Chappell 2006: 226; see also Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995; Kathlene 1995). This includes work on the ‘gender regimes’ and ‘gender contracts’ that underpin various kinds of welfare state arrangements (Connell 2002, 2006; Hirdman 1990; Jenson 1997; Lewis 1992; Sainsbury 1996), as well as Chappell’s (2006; see also Chappell 2002a; Stivers 1993) analysis of the norm of bureaucratic neutrality demonstrating that it is profoundly gendered, such that the more embedded and enforced the norm of ‘neutrality’ is, the harder it will be for feminists to advance ‘biased’ claims of gender equality. This feminist scholarship is diverse, presenting a wide variety of ways of understanding and conceptualizing gender, politics, and institutions. The key point of agreement across these approaches, however, is that conceiving of political (and social) institutions as ‘gendered’ is crucial to understanding the practices, ideas, goals, and outcomes of politics. Grasping the ways in which institutions reflect, reinforce, and structure unequal gendered power relations in wider society, in turn, offers insights into the dynamics of continuity and change – and the means for interrupting them to promote or undermine feminist goals. For FPS scholars, gender provides a central structuring dynamic of institutions, such that gender relations and gender norms are key legacies with which to contend in feminist analysis and strategies for political change (Mackay 2004: 112–113; see also Annesley and Gains forthcoming; Chappell 2002a; Duerst-Lahti 2002; Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995; Hawkesworth 2003; Kenney 1996; Kenny 2007; Krook 2009; Lovenduski 1998, 2005b; Mackay and Meier 2003; Mackay 2008). To say that an institution is gendered means that constructions of masculinity and femininity are intertwined in the daily culture or ‘logic’ of political institutions, rather than ‘existing out in society or fixed within individuals which they then bring whole to the institution’ (Kenney 1996: 456). While constructions of masculinity and femininity are both present in political institutions, the masculine ideal underpins institutional structures, practices, discourses, and norms, shaping ‘ways of valuing things, ways of behaving, and ways of being’ (Duerst-Lahti and Kelly 1995: 20). Yet, gender relations are also plural and cross- cutting, playing out in different ways across various types of institutions, and on distinct institutional levels. These range from the construction of images, symbols, and ideologies that justify, explain, and legitimize institutions, and their gendered patterns of hierarchy and exclusion (Acker 1992: 568) to interpersonal day-to-day interactions,

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where the continuous performance of gender takes place (Kenney 1996: 458; see also Acker 1990, 1992; Connell 1987, 2002; Lovenduski 1998). On the one hand, formal and informal institutions shape and constrain gendered political behaviour, defining the parameters of what action is possible and intelligible. On the other hand, political institutions are themselves constituted by these embodied social practices of ‘doing gender’ on a daily basis (Connell 1987, 2002; see also Kenny 2007). Recognizing these reciprocal relationships, in turn, opens up possibilities for agency and change. For, as Beckwith (2005: 133) notes, if institutions are gendered, the potential exists for them to be ‘regendered’, including in ways that might promote gender equality (see also Hawkesworth 2005; Kenny and Mackay 2009). Uncovering possibilities to reshape the status quo in this manner is critically important to FPS, which is explicitly concerned with recognizing how institutions reproduce gendered power relations, but perhaps more importantly, with how these institutions can be challenged and reformed (Mackay and Meier 2003). Theorizing institutions in their multiple forms, as well as recognizing their gendered dimensions, presents considerable challenges for FPS scholars, provoking a reconsideration of appropriate methods, frameworks, and research directions. As Kenny (2007: 7) observes, institutionally oriented FPS ‘has begun to map the complexities of institutional gender dynamics’ but ‘continue[s] to grapple with the implications of incorporating “slippery” and complex understandings of gender into their frameworks and analyses, and work in this area is eclectic and, often, uneven’ (see also Lovenduski 1998; Mackay 2004). One of the most ambitious projects on gender and political institutions to date is the research, and series of publications associated with the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS). Adopting a ‘feminist empiricist’ approach (Harding 1986; cf. Mazur 2002), this work has provided extensive case studies of gendered structures and feminist agency around the state; the origins, impact, and changing role of women’s policy machineries within state structures; and the complex relationship between state feminism, women’s movements, and women political representatives in pursuit of substantive policy change (Mazur 2001; Lovenduski 2005a; Outshoorn 2004; Outshoorn and Kantola 2007; Stetson and Mazur 1995). However, there is growing recognition among feminist scholars that a more systematic approach is needed in order ‘to bridge the gap’ between complex theories of gender and workable theories for empirical research (Mackay 2004: 114; see also Childs 2004; Childs and Krook

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2006a; Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998), as well as to get beyond the description stage in order to begin to analyse, and understand gendered patterns and effects (Lovenduski in this volume). Innovative conceptual tools and approaches, in particular, are needed in order to address the considerable challenges posed by the turn to institutions; and, in particular, the turn in focus to gendered institutions. Initiating a new research agenda requires asking – and answering – questions related to interactions between gender and institutional effects, the origins and shape of gendered institutional change, and the reasons for positive outcomes in some contexts, but little or no change in others. A wave of recent studies suggest that there is strong potential for engagement with other institutionally oriented scholars, particularly those working in the broad field of ‘new institutionalism’ (Lovenduski 1998; see also Adams and Orloff 2005; Annesley and Gains forthcoming; Chappell 2006; Driscoll and Krook 2009; Kantola 2006; Kenny 2007; Kenny and Mackay 2009; Kulawik 2009; Lovenduski 2005b; Mackay 2004; Mackay et al. 2009; Mackay and Meier 2003; Waylen 2009; Weldon 2002).

New institutionalisms in mainstream political science The basic premise of new institutionalism (NI) is that institutions ‘matter’, an ‘argument that the organization of political life makes a difference’ (March and Olsen 1984: 747). Yet, while the term ‘new institutionalism’ is widely used in political science, there is considerable debate over ‘just what [it] is’ (Hall and Taylor 1996: 936). Work that identifies with NI has largely converged around four main approaches: rational choice institutionalism, historical institutionalism, organizational or sociological institutionalism, and more recently, discursive institutionalism.3 This proliferation of perspectives has served to expand the reach of institutionalist theory into the study of a wide range of political phenomena. At the same time, however, it has led to a compartmentalization and fragmentation of institutionalist research (cf. Crouch 2003), organized according to schools of thought, types of institutions, and patterns of institutional transformation. The four main schools of NI share a common focus on ‘institutions’, but are characterized by distinct theoretical and methodological commitments, leading them to analyse political phenomena using slightly different sets of analytical assumptions. Rational choice institutionalists work mainly at the micro-level, aiming to understand the origins of institutions, the mechanisms of their survival, and the nature of their effects on macro-level political outcomes (Weingast 2002). Drawing on

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the insights of game theory, they view institutions as conventions created by actors in order to overcome collective action problems (Ostrom 1990), either by reducing uncertainty (North 1990), or by restructuring incentives so that individuals are more motivated to cooperate (Weingast 2002). Some argue, as a consequence, that institutions endure when they provide more benefits to the relevant actors than alternative institutional forms. However, others are careful to stress that these dynamics do not necessarily ensure the most efficient outcomes (North 1990), and that in many cases, institutions are not only structures of coordination, but also structures of power and domination (Knight 1992; Moe 2006). Historical institutionalists, in contrast, conduct their research primarily at the meso- or macro-level, focusing on the long-term ramifications of largely contingent events (Pierson 2003; Pierson and Skocpol 2002). Interested in apparent historical inefficiencies, they approach institutions as the various formal and informal procedures, routines, norms, and conventions embedded in the organization of politics, society, and the economy. While concerned with how these institutions permit and exacerbate various asymmetries of power (Thelen and Steinmo 1992), most of the theoretical attention in this literature relates to the concept of path dependence and the role of unintended consequences (Mahoney 2000). In the course of grappling with questions of sequencing and possible period effects (Lieberman 2001), however, other scholars have sought to nuance the division between institutional creation and institutional consequences. Seeking to call attention to dynamics of institutional development over time (Pierson 2004), they introduce concepts such as institutional conversion and layering to capture what they see as more complicated relationships between continuity and change (Mahoney and Thelen 2010; Schickler 2001; Streeck and Thelen 2005; Thelen 2003, 2004). Organizational or sociological institutionalists, in turn, present a middle position centred on the links between micro- and macro-level political interactions (DiMaggio and Powell 1991). Adopting a more interpretive lens, they define institutions to include formal rules, procedures, and norms, as well as symbol systems, cognitive scripts, and moral templates that provide the ‘frames of meaning’ guiding human behaviour (March and Olsen 1989). More than the other two schools, they emphasize the interactive and mutually constitutive character of the relationship between institutions and individual actions. As such, they understand change not in relation to cost–benefit analysis or the legacies of past events, but instead in terms of attempts to enhance the

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social legitimacy of a particular institution (DiMaggio and Powell 1991; Douglas 1986; Meyer and Rowan 1991). These concerns may extend as far as the global arena: as proponents of the ‘world polity’ school note, countries themselves are subject to pressures to conform to the standards of a ‘modern’ state, leading many to adopt similar institutions in order to establish or enhance their legitimacy in the international sphere (Meyer et al. 1997). Discursive institutionalists, finally, engage with multiple levels of analysis, ranging from – and connecting – the micro- to the macrolevel. Although these scholars embrace a relatively broad definition of institutions, compatible with rational choice, historical, and sociological perspectives, their approach differs from the others in a number of significant ways. First, discursive institutionalists place greater emphasis on the role of ideas and ideas-as-discourses in influencing actor interests, preferences, and behaviour, although their definitions and uses of ideas and discourse vary widely (compare for example Campbell and Pedersen 2001; Hay 2006; Lynggaard 2007; Schmidt 2008). Institutions are built on ideational foundations, and these ideas shape institutional design and development, constraining possibilities for agency (Hay 2006; Schmidt 2008). Second, discursive institutionalists move beyond powerdistributional perspectives, arguing that discourse itself is a medium of power (Freidenvall 2009; Lynggard 2008). In this view, power is not simply defined in terms of positional power within a particular institutional context; rather, ideas and discourses construct and shape the very ‘exercise of power’, including ‘(subjective) perceptions of position’ (Schmidt 2010: 18). Third, discursive institutionalists outline a theory of institutional change ‘from the inside’, drawing attention to the interactive processes through which ideas and discourses are constructed, legitimated, and communicated within particular institutional contexts (Schmidt 2008, 2010). Yet, most discursive institutionalists also distinguish ‘discourses’ from ‘institutions’, referring to the discursive effects of institutions (Fischer 2003) or the institutional contexts ‘in which and through which ideas are communicated via discourse’ (Schmidt 2010: 4). Thus, while they stress the importance of discourse in institutional innovation, dynamism, and transformation, they stop short of treating discourses on a par with institutions themselves (Freidenvall and Krook this volume). Despite these important differences, there is a growing trend towards rapprochement and synthesis among NI scholars (see for example Bates et al. 1998; Katznelson and Weingast 2005), such that it is possible

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to draw out continuities across these approaches, even if the authors in this volume engage with one or more specific NI variants in their respective chapters. The common feature uniting all these approaches, for example, is their attention to formal and informal institutions. Indeed, perhaps their most notable feature is their effort to confer the same theoretical, empirical, and methodological status to both kinds of institutions. North, for example, expands on his widely cited definition of institutions as ‘the rules of the game in a society or ... the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction’ (1990: 3) by describing these more specifically as ‘formal constraints – such as the rules that human beings devise – and informal constraints – such as conventions and codes of behavior’ (1990: 4). Similarly, in an overview of various types of institutionalist approaches, Peters identifies an institution as a ‘structural feature of the society and/or the polity ... that may be formal (a legislature, an agency in the public bureaucracy, or a legal framework), or may be informal (a network of interacting organizations, or a shared set of norms)’ (1999: 18). These types of statements have led other scholars to characterize the object of inquiry in institutional analysis as a continuum between formal and informal institutions, ‘mov[ing] from the study of such intangible phenomena as ideas, meanings, signifiers, beliefs, identities, attitudes, worldviews, discourses, and values to such tangible entities as states, constitutions, bureaucracies, churches, schools, armies, parties, and groups’ (Ethington and McDonagh 1995: 470). While recognizing that institutions may take a variety of forms, some researchers do note, however, important differences between formal and informal institutions. A great deal of attention, for example, has focused on why formal institutions do not have the effects that their creators intended (Goodin 1996; Pierson 2004), and conversely, how and why informal institutions have the effects that they do. In an attempt to understand why informal institutions exist, some hypothesize that informal rules emerge when formal institutions are incomplete; when actors prefer, but cannot achieve, a formal institutional solution; or when actors are pursuing goals that are not publicly acceptable, either because they are unlikely to stand the test of public scrutiny, or will attract international condemnation (Helmke and Levitsky 2004: 730–731; cf. Leach and Lowndes 2007). This distinction is captured well in North’s observation that ‘formal rules may change overnight as the result of political or judicial decisions, [but] informal constraints embodied in customs, traditions, and codes of conduct are much more impervious to deliberate policies’ (1990: 6).

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Although both kinds of institutions delineate rules of appropriate behaviour (March and Olsen 1989), they may be subject to distinct processes of creation and alteration, at the same time that they work together to shape political outcomes. Given the focus on institutions as structures and constraints, most research focuses on institutional stability, seeking to explain how and why institutions lock the expectations and behaviour of individuals into relatively predictable, self-reinforcing patterns, even in the face of major changes in background conditions. As Pierson (2000a) notes, these tendencies are especially characteristic of political institutions: while market mechanisms may potentially disrupt dynamics of increasing returns in the economy, various features of politics make increasing returns more likely, namely the central role of collective action, the possibilities for employing political authority to magnify power asymmetries, and the absence or weakness of efficiency-enhancing mechanisms of competition and learning. Nonetheless, institutional change does sometimes occur. To account for this, scholars have developed two broad models that present different views regarding the form and content of institutional innovation. The first, and by far the most common, draws a sharp analytical distinction between moments of change and mechanisms of reproduction. According to this perspective, new institutions emerge rarely, and often only in the context of crisis or great uncertainty. These ‘critical junctures’, which cannot be predicted from prior events or initial conditions, serve as major turning points, in which the – often contingent – decisions of actors establish certain directions of change (Capoccia and Kelemen 2007; Mahoney 2000). ‘Path dependence’ then precludes the emergence of other options over time through increasing returns, sunk costs, durable commitments, personal and social conservatism, and learning curves (North 1990; Pierson 2000a). Crucially, these dynamics may reinforce movement along a given trajectory, even when other choices appear better or more efficient (Aminzade 1992; Tilly 2001). This approach resembles a ‘punctuated equilibrium’ model in which long periods characterized by path dependence alternate with brief and dramatic turns of events (cf. Krasner 1984). While still widely applied, this perspective has come under increasing challenge in recent years from scholars working in all four traditions, who criticize this strict separation between institutional creation and institutional reproduction. Some rational choice theorists, for example, prefer a model of endogenous ‘institutional refinement’, whereby ‘institutions organically evolve (or are intentionally designed) through changing, introducing, or manipulating institutional elements while

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supplementing existing elements (or responding to their failure to generate desire behavior)’ (Greif and Laitin 2004: 640). Along similar lines, several historical institutionalists note that ‘when institutions have been in place for a long time most changes will be incremental’ (Pierson 2004: 153). Consequently, they theorize that institutions more typically survive through dynamics of institutional conversion, where existing institutions are directed to new purposes, and institutional layering, where some elements of existing institutions are renegotiated, but other elements remain (Streeck and Thelen 2005; Thelen 2003). These intuitions are echoed by some sociological institutionalists, who observe that ‘ideas about appropriate behavior ordinarily change gradually through the development of experience and the elaboration of worldviews’ (March and Olsen 1989: 171). They are also the focus of various discursive institutionalists, who call attention to how elements of one discourse are translated into another through ‘discursive alliances or bricolage’ (Campbell and Pedersen 2001: 12). Taken together, these views are closer to a ‘bounded innovation’ model, in which periods of institutional reproduction overlap with moments of institutional creation in partial, and often unanticipated ways (cf. Weir 1992; see also Thelen, 2003, 2004).

A common ground in feminist institutionalism? On the face of it, there is considerable potential for productive dialogue between NI and institutionally focused FPS. Although each body of literature is internally diverse, they share important theoretical orientations and research goals. For example, both employ broad conceptions of the political and its interconnection with the social. Each is concerned with analysing interactions between actors and institutions; uncovering the interplay between formal rules and informal practices, discourses, and norms; and probing the consequent effects of these dynamics. Another mutual interest, at least among FPS and variants of NI that integrate the cultural,4 is their ‘value-critical’ stance, sharing an understanding that seemingly neutral institutional processes are influenced by practices, discourses, and norms, and thus always operate within wider cultural contexts. Finally, both FPS and NI are centrally concerned with explaining patterns of institutional creation, continuity, and change, as well as the scope for agency within institutional constraints. These common concerns and commitments suggest that it may be possible to forge a shared approach, drawing on elements of both feminism and institutionalism to devise a means for better understanding

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the gendered dynamics of political life. Yet, what might a feminist institutionalism look like – and furthermore, what would it mean in practice? To explore the potential for a feminist institutionalism, contributors to this volume take up three sets of questions. First, how might NI approaches contribute to better understanding the puzzles addressed by FPS? What specific concepts or perspectives from institutionalism might be useful to feminist scholars? Second, how might work in FPS inform NI understandings of structure and agency in political life? What elements of feminism might be helpful for these researchers? Third, is there – or can there be – a feminist institutionalism? If so, what does it comprise and how might it be operationalized? What is the ‘added value’ of this approach for both mainstream and feminist political analysis? The next nine chapters tackle these questions in relation to empirical studies of candidate selection, political representation, welfare state policies, democratic transitions, multi-level governance, and international law. They are sequenced in the volume according to three lines of research: political recruitment/representation, state–family relations, and state structures and political innovation. Within these categories, individual studies are ordered thematically, as a means to build on and also facilitate comparisons with the preceding and subsequent analyses. As a group, the authors converge on the opinion that NI and FPS would mutually benefit from closer engagement, but draw upon and combine a range of different insights. Some adopt and operationalize frameworks from specific schools of NI, while others take a more eclectic approach by borrowing and adapting tools from different types of NI. Similarly, they employ distinct feminist definitions of ‘gender’, ‘politics’, and ‘power’. Read together, therefore, they provide insight into the FPS and NI concepts, theories, and methods that might be applied and combined to answer a wide range of theoretically, and substantively important questions in political science. The first three chapters address questions of political recruitment and political representation. In Chapter 2, Meryl Kenny explores gendered dynamics of institutional reform and innovation in the institutions of political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland. Highlighting their gendered and institutional dimensions, she extends the ‘supply and demand’ model – proposing that the number of women elected to political office depends on the supply of women willing to stand for office and the demands of party ‘gatekeepers’ who select candidates – via an illustrative case study of a Scottish Labour Party constituency seat selection contest. Given the high numbers of women elected since 1999, the

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Scottish Parliament is often considered to be a ‘success story’ in terms of women’s representation. However, evidence from the case study indicates that the reality is far more complex. Overall, the findings suggest that while some innovations have been made in the candidate selection process, the underlying trend is one of erosion, decline, and even reversal following the initial reforms. In particular, they illustrate the difficulties of institutionalizing a ‘new’ gender-balanced politics within a pre-existing institutional and cultural context. The case therefore highlights the complex and gendered dynamics of institutional design, continuity, and change, pointing to the difficulties of reforming recruitment in the face of powerful institutional and gendered legacies. Chapter 3 similarly takes up issues of candidate selection, but analyses these in a comparison of the origins and effects of electoral gender quotas in Sweden and France. Introduced in countries around the world, these policies aim to increase the proportion of female candidates, but have diverse effects on the numbers of women elected. Combining elements of feminism and discursive institutionalism, Lenita Freidenvall and Mona Lena Krook argue that quota campaigns should be seen as discursive struggles to define – and then maintain or reformulate – existing gendered institutions, which interact with a range of other institutions in processes of candidate selection. Individual campaigns succeed and fail in these tasks to varying degrees: quota policies may or may not be adopted, and when they are, may or may not have major effects on the numbers of women elected. To unravel these causal processes, Freidenvall and Krook examine and compare two cases where ostensibly similar policies produce quite different results: Sweden, where 50 per cent party quotas adopted by most political parties generated the election of 47 per cent women in 2006, and France, where a 50 per cent legislative quota imposed on all political parties led to the election of only 18 per cent women in 2007. The analysis reveals that discourses may enable gendered policy change, but also constrain its form, content, and impact, together with reigning rules, practices, and norms. Shifting attention to the next stage in the political process, policymaking, Chapter 4 examines the extent to which the tools of historical institutionalism might contribute to a better understanding of an enduring question in FPS: how the presence of women in politics may or may not alter policy outcomes in ways that benefit women as a group. Adequate answers, Susan Franceschet suggests, require, first, analysing the actions of legislators and the outcomes of those actions and, second, theorizing the ways in which formal rules and informal norms in legislative institutions may facilitate or obstruct the successful

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promotion of women’s rights. Focusing on the cases of Argentina and Chile, she shows how formal and informal legislative institutions in the two countries reinforce unequal power relations between men and women, leading to differences in how female legislators represent women’s interests with varying degrees of success. These gendered institutions explain why legislators in Argentina are more active on a range of women’s rights issues than in Chile, at the same time that Chilean legislators are more successful in getting women’s rights laws adopted, even though they introduce fewer initiatives. Elaborating further on public policy, the next three chapters tackle issues of state–family relations. Chapter 5 observes that, due to feminist interventions, the literature on welfare states has long recognized the gendered impact of ‘welfare regimes’, understood as the intersecting institutions in the structure of the welfare state. Feminist scholars have been particularly successful in widening the scope of ‘institutions’ that are considered as significant in these regimes, including the gendered dynamics of the family and caring relationships, and the way in which gender relations play out in other socio-economic spheres such as the labour market. Yet, as Michelle Beyeler and Claire Annesley note, there has been less attention paid to how the gendered institutional architecture of welfare states may be reformed in ways that promote greater gender equality. A more dynamic account, they argue, must be able to account for variations in the extent of reforms undertaken in previously strong ‘male-breadwinner’ states, as well as the effects of ostensible women-friendly initiatives that, in the end, reproduce existing gender inequalities. Extending what they view as the feminist institutionalist perspective already present in welfare state analysis, Beyeler and Annesley propose that a pluralist approach – combining rational choice, sociological, and historical institutionalism – can be merged with feminist concepts to develop useful tools for the analysis of gendered welfare reforms, which they illustrate through a comparison of Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Sharing an interest in how institutions shape prospects for changes in gendered public policies, Chapter 6 explores the importance of federalism – also known as ‘multi-level governance’ – in either facilitating or blocking women’s policy demands. In the case of Canada, Joan Grace suggests that attention to the division of powers between the provinces and territories, on the one hand, and the federal government, on the other, is vital for understanding women’s socio-economic realities. More specifically, policy areas important to women – like child care, social assistance, job training, and education – are provincial responsibilities,

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at the same time that the federal government retains the major share of financial resources needed to effectively fund these programme. This division of powers has required a politics of accommodation across the two levels of government that, depending on the period, has been either collaborative or quite fractious. Melding tenets of historical institutionalism with feminist transformative politics, Grace develops a feminist institutionalist approach to theorize how this politics of accommodation – and the resulting permeability of federal governance structures – provides both opportunities and challenges to women’s policy agendas. Her two case studies, debates over child care and social policy, which took place during the Social Security Review in 1994 and the Social Union Framework Agreement in 1999, highlight the significance of attending to institutions in terms of feminist policy analysis, as well as in terms of a critical, gendered understanding of the policy context in institutionalist research. Chapter 7 also addresses state policies related to the family, but goes further than the previous two chapters in tracing the historical legacies shaping the current form taken by family policies in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Observing that the two countries have the most similar policies among post-communist states, Hana Hašková and Steven Saxonberg draw on the concept of ‘critical junctures’ or ‘formative moments’ from historical institutionalism to identify four key points – reaching back to when these countries were part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire and then Czechoslovakia – when government officials made decisions which continue to shape and influence present-day family policy. The authors also incorporate a feminist perspective, however, which emphasizes how ideas about gender inform state policies, at the same time that state policies may alter or reinforce gendered power relations. In the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hašková and Saxonberg note, early family policies aimed to confine women to the home and establish men’s primary roles as breadwinners. A shift in this approach appeared to take place during the communist period, when nearly all women had to work outside the home, but the lack of changes in the private sphere – combined with a series of decisions by the government regarding maternity leave, child care, and schooling – had the effect of encouraging traditional gender roles. Further developing these themes, the last three chapters explore the potential for institutional arrangements, including new institutions, to empower women as a group, focusing on opportunities that have been seized, as well as missed, at moments of political innova-

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tion. In Chapter 8, Georgina Waylen draws on an eight-country study of transitions to democracy to explain why outcomes for women have been more positive in some countries than in others with the advent of new political arrangements. Tracing developments in each country over a period of 20 to 30 years, she focuses on changes, and lack of change, from the previous non-democratic regime, through the democratic transition, and through at least one decade of post-transition. Countries varied in characteristics at all three points in time, permitting comparisons of the legacies of decisions made during each particular period. On the basis of her analysis, Waylen argues that feminist research has cast important light on how transitions to democracy are gendered. However, she also suggests that recent theoretical developments in historical institutionalism – in particular, such concepts as institutional layering and conversion – can help feminist scholars better understand the complexities of gendered institutional change, including bigger questions about how to promote positive outcomes for women. She thus calls for greater attention to interactions between structure and agency, highlighting the potentially distinctive contribution and advantages of a feminist historical institutionalism. Chapter 9 adopts a similar comparative approach, developing and testing six hypotheses concerning the presence of a ‘federalism advantage’ for advancing feminist projects in seven federal states. The intuition is that, in federations, institutions dividing powers across levels of government provide multiple access points to citizens, and thus might be favourable towards feminists seeking avenues of change. Although the unique designs of many democratic federations make comparative analysis difficult, Jill Vickers suggests that gaining a better gendered understanding of federalism requires assessing the validity of two competing views: one which sees federalism as an obstacle to women’s participation, and the other which claims that the multiple points of access to decision- makers in federations constitute an advantage that women can exploit to develop multi-level strategies. Engaging in a twoway comparison of federal versus unitary states and then across different types of federations, Vickers draws on an eclectic mix of feminist interpretations of institutionalist approaches – historical, post-structuralist, sociological, and rational choice – to outline the six hypotheses, related to the role of multiple points of access, high levels of federalization, competition among levels of government, division of powers, and asymmetrical versus symmetrical federal arrangements. She concludes that a federalism advantage is most easily realized in centralized, symmetrical federations, but that there are also opportunities in asymmet-

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rical federations under conditions of competition or conflict between levels of government. Expanding the reach of multi-level governance, Chapter 10 investigates the impact of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the pursuit of gender justice at the global level. The Rome Statute, providing the legal foundation of the ICC, is groundbreaking in its codification of international criminal law and the recognition of the crimes committed against women in times of war and conflict. It not only criminalizes acts of rape, sexual slavery, and enforced pregnancy in the most advanced articulation ever of gender-based violence under international law, but it also embeds a gender equality mandate into the structures and processes of the ICC to ensure that women, and their rights are considered by the judicial, prosecutorial, and administrative arms of the Court. In many respects, therefore, it appears that the ICC is a ‘new’ institution offering a clean slate for rewriting women’s experience of gender justice. Yet, as Louise Chappell observes, the Court has produced a number of contradictory outcomes in its first five years. Combining feminist attention to gender with insights from historical institutionalism on institutional origins and development, she elaborates Fiona Mackay’s concept of ‘nested newness’ to capture the way in which a new institution relates to others, whose legacies and continuities with the past profoundly effect their operation, and can be shaped, modified, and constrained – and conceivably enhanced – through the new institution’s interaction with these other institutions. Despite its newness, the ICC carries gender legacies from the past which may influence its capacity to operate as a reform venue to promote the aims of gender justice. Together with the other contributions in the volume, the chapter reveals the analytical leverage afforded by a combination of feminism and institutionalism, with potentially crucial implications for strategies to improve women’s status around the globe. Seeking to pull these various contributions together, in Chapter 11 Fiona Mackay draws on the preceding empirical chapters to provide a provisional set of answers to the questions around which the book is structured. Mackay argues that the collection provides important conceptual and empirical blueprints for a feminist institutionalism – or institutionalisms – in the making. Such an approach, she concludes, has considerable potential for enhancing understanding and analyses of institutional dynamics, gender power, and the patterning of gendered inequalities in political and public life. To this end, she sets out an agenda for future theory building and empirical research.

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Notes 1. This network was launched in 2006 as the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN). Details on members and activities can be found at the network website at www.femfiin.com. 2. This chapter is the product of conversations, shared ideas, and common insights, as well as joint writing projects, with our colleagues in FIIN. In particular, we draw upon work with Lenita Freidenvall (Freidenvall and Krook 2007), Meryl Kenny (Kenny and Mackay 2009), and Petra Meier (Mackay and Meier 2003). 3. Until recently, most scholars recognized three broad schools of new institutionalist thinking: rational choice, historical, and sociological (Hall and Taylor 1996; Immergut 1998). However, others have distinguished as many as seven different types of NI, adding normative, empirical, interest representation, and international institutionalism (Peters 1999). 4. There is considerable debate about whether rational choice institutionalism is compatible with value-critical approaches within NI and FPS (Driscoll and Krook 2009).

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2 Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment: Candidate Selection in Post-Devolution Scotland Meryl Kenny

This chapter adopts a feminist institutionalist approach in order to explore the gendered dynamics of the institutions of political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland. The term ‘feminist institutionalism’ (FI) is understood here as an approach that synthesizes elements of the new institutionalism (NI) – specifically historical institutionalism (HI) – and feminist political science (FPS). The chapter sees this is a relationship of mutual benefit. On the one hand, NI can offer a number of useful tools to FPS, particularly with regards to key issues of institutional innovation, continuity, and change. On the other hand, a gendered approach can enrich NI theory, drawing attention to the complex ways in which gender power relations play out in political institutions. The chapter assesses the promise of an FI approach in the context of the comparative literature on gender and political recruitment. Current research in the women and politics field has focused increasingly on political recruitment, pointing to the candidate selection process as a critical area in need of further investigation and research (see for example Krook 2009; Shepherd-Robinson and Lovenduski 2002). The chapter begins with a brief theoretical critique of the dominant framework used in the literature – the supply and demand model (Norris and Lovenduski 1995). It contends that the combined insights of feminist and new institutional theory offer a promising way to take the supply and demand model forward, building on, and developing gendered and institutional trends already present implicitly in the literature. 21

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The chapter evaluates these theoretical issues through an illustrative case study, candidate selection in post-devolution Scotland, and presents findings from a micro-level case study of a Scottish Labour Party constituency seat selection contest. While on the face of it the Scottish Parliament is often considered to be a ‘success story’ in terms of levels of women’s representation and the promotion of a more gender-balanced politics, evidence from the case study suggests that the reality is far more complex. Findings from the case study highlight ongoing tensions and contradictions in the political recruitment process in Scottish Labour post-devolution, while also drawing attention to an increasing gap between the formal rules of candidate selection and the implementation, enactment, and enforcement of these rules on the ground. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the Scottish case for the FI theoretical project more generally.

Gender and political recruitment: Evaluating the supply and demand model Norris and Lovenduski’s (1995) supply and demand model is the dominant framework used in studies of political recruitment (see also Norris and Lovenduski 1993; Randall 1987). Supply-side factors such as resources – time, money, experience – and motivational factors – ambition, interest, confidence – influence who decides to run for office. On the demand side, selectors evaluate applicants in accordance with a wide range of factors, including both formal and informal criteria. The effect of gender on political recruitment can be seen as both a supply-side and demand-side effect. Due to wider systemic factors such as the public– private divide, the sexual segregation of the work force, and patterns of gender socialization, women are likely to have less time, money, ambition, and confidence than their male counterparts. Alternatively, the effect of gender on the selection process can be a product of demand, either through direct or indirect discrimination (Norris and Lovenduski 1995: 106–108). While the supply and demand model offers a compelling framework for the study of political recruitment, it has two key shortcomings. First, it underestimates the extent to which gender norms shape the dynamics of supply and demand. The supply and demand model represents a significant improvement of previous work on political recruitment, in that it highlights the role that gender norms play in the selection process. However, Norris and Lovenduski view gender as only one of many factors influencing the dynamics of supply and demand. On the one

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hand, they find some evidence of both direct and imputed discrimination in the selection process. Yet they ultimately conclude that there is little evidence of pervasive discrimination against women candidate applicants. These findings sit at odds with both previous and later work on political recruitment, including their own, which highlights the structural barriers constraining potential female candidates and the discriminatory effect of masculinist norms which pervade the candidate selection process (Chapman 1993; Lovenduski and Norris 1989; Shepherd-Robinson and Lovenduski 2002; Lovenduski 2005b). For example, in their earlier work, Lovenduski and Norris are generally sceptical of supply-side explanations for women’s political under-representation, stressing the extent to which gender norms shape the selection process, favouring the stereotype of a middle-class, white, male, professional candidate: Arguably, both the way in which the role of candidate is defined and the candidate qualities sought tend to penalize many women. The system has been designed to select a standard model candidate who is articulate, well-educated, and typically employed in a professional career. (Lovenduski and Norris 1989: 559) Ongoing empirical work on political recruitment also highlights the limiting power of demand, despite increases in the supply of female candidates. Shepherd-Robinson and Lovenduski’s (2002) Fawcett Society report following the 2001 General Election found that British political parties were institutionally sexist, meaning that gender bias was entrenched and well established in the parties in terms of ‘personnel, outcome, and practices’ (Lovenduski 2005b: 53). The report found that the key factor explaining low levels of women’s political representation was a lack of demand on the part of candidate selectors and that incidences of both direct and indirect discrimination were widespread in all of the parties. Other studies highlight the extent to which seemingly neutral recruitment and selection practices are, in fact, gendered (see for example Chapman 1993). Second, while the supply and demand model attempts to theorize the interconnections between the institutions of political recruitment, representing a significant improvement from previous approaches to studying candidate selection, disaggregating factors in this way oversimplifies the dynamics of the selection process. In its later uses, the supply and demand model is presented as a straightforward interaction model, assuming a linear and logical relationship between the institutions of

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political recruitment (see in particular Norris 1997). However, studies of political recruitment reveal multiple directions of causality (Krook 2009). For example, the demands of gatekeepers predominantly shape the supply of available candidates, as candidates often self-select themselves out of the recruitment process on the basis of their perception of selection criteria: a demand-side factor (see for example Fox and Lawless 2004). Moreover, while the supply and demand model acknowledges that there are institutional interconnections, it fails to explicitly theorize the effect of institutional configurations, in other words, how the interaction of particular institutions may help or block the selection of women political candidates (Krook 2009). The supply and demand model assumes that the institutions of political recruitment work together relatively straightforwardly in cases of institutional reform (see Norris 1997). Changes in the political system – for example, changes to the electoral system – impact the selection process within political parties. The resulting changes in the recruitment process, then, impact the dynamics of candidate supply and selector demand.

Beyond supply and demand: Towards a feminist institutionalist model? The chapter contends that an FI approach offers a way forward for research on gender and political recruitment. First, an FI approach would establish gender as a central dimension of the institutions of political recruitment. Feminist theoretical and empirical work on gender and institutions suggests that gender relations are cross-cutting, that they play out in different ways in different types of institutions and on different institutional levels, ranging from the symbolic level to the ‘seemingly trivial’ level of interpersonal, day-to-day interaction, where the continuous performance of gender takes place (Kenney 1996: 458; see also Acker 1990, 1992; Connell 1987, 2002; Lovenduski 1998). Gender, then, cannot be conceptualized as simply a ‘factor’ that affects the dynamics of supply and demand, manifested at the individual level through, for example, direct or imputed discrimination by party gatekeepers. Rather, gender needs to be integrated throughout; these gendered interactions take place within a framework of formal and informal party rules and practices which are shaped and structured by masculinist gender norms (see for example Chapman 1993; Lovenduski and Norris 1989), as well as a wider context of systematic and structural barriers which have a differential effect on men and women as institutional actors.

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Second, an FI approach offers the tools to systematically theorize the complex, dynamic, and often contradictory ways in which the institutions of political recruitment interact with each other at different stages of the process. Insights from HI offer a more nuanced approach to theorizing institutional interconnections that moves beyond conceptions of supply and demand as a straightforward interaction model, highlighting the ways in which institutions are profoundly shaped by legacies of the past, as well as ongoing interactions with other institutions. In particular, HI – unlike the rational choice and sociological schools of NI – points to the need to take issues of timing, sequence, and context seriously, highlighting the ways in which particular configurations of institutions shift over time, promising and/or limiting possibilities for innovation and change (Hall and Soskice 2001; Pierson and Skocpol 2002; Waylen 2007, 2009; Weir 1992). In addition, recent work in the field offers new and more dynamic conceptions of institutional stability and change, such as institutional layering, which are especially useful for feminist work on gender and institutions (see in particular Schickler 2001; Thelen 2003, 2004). The intent, however, is not just to selectively borrow certain NI conceptual tools or to apply NI frameworks uncritically. The focus, then, is not only on what NI can contribute to FPS, but also how a feminist approach can enrich and transform NI theory (see Kenny 2007; Kenny and Mackay 2009; Mackay and Meier 2003). FPS and wider feminist social science provide rich and complex insights into gender and power, two concepts that are underdeveloped – if not virtually absent – in mainstream NI theory (Kenny 2007; Kenny and Mackay 2009). The relationship between NI and FPS, then, is one of mutual benefit. While NI can offer a number of mid-level conceptual tools to FPS, a feminist approach establishes gender as a crucial dimension of political institutions, while also yielding key insights into the dynamics of power and change.

Setting the context: Gender and political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland The following section evaluates the potential of an FI approach in the context of an illustrative case study – candidate selection in postdevolution Scotland. The new Scottish Parliament brought with it new expectations, opportunities, and problems with regards to the candidate selection process. For all of the Scottish political parties, a clean slate of candidacies with no incumbents, as well as a new, more proportional electoral system, opened up possibilities for innovation and change in

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established selection procedures. Women activists working inside and outside the parties were able to frame their demands within the context of these wider reform trajectories, successfully introducing a gendered perspective to the prospect of a ‘new’ Scottish politics, a more inclusive politics that was distinct from that of Westminster.1 Responding to these pressures, three of the four main political parties – Scottish Labour, the Scottish National Party (SNP), and the Scottish Liberal Democrats – accepted the principle of gender balance and all of the parties improved their recruitment and selection procedures, for example, incorporating equal-opportunities considerations into the process (Mackay 2003). In the run-up to the 1999 elections, Scottish Labour implemented strong equality guarantees, instituting a practice called ‘twinning’ in constituency seats, while its main opponent, the SNP, used proactive unofficial measures encouraging women to stand for office, for example, by holding a women’s training day for prospective parliamentary candidates, and also placing women at the upper end of their regional Party lists (Brown 2001b). The first elections for the Scottish Parliament were held on 6 May 1999, and a record number of female Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) were elected, 48 out of 129 MSPs, or 37.2 per cent. In the subsequent 2003 elections, contrary to many expectations, a record and higher number of female MSPs were returned to the second parliament, 52 out of 129 MSPs, or 39.5 per cent (Mackay 2003). The results of the 1999 and 2003 elections established the Scottish Parliament as a world leader in terms of women’s representation and suggest that women’s political presence has become institutionalized to some degree. However, overall, indications are that progress remains fragile and contingent, and that previous gains have been the result of ‘accident rather than design’ (Mackay and Kenny 2007: 89; see also Mackay 2003, 2006). While the presence of women in the Scottish Parliament has, to some extent, become a ‘routinized’ or common-sense feature of post-devolution Scottish politics, the results of the recent May 2007 elections demonstrate that equality guarantees and positive-action mechanisms are far from embedded, and raise questions as to the future sustainability of women’s representation in Scottish politics. The 2007 elections resulted in the first drop in the number of female MSPs since the creation of the parliament. Women took 43 out of the 129 seats (33.3 per cent), an overall drop of eight women MSPs from the previous election. Analysis of the 2007 elections indicates clear gendered patterns of selection and recruitment. The general trend among the parties was one of either stasis or decline in the number

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of women elected (Mackay and Kenny 2007). None of the parties used strong equality guarantees, although some did implement softer measures, for example, Labour’s use of gender-balanced shortlists in constituency selections. While both Scottish Labour and the Green Party implemented quota-type mechanisms on the regional lists, in all of the parties male candidates dominated the top winnable places. Women were also generally less likely to be selected to fight safe and winnable constituency seats. Above all, the 2007 results demonstrate the continuing effects of Scottish Labour’s use of equality guarantees in 1999. Labour has consistently maintained a strong gender balance, ranging from 50 per cent women in 1999, to 56 per cent women in 2003, and finally back to 50 per cent women in 2007. Over half of the female MSPs returned to the Scottish Parliament in 2007 belong to Scottish Labour, the majority of whom were first selected in constituency seats in 1999 under the since-abandoned twinning scheme. Yet while most of Labour’s incumbent female MSPs have continued to successfully defend their seats election upon election, patterns of turnover within the Party suggest that there has been a ‘re-masculinization’ of Labour candidacies (Mackay and Kenny 2007). For example, of the seven Scottish Labour MSPs elected for the first time in 2007, only one was a woman. If those Scottish Labour MSPs returning to the Parliament after a term away are included, only two out of nine new Labour MSPs were female. The following section explores these gendered puzzles and patterns in more detail, providing an in-depth analysis of the candidate selection process within the Scottish Labour Party at the micro-level. It tells the ‘story’ of a selection, reconstructing the sequence of events in a Scottish Labour constituency seat selection contest in the run-up to the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.

The story of a selection: Tracing the process The micro-level case study – in this case, the constituency seat of City North and Greenside2 – was selected for a number of reasons. Historically, City North and Greenside is a very safe Labour seat and, until the 2007 elections, had been held by Scottish Labour since 1999 by a consistent margin of over 6,000 votes. The seat was one of only four open Labour seats in the 2007 elections and, as a result, a large and relatively strong field of potential candidates declared interest in standing for selection. Finally, it was a seat in which a sitting Labour woman MSP – first selected under the twinning scheme in 1999 – was standing

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down. The focus of the case study is on reconstructing a very specific set of events within a particular temporal context and spatial location, and is not intended to be representative of every candidate selection process within the Scottish Labour Party. Rather, the aim is to draw out the implications of the case study for the wider FI theoretical project. The City North and Greenside constituency selection contest was triggered when the sitting female incumbent MSP decided to stand down before the 2007 elections, first personally notifying the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) Chair and then making a formal announcement at a CLP meeting. The announcement came very late in the election season – several months after the retiring MSP had already been re-selected – and as a result, the CLP had a limited period of time in which to select a candidate. In accordance with Labour Party procedure, the central Scottish Party – based at John Smith House in Glasgow – set a formal timetable for the process lasting 11 weeks, a standard time frame for constituency selections. Due to the fact that a female MSP was retiring, there was some discussion within the central Scottish Party as to whether steps should be taken to ensure that a woman candidate was selected through, for example, an all-women shortlist (AWS). The possibility of instituting an AWS in City North and Greenside was ultimately discounted, a decision that was framed, in part, as an issue of timing. As one of the CLP officers put it: ‘we couldn’t afford to end up in a long, drawn-out, contentious process when we had a small number of weeks to put a candidate in place.’3 Stage one: Declaration of interest and application process Once the timetable was established, aspiring candidates were given a two- to three-week period in which to declare their interest in standing for selection. Formally, there is little evidence of the central Scottish Party or the CLP taking active measures to recruit particular candidates within the constituency. In contrast to the highly centralized procedures used in 1999, the Scottish Party did not make an active effort to recruit women candidates for the seat in question, or to encourage them to run, although there is some evidence of active steps being taken to encourage certain ethnic-minority candidates to stand. For example, one of the ethnic-minority candidates reported being directly approached and encouraged to stand by the then-First Minister, Jack McConnell. All in all, 12 Scottish Labour members formally declared an interest in standing for selection, four of whom were women, and two of whom were ethnic minorities (both men). The aspiring candidates were from

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a range of different backgrounds: the majority with local government experience, while others were activists, community leaders, or active in the local Party organization. Most were local Party members, although several prominent applicants were from outside the constituency. Stage two: Branch and union nominations Once the application stage closed, the CLP held an informal ‘meet and greet’ event for the candidates open to all Party members, combining both a brief five-minute presentation for each candidate and an informal meeting in which candidates could circulate with members. Two weeks later, the Party branches, trade unions, and relevant affiliates met to formally decide on candidate nominations.4 In the case of City North and Greenside there were five Party branches involved in nominations as well as five trade union branches. Per Labour Party rules, local branches are required to put forward one man and one woman in their nominations. Of the 12 original candidate applicants, five received branch nominations, two of which were women. All but one of the five branch-nominated candidates also received trade union nominations. The trade unions also nominated two additional applicants, one of whom was an ethnic-minority candidate applicant. The ethnic-minority candidate applicant, a former member of the Scottish Executive Committee (SEC), was also endorsed by the local Party executive. As per Labour Party rules, the local Party executive had to endorse one ethnic-minority candidate to go forward for shortlisting. Stage three: Shortlisting Candidate applicants with branch and/or union nominations then went forward to a meeting of the CLP’s executive. At this stage of the selection process, the Executive Committee (EC) made several key decisions. First, it decided how many candidates it was going to shortlist, and second, it made recommendations as to whether the Party should implement any equality measures to ensure that either female or ethnic-minority candidates were included on the final shortlist. Labour Party rules require that the candidate shortlist be ‘genderbalanced’, meaning that there must be an equal number of male and female candidates on the list. The EC can also make the decision as to whether to explicitly reserve a shortlist place for an ethnic-minority candidate. In the case of City North and Greenside, the EC’s recommendation was to implement a gender-balanced shortlist of four. This recommendation

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was put to the full General Committee (GC) of the CLP, which includes approximately 40 members, about 30 of whom were branch delegates, and the remainder of whom are delegates from trade unions or other organizational affiliates. The GC endorsed the EC’s recommendation with regards to how the shortlist should be made up, and finally, voted on which of the nominated candidates it wanted to include in that shortlist. As the final shortlist of four candidates had to be genderbalanced, this left five male nominated candidate applicants competing for two spots on the final shortlist. As a result, there were mixed feelings within the CLP as to whether the male ethnic-minority candidate should be automatically shortlisted as well. As one of the other male candidates put it: Given that it had to be gender-balanced, the final shortlist kind of scuppered the rest of us, for Pete’s sake. If one of the ethnic candidates had got through, there would only be one male left in the last four.5 Ultimately, the GC decided not to automatically shortlist the ethnicminority candidate and the meeting then went to a vote, using Single Transferable Vote (STV). From the shortlist, two of the candidates stood out as front-runners, having received a majority of the branch nominations. The ‘front-running’ female candidate, a high-profile woman from outside the CLP with substantial political experience, had received the most branch nominations, while the ‘front-running’ male candidate, an active Party official, was seen to be popular within the local Party. The remaining candidates had both received one branch nomination each. The ‘second-ranked’ male candidate was a former councillor from the town of Greenside, while the ‘secondranked’ female candidate was a trade union office-holder and women’s activist from a neighbouring CLP. Stage four: Canvassing and campaigning Following the shortlisting, candidates were allowed to begin formal campaigning. Candidates were allowed to distribute a canvassing leaflet, which could be mailed to all local Party members eligible to participate in the ballot, and could also be accompanied by a single-page letter asking for support. Candidates could also approach members personally or by telephone. While Party rules specifically prohibit formal campaigning until after shortlisting, in reality, campaigning was already well underway from the very beginning of the selection contest,

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with many of the candidates already canvassing for votes informally throughout the CLP. As one candidate stated: The rules were acknowledged and ignored. As long as you don’t do anything really blatant. You just had to be careful how you went about it. [One of the candidates] just went walking about ... and just happened to pass the doors of Party members and chat to say hello. I did most of mine by telephone.6 While there was a general understanding amongst the candidates that there would be canvassing outside of the formal rules, several additional rule violations occurred throughout the selection process. A few days before the Greenside branch nomination meeting, a local MP distributed a constituency report in which they explicitly endorsed the ‘second-ranked’ male candidate, the former councillor from Greenside. Additionally, the head of the Greenside branch distributed a letter to all members of the Greenside BLP, on official headed paper, endorsing the same candidate immediately prior to the final selection meeting. Both interventions were in violation of the Party’s formal rules and were reported to both central and local Party officials. While no action was taken by the central Scottish Party on the violation by the local MP, the central Party did issue a formal statement regarding the Greenside branch letter at the final selection meeting, instructing Party members that they should not be ‘under the impression that they are mandated how to vote tonight and ... should discard the contents of the letter’.7 Stage five: Final hustings The final selection meeting was open to the full local Party membership, which stands at approximately 230 members eligible to vote. Party members at the meeting voted according to STV, ranking candidates in order of preference. In the first round of voting, the ‘front-running’ male and female candidates came in second and third, respectively, while the other male candidate received the majority of the first-round votes, a third of which were postal votes. The other female candidate received the lowest number of votes, and her votes were distributed according to second preferences to the other candidates. In the second round, the ‘front-running’ female candidate was also eliminated. Ultimately, the final vote was won by the male local councillor from Greenside, who won more than half of the votes, while the ‘front-running’ male candidate came in second. The two female candidates came in at third and fourth place.

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Many of the candidates and Party members were surprised by the results on the night. The City media had largely presented the contest as a ‘two-horse race’ between the front-running male and female candidates, depicting the contest as a choice between a high-profile versus a local candidate: ‘it will boil down to [the female candidate’s] high profile and her ability to appeal across a wide spectrum of voters against [the male candidate’s] knowledge and understanding of the politics of the area’.8 Others present throughout the selection process saw a slightly different picture, highlighting the divisions between the two sides of the constituency, and the Greenside ‘dynamic’ running through the selection contest. While the town of Greenside is a small part of the Scottish Parliament electorate, it has the biggest Labour Party membership in the City North and Greenside constituency seat, and historically, has tended to dominate the selection process. Greenside was seen within the constituency as a very traditional Labour Party, in which loyalty and local politics played a large role: ‘[Greenside’s] quite a traditional Labour Party in that key players pretty much say this is how we’re going to vote, we’re going to support our local man and everybody just gets on board and does it’.9 Stage six: Election While the male Greenside candidate was successfully selected, he ultimately lost the seat for Scottish Labour in the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections. To some, this was seen as an extension of a surprising selection in a divided constituency, in which Party activists from the City North wing of the CLP were reluctant to support a candidate that the majority of them had not voted for. Activist turnout was extremely low in the elections, and Party members expressed difficulty in ‘getting the candidate known’ on the City North side of the constituency.10 The election results were also influenced by wider issues within the Scottish Labour Party, reflected in an increasing decline in Labour Party membership, an overall loss of Labour seats, and a rise in support for the SNP. In particular, the election results highlight the tension between selectability and electability in the Scottish Labour candidate selection process. Several of the candidate applicants highlighted the tension between the repeated emphasis on selecting a ‘local’ candidate, versus the need to appeal to, and also represent a wider electorate: Local does matter. But you’re also selecting somebody who’s going to be part of a national parliament. You’re not only there as a local

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representative. You will be making legislation and policy for the whole of Scotland. And every group within that. So I think that ... people are very bad at looking at the bigger picture.11 These issues were exacerbated by a sense of complacency on the part of the CLP and the central Scottish Party as to City North and Greenside’s status as a ‘safe’ seat. As the CLP was going through the selection process, the SNP was already mobilized and campaigning within the constituency, having selected a high-profile, well-funded candidate at a much earlier stage. Due to the late timing of the City North and Greenside selection contest, Scottish Labour was already well behind the SNP’s campaign. In addition, Labour Party activists within the CLP were poorly organized. Some attributed the lack of organization to the ‘old-fashioned’ and traditional nature of the City North and Greenside CLP: What struck me about the constituency was that it was a very oldfashioned constituency in terms of its politics ... . New Labour was really not around. It was a creaking constituency in the sense that the level of campaigning was frankly abysmal.12 The lack of organization and activist turnout within the CLP can be linked, in part, to a wider trend of declining Labour Party membership in Scotland. While declining membership is a problem for British and Scottish political parties more generally, Scottish Labour, in particular, has experienced a significant drop in Party membership in recent years. In the case of City North and Greenside, this overall drop in membership is reflected in a return to the core ‘old guard’ of the CLP Party membership: You have a situation now where ... you’re back to your core old folk that are eighty plus ... . I mean guys that were old when I joined – when I joined the Party in [Greenside], I was just twenty-three, turning twenty-four – and these folk are still around and make up the bulk of the membership.13 Finally, the election results in City North and Greenside reflect a wider electoral swing in favour of the SNP, who won 20 seats more than it had in 2003, ending over 50 years of Labour dominance of Scottish politics. Following the election, media coverage of the City North and Greenside electoral result was generally subsumed within the wider media coverage

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of Labour losses and SNP victories. There appears to be no specific coverage of Labour’s electoral loss in City North and Greenside, and any general coverage of electoral results mentioned the seat only in passing, providing few additional details.

Assessing the case study: A feminist institutionalist approach At first glance, findings from the case study reinforce trends within the mainstream literature on post-devolution Scotland, which argues that the Scottish Labour Party can be characterized by an increasing degree of territorial autonomy in the area of candidate selection (Hopkin and Bradbury 2006; Laffin and Shaw 2007; Laffin et al. 2007). However, the case study highlights an overall trend of decentralization in the candidate selection process that goes substantially beyond the ‘revised structure of power’ highlighted by devolution scholars (Hopkin and Bradbury 2006: 149). Running parallel to this is an apparent trend of informalization, in which there seems to be an overall drift from, as well as lack of enforcement of, the formal rules, regulations, and procedures of the selection process. It is clear, then, that there is more ‘going on’ in the institutions of political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland than the mainstream literature seems to suggest. The following section explores these issues in more depth and draws upon the insights of both NI and feminist theory to provide a more thorough interpretation and analysis of the microlevel case study. From centralization to decentralization Findings from the case study suggest that tensions between central intervention and local control are ongoing, despite declarations to the contrary within the mainstream literature (see for example Mitchell and Bradbury 2004). As has been well documented elsewhere, the original candidate selection procedures put into place by Scottish Labour in 1999 were highly centralized (see for example Bradbury et al. 2000a, 2000b; Shaw 2001). The official objectives of the centralization of the candidate selection process were to ‘raise candidate calibre’, while also formally enforcing strong equality guarantees to increase the number of women MSPs (Laffin and Shaw 2007). Pressures for increased central control created tensions in the Labour Party, where decentralized constituency selection had long been the standard practice (Denver 1988; see also Mitchell and Bradbury 2004).

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While different factions of the Party were generally supportive of the move to reform candidate selection procedures, there were concerns that these changes in fact masked ‘more pragmatic power-related concerns’, selecting candidates who would ‘support the leadership and toe the party line’ (Bradbury et al. 2000b: 152). Much of the academic literature on political recruitment in post-devolution Scotland continues to focus on the controversies of the 1999 selection process, alternately describing the process as ‘control-freakery’, or as an ‘ideological cull’ seeking to consolidate New Labour support within the Scottish Party14 (Hopkin and Bradbury 2006; Laffin and Shaw 2007; Laffin et al. 2007). However, the mainstream literature’s continued focus on the alleged ‘control-freakery’ of the 1999 candidate selection process misses out on important ‘processes unfolding on the periphery’ (Thelen 2004: 295; see also Clemens 1993; Orren and Skowronek 1994; Weir 1992). Institutions do not just generate positive feedback, but also ‘generate grievances’ (Schneiberg and Clemens 2006: 218). In moments of institutional change, the ‘losers’ do not necessarily disappear: When institutions are founded they are not universally embraced or straightforwardly ‘adapted to’, but rather continue to be the object of ongoing conflict, as actors struggle over the form that these institutions should take and the functions they should perform. (Thelen 2004: 32) In the case of post-devolution Scotland, those who ‘lost out’ in the highly centralized process in 1999 frequently appealed to principles of decentralization, attacking the ‘centralization of control’ in the process, which resulted in a ‘restriction rather than a broadening of democracy’ (Bradbury 2000b: 158; see also Jones 2001). However, evidence from the City North and Greenside case highlights a distinct shift in internal Party debates surrounding centralization and decentralization. CLP members and candidate applicants frequently reframed the issue of central Party intervention in terms of locals versus outsiders: ‘the last thing we would want is somebody from the outside’.15 The ongoing decentralization of the candidate selection process, then, can be seen not only as a gradual trend of inter-Party devolution, but rather as an active process of institutional resistance to central Party control. Evidence from the case study also suggests that this process of decentralization has a distinctly gendered dimension. Feminist research, in particular, has exposed the extent of gendered resistance in established institutions, providing ‘clear evidence of powerful, pervasive, and

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specific resistance to positive policies for women’ (Halford 1992: 160; emphasis in original). Throughout the City North and Greenside selection process, Party members consistently reframed the issue of gender equality in terms of local versus central control. For example, as several CLP members explained, the issue was not about ‘women’ candidates specifically, rather, the problem was the central imposition of ‘outsider’ candidates. As one CLP officer stated: If we take the subject of an all-women shortlist, there’s an almost hostility to it, on most occasions when the topic comes up ... . It’s less about opposition to the idea in principle. It’s much more about creating a situation in which we end up with candidates and members from outside.16 This repeated linkage of gender equality with ‘imposed intervention’ by the central Party then positions women candidates as outsiders to the process, and correspondingly, positions men as ‘local’, or insiders to the process. One of the shortlisted female candidates, who was a member of a neighbouring CLP, described her experience as an ‘outsider’ at a candidate event in City North and Greenside: One of my kind of pitches was that what I brought to the constituency was people, really, from different movements all over Scotland who would come and help ... And you could feel a wee ripple going through a section of the room. And it was – I hadn’t meant it that way at all – but afterwards a couple of people said to me they could just feel the people next to them getting all prickly about this outsider apparently suggesting that what we needed was a lot of women and gay people coming in, when they could run things themselves, thank you.17 The underlying ‘local versus outsider’ discourse disadvantaged male candidates as well as female candidates, positioning certain types of political masculinities in opposition to the ideal type of the loyal, local male candidate. Almost all of the candidates were relatively ‘local’, living within the wider City area, if not within the specific City North boundaries. ‘Localness’, then, became a matter of degrees: ‘local only means some things when it suits people’.18 One of the unsuccessful male candidates reflected on the process: ‘I was an outsider because I lived more than 500 yards from the edge of the constituency. It’s the local champion thing. It counts for a lot.’19 Both male and female

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‘outsider’ candidates perceived this tension in clearly gendered terms, as a ‘favourite-son selection’.20 As one of the female shortlisted candidates reflected: I think there was all this loyalty thing, this male loyalty ... You see, this is the trouble with men. Men are always in favour of a woman being selected, so long as it’s not them that’s got to stand aside for a woman, or to say well, we want to support a woman.21 From formalization to informalization Evidence from the case study also draws attention to an overall trend of informalization in the candidate selection process, highlighting the extent to which the selection process increasingly operates in accordance with informal rules, norms, and understandings of ‘how things are done’, for example, with regards to candidate canvassing and campaigning. This trend of informalization in candidate selection and recruitment appears to be compounded by the overall lack of intervention into the process by the central Scottish Party and the inconsistent and uneven enforcement of formal rules by both central and local Party officials. Institutions require ‘active maintenance’, they need to be continually ‘reset and refocused, or sometimes more fundamentally recalibrated and renegotiated’ (Streeck and Thelen 2005: 24). This is particularly true of ‘new’ or ‘young’ institutions which: ... require elaboration of their meaning in practice, by a sequence of decisions on the part of rule makers as well as rule takers. The ‘path’ along which an institution is ‘worked out’ in this sense is shaped by exogenous circumstances as well as a myriad of strategic choices, deciding together which of the many possible meanings of a young institution are practically explored and which are foreclosed or left by the wayside. (Streeck and Thelen 2005: 30) The failure, then, to actively ‘maintain’ an institution, to enforce particular rules, regulations, conventions, or practices, can essentially ‘amount to actively allowing it to decay’ (Streeck and Thelen 2005: 25). Findings from the case study draw attention to the active cultivation of drift and erosion in the institutions of political recruitment, highlighting repeated incidences of rule-breaking as well as a general lack of rule enforcement on the part of key Party actors. Formal and informal complaints regarding rule violations were made both during and after the

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selection process by candidate applicants as well as other Party members, but central Party officials do not appear to have taken any direct action on these complaints in most cases. One candidate applicant, for example, contacted the central Scottish Party about a rule violation involving another candidate, who as a CLP officer had direct access to the membership lists before they were officially available by virtue of his position within the CLP: One of the issues we had early on was that [he] started canvassing before the lists were officially available. Because he was [a CLP officer], he had the lists anyway. And I said to him that I thought that was an inappropriate use of the lists. And it is in breach of the rules, absolutely in breach of the rules, and he just laughed ... and I said something to somebody at the Scottish Labour Party office and they’re just like, well, it’s a contest.22 Evidence from the case study again suggests that this trend of informalization has a distinctly gendered dimension. A key criterion of the success of institutional innovation is the extent to which reforms have become ‘common-sense’, creating new ‘routinized, taken-for-granted patterns of behaviour’ (Inhetveen 1999: 406). Yet, feminist research on gender and institutions demonstrates the particular difficulties of institutionalizing and maintaining gender-equality reforms, highlighting the constant possibility for norm erosion, drift, and reversal. As Mackay writes: ‘resistance is entrenched, and without vigilance, gender equality issues can slip off the agenda’ (2006: 19). For example, evidence from the case study highlights an increasing informalization of candidate selection criteria, and points to a general reassertion of traditional gendered norms of an ‘ideal candidate’. Despite efforts to rewrite and open up candidate job descriptions in 1999, findings from the case study indicate that these were not actively used in the selection process. Job descriptions were not distributed to the members of the CLP, and participants in the selection process commented on the lack of agreement or discussion among Party selectors as to what a ‘good’ candidate was, both in a general sense, and in a particular sense for the constituency in question: I mean, I don’t know what they were looking for. Nobody tells you what they’re looking for ... . I mean, the reverse of that is nobody gives you an advert. Nobody tells you. So the CLP ... they didn’t ever have a discussion even on the Executive, even in a smaller group.

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They never had a discussion about what they were looking for in an MSP. 23 Following the lack of maintenance and enforcement of existing, formalized selection criteria, findings from the case study suggest that there has been a drift back to the gendered model of the ideal candidate – the ‘local man’. While there was no explicit use of enforcement of formal selection criteria, interviews with both candidate applicants and selectors suggest an implicit sense of what selectors were looking ‘for’. All of the candidates highlighting the perceived importance throughout the process of being ‘local’: ‘Political experience was totally irrelevant. It was all due to local factors.’24 In addition, both candidate applicants and CLP members continuously referred to the selection process in gendered terms, repeatedly highlighting the importance of ‘male loyalty’, ‘favourite sons’, and ‘support for the local man’. As one of the female candidates put it: I’ve said ... to some people, you wonder if you were a man with the experience I’ve had. You know, if you look at my CV, it’s pretty impressive. And yet they don’t select you ... But at the end of the day it was all loyalty kind of stuff to the man who was there.25

Conclusion Academic commentators increasingly question the success of the ‘new politics’ in Scotland, highlighting the extent to which post-devolution political practices resemble those of Westminster and critiquing the ‘unrealistic’ hopes and expectations of devolution campaigners (see for example Arter 2004; McGarvey 2001; Mitchell 2004). Findings from the case study, however, suggest that the reality is far more complex, highlighting evidence of innovation and change in the institutions of political recruitment, while also drawing attention to underlying continuities. As such, the Scottish case points to a need to rethink conventional models of political recruitment, highlighting the complex and gendered dynamics of institutional design, continuity, and change within political institutions, and illustrating the difficulties of reforming and redesigning the institutions of political recruitment in the face of powerful institutional and gendered legacies. The combined insights of feminist and HI theory, then, may offer a way forward for research on gender and political recruitment. For example, work in the HI field offers critical insights into the bounded nature

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and contradictory outcomes of institutional innovation in existing systems, highlighting the ways in which ‘new’ (or partially reformed) institutions continued to be shaped by past legacies, as well as initial and ongoing interactions with already existing institutions within which they are ‘nested’ (Goodin 1996; Mackay 2009: 3; Pierson 2004). The Scottish Parliament is not a blank slate, it is a ‘new’ institution framed within a pre-existing institutional and cultural context, nested within an existing system in which many of the key elements of the Westminster model have survived (Mackay 2006; see also Chappell in this volume). Findings from the case study suggest that the ‘success’ of institutional innovation in candidate selection and recruitment is a complex and contingent question, and that elements of the ‘old’ continue to uneasily co-exist with elements of the ‘new’, constraining and shaping each other. At the same time, FPS offers several critical insights which are often ignored in mainstream analyses. Evidence from the Scottish case demonstrates that the gendering and regendering of the institutions of political recruitment are ‘active processes with palpable effects’ (Hawkesworth 2003: 531), occurring through the actions of embodied institutional actors, as well as through institutional rules, regulations, norms, and standing operating procedures. These findings demonstrate not only that gender norms and gender relations are particularly ‘sticky’ institutional legacies with which to contend, but also that gender – at both the symbolic level as well as the level of day-to-day interaction – is a primary means through which institutional reform and innovation can be resisted (Mackay 2009: 26). This suggests that the dynamics of institutional power relations, resistance, reproduction, continuity, and change need to be filtered through a gendered lens (Mackay 2004: 113; see also Chappell 2006; Kenny 2007; Mackay and Meier 2003). FI, then, is a promising theoretical approach for future work on gender and political recruitment, one that has the potential to overcome the key limitations of existing work in the field.

Notes 1. The ‘story’ of women’s mobilization in the 50:50 campaign in Scotland has been extensively detailed elsewhere (see in particular Breitenbach and Mackay 2001; Brown 2001a, 2001b). 2. Names have been changed for reasons of anonymity. 3. Interview 3 with CLP officer, 17 March 2008. 4. This is not always standard practice. In some cases, the branch and union nomination stage takes place at the end of the informal ‘meet the candidates’ event. 5. Interview 4 with candidate applicant, 24 March 2008.

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15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

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Interview 8 with candidate applicant, 17 March 2008. Internal Party correspondence, 2006. CLP member quoted in City newspaper, 2006. Interview 8 with candidate applicant. Interview 8 with candidate applicant. Interview 7 with candidate applicant, 8 April 2008. Interview 6 with candidate applicant, 1 April 2008. Interview 6 with candidate applicant. Cutts et al. (2008) address similar dynamics at the UK level with regards to all-women shortlists (AWSs). In the aftermath of the 2005 General Election, the dominant frame was one of ‘AWS backlash’, with the controversial case of the Labour seat of Blaneau Gwent offering ‘proof’ that AWS candidates lose votes. Cutts, Childs, and Fieldhouse critique this frame, arguing that there is no evidence of any significant ‘AWS effect’ in 2005. Candidate applicant, quoted in Greenside newspaper, 2006. Interview 3 with CLP Officer. Interview 7 with candidate applicant. Interview 7 with candidate applicant. Interview 6 with candidate applicant. Interview 6 with candidate applicant. Interview 5 with candidate applicant. Interview 7 with candidate applicant. Interview 7 with candidate applicant. Interview 6 with candidate applicant. Interview 5 with candidate applicant.

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3 Discursive Strategies for Institutional Reform: Gender Quotas in Sweden and France Lenita Freidenvall and Mona Lena Krook

Gender quotas have emerged in recent years as a key strategy for increasing women’s representation in electoral politics around the globe. Appearing today in more than 100 countries, these measures take several forms, including changes by individual political parties to their party statutes, as well as reforms initiated by national legislatures to revise constitutions and electoral laws (Dahlerup 2006b; Krook 2009). The shared goal is the nomination of more female candidates, most often to national parliaments. The spread of gender quotas to diverse contexts, as well as their mixed effects on the numbers of women elected, has inspired a large literature on quota policies. To understand quota adoption, scholars often begin with an analysis of quota debates, exploring how proposals are framed and justified in specific contexts. While advocates and opponents may vary across countries, a common approach is to map and unpack the content of these discourses, noting how actors articulate their positions in relation to existing political values (Freidenvall 2005; Holli et al. 2006; Krook et al. 2009). In many cases, these controversies lead to quota reform, but the apparent resolution of these debates does not ensure that quotas will be implemented fully. Rather, some reforms produce jumps, while others experience stagnation, or even decreases in the numbers of women elected. These patterns suggest that while discursive struggles may play a crucial role in enabling quota reform, they are constrained in their ability to enact change. This raises two sets of questions. First, what shapes the discourses employed in quota debates? Why are some more effective than others? Second, what explains the limits of discursive strategies? How do elements of the broader institutional context shape quota 42

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implementation? In an attempt to answer these questions, this chapter combines feminism and discursive institutionalism (DI) to analyse the origins and effects of quota reform. DI differs from other types of institutionalism: it places greater emphasis on the role of ideas and discourses in influencing actor interests, preferences, and behaviours (Campbell and Pedersen 2001), and as a consequence, it offers a more dynamic theory of institutional change by calling attention to the role of discourse in generating and legitimizing ideas about political action (Schmidt 2008). From a feminist perspective, however, there are elements missing from the DI framework, namely an explicit focus on gender, power, and institutional configurations. A combined approach thus presents an opportunity to better theorize complex patterns of political stability and change, at the same time that it helps explain puzzles surrounding quota reform. The chapter begins with an overview of research on gender quotas, focusing on how scholars have analysed quota adoption through the lens of discourses, and quota implementation through attention to the role of political institutions. It then outlines the key features of DI and addresses its potential and limits for feminist analysis. On the basis of this evaluation, it proposes a synthesized approach – a ‘feminist discursive institutionalism’ (FDI) – that adds gender, power, and institutional configurations to the existing repertoire of concepts used in DI, namely institutions, discourses, and change. The final part of the chapter applies this approach to analyse the origins and outcomes of quotas in two countries, Sweden and France. Largely similar quota policies were adopted in both countries but produced quite different results at the national level, despite striking parallels in the two countries’ debates. To unravel these effects, the analysis maps the institutional environment prior to quota campaigns to explore how these shape the content and resonance of discourses used in quota debates, and in turn, how these discourses succeed or not in changing existing institutional configurational dynamics.

Gender quotas and candidate selection The rapid diffusion of gender quotas raises several empirical puzzles. First, methods of positive action are controversial in many contexts, but these measures have gained the support of parties and legislatures in countries with a diverse range of characteristics. Second, quotas for women in elected positions require a reduction in the proportion of men, but most policies are passed by largely male-dominated parties

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and legislatures. Third, quotas are criticized on the grounds that they reify ‘women’ as a group, but have been embraced by many groups as a new basis for women’s organizing. Focusing on a diverse range of actors and motivations for quota reform, a growing number of studies explain quota adoption with reference to discursive framing, arguing that how quotas are defined and discussed has crucial implications for their approval. Once these measures are passed, however, research on quota implementation tends to turn its attention to the interactions between these measures and existing political institutions. Campaigns for quota adoption: Discourses and change Case studies of quota campaigns point to a number of actors and motivations behind quota reform. One explanation is that women’s groups support quotas because they believe that women in politics are necessary to achieve justice, promote women’s interests, and make use of women’s resources for the good of society (Phillips 1995). Noting that there does not appear to be a ‘natural’ trend towards change, they recognize that any break with the status quo is likely to be achieved only through specific, targeted actions to promote female candidates (Krook 2006a). A second argument is that political elites pursue quotas for strategic reasons, either in an effort to attract female voters (Meier 2004), or as a means to maintain control over political rivals (Baldez 2004). A third possibility is that quotas gain support among a variety of actors when they align with reigning political norms. In some countries, party quotas in left-wing parties are attributed to the match between quotas and party ideologies embracing the goal of social equality (Opello 2006). In others, quotas are framed as an extension of guarantees given to other groups (Meier 2000). A final explanation is that quotas are supported by global norms, as international organizations have embraced the goal of 30 per cent women in decision-making, and transnational networks have facilitated the exchange of information about effective quota strategies across national borders (Krook 2006b). Seeking to understand how actor support is cultivated and transformed into political action, an expanding literature analyses the content of quota debates. A key concern is to identify the discourses employed in arguments for and against quota policies. Discourses refer to language, concepts, and categories used to frame a particular issue (Bacchi 1999). Quotas are controversial for many reasons. Three common conflicts arise over competing ideals of equality, representation, and gender (Freidenvall et al. 2006; Krook et al. 2009). Positions on equality oppose equal opportunities, attributing responsibility for

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inequalities to individuals, and equal results, recognizing that unequal outcomes derive from broader structures (Dahlerup 2007). Meanings of political representation vary in terms of emphasis on ideas versus identities: principal-agent notions view it as when one person acts on behalf of another, while descriptive conceptions see it as when office-holders reflect the broader population’s physical, social, or other ascribed characteristics (Phillips 1995). Notions of gender, finally, concern the unity of the category ‘women’ and its status as a political identity on a par with other recognized groups. Quotas for women are most consistent with arguments about equal results, descriptive representation, and gender as a salient political category. For this reason, they are vulnerable to objections placing priority on equal opportunities, principal-agent notions of representation, and diversity among women, and the precedence of other identities. One of the most effective critiques is that quotas discriminate against men, and thus violate the constitution and sex-equality law (Guadagnini 2005; Mossuz-Lavau 1998). These concerns intersect with discourses about qualifications, with opponents suggesting that quotas undermine ‘merit’ in candidate selection, promoting ‘unqualified’ individuals to positions who otherwise would not have made it there ‘on their own’ (Murray 2008). Advocates often respond by questioning these assumptions and asserting that quotas are likely to facilitate renewal by electing more women, bringing new values and backgrounds to political deliberation (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). They thus link these questions to political representation. Other controversies revolve around whether women constitute a group deserving representation like identities based on class, race, language, and other categories (Jenkins 1999). The presence of these and other competing discourses are not only important at moments of quota adoption. They can also shape processes of implementation if doubts linger as to their legitimacy and legality, or if their outward acceptance masks ongoing resistance to quota reform (Bird 2003; Holli et al. 2006; Meier 2008). Dynamics of quota implementation: Institutions and reforms Despite some attention to discourses in influencing quota implementation, the majority of research focuses on interactions between these policies and various types of political institutions. These insights are rooted in the three explanations often given for variations in quota effects. The first is that quota impact is linked to their details, like type, wording, requirements, sanctions, and legitimacy (Meier 2004; Murray 2004). The second is that impact depends on features of the

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electoral and party systems in which they are introduced, with greater possibilities in countries using proportional representation (Tremblay 2008), and parties in which leaders are able to enforce party or national regulations (Caul 1999). The third is that impact reflects the balance among actors who support and oppose quota policies, including elites, women’s groups, courts, and ordinary citizens (Baldez 2004). Viewed alongside the literature on women’s legislative representation, this work suggests that effects of quotas are shaped by rules, practices, and norms, which can be conceptualized as three broad categories of institutions: systemic, practical, and normative (Krook 2009). The advantage in using the term ‘institution’ to refer to these dynamics is that it confers roughly equivalent causal status, rather than privileging one of these effects over the other a priori. Systemic institutions constitute the formal features of political systems. Their gendered effects are among the most studied in the field of women in politics. One of the most important factors explaining cross-national variations in women’s representation, as well as the impact of quota policies, is the electoral system (Matland 2006; Tremblay 2008). While the role of systemic institutions is most obvious in the second account outlined above related to electoral and party systems, it is also evident in the other two explanations. The first points to the importance of oversight bodies responsible for reviewing quota requirements and procedures for rectifying non-compliance, while the third identifies national and international courts as crucial arenas for challenging non-compliance and requiring parties to redo candidate lists that do not comply with a given quota law. Practical institutions refer to the formal and informal practices shaping the criteria and procedures that parties employ to select their candidates. These influence perceptions regarding who is deemed to be a ‘qualified’ candidate (Norris and Lovenduski 1995) and are related to methods of ballot composition (Caul 1999). The first story reflects the importance of selection practices, drawing attention to the degree to which quotas bind the hands of elites by reducing ambiguities in quota requirements, establishing placement mandates, and imposing sanctions for non-compliance. The second and third highlight the role of political will, suggesting that elite support or opposition is crucial in determining how quota policies translate into reality. Normative institutions, finally, embody formal and informal principles such as equality and representation. These can be gendered to the extent that they justify differences among women and men, despite rhetoric of neutrality and inclusion (Okin 1979). The first explanation

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above observes that effective implementation often hinges on the perceived legitimacy of a particular quota policy. The second and third are more indirect, but nonetheless allude to the values and commitments that inform the actions taken by various types of political actors with regard to quota reform. The interwoven nature of these explanations, in turn, suggests that ascertaining reasons behind the success and failure of quota policies is a task that requires attending to the ways in which these measures alter and interact with existing rules, practices, and norms (Krook 2007a).

Feminism and discursive institutionalism The existing literature on quota policies thus addresses questions of quota adoption and implementation, respectively, by focusing largely on the discourses that frame quota demands and the institutions that mediate quota effectiveness. On their own, these trends suggest that the tools of DI may hold promise for developing more integrated accounts of quota reform. Taken a step further, drawing on central tenets of DI also presents an opportunity to explore in greater depth two further puzzles: the varied forms taken by discourses and the differential impact of quotas across national contexts. However, the gendered nature of quota reforms requires a key modification to the DI framework, namely the incorporation of feminist insights related to gender, power, and institutional configurations. The resulting synthesis offers ‘added value’ over the application of feminist and institutionalist concepts on their own, calling attention to – and compensating for – gaps in each framework taken on its own. Discursive institutionalism: A feminist evaluation For the last decade, new institutionalism (NI) has been broadly understood to encompass three major approaches: rational choice, historical, and sociological (Hall and Taylor 1996; Immergut 1998). In recent years, however, DI has emerged as a fourth alternative, seeking to bring in a focus on ideas and discourse to better understand mechanisms of institutional emergence, survival, and reform (Campbell and Pedersen 2001; Schmidt 2008). DI is similar to the three other forms of NI in its focus on a broad definition of institutions. However, DI differs in its emphasis on discourse and its attempts to offer a theory of institutional change. These features make DI a particularly attractive option for feminists, many of whom share an interest in how language, concepts, and categories shape the content and conduct of politics, and who seek to

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study and develop strategies for altering the status quo. Yet, in order to fit feminist goals, key insights need to be integrated from the feminist toolkit. The defining feature of NI, as noted elsewhere in this volume, is its attempt to broaden the scope of ‘institutions’ to include both formal and informal institutions (March and Olsen 1989; North 1990). Researchers explore why formal institutions often do not have the effects that their creators intended (Pierson 2004) and conversely, how and why informal ones have the effects that they do (North 1990). Recent work among NI scholars also analyses how formal and informal institutions work together to shape political outcomes (Helmke and Levitsky 2004). Some feminists develop this point further by drawing on configurative methods (Ragin 2000) to more explicitly theorize how institutions, both formal and informal, work together as part of institutional configurations. The intuition is that the effects of one institution are shaped by the presence or absence of others (Krook 2009, forthcoming). The concept of ‘discourse,’ in turn, has many meanings. DI scholars themselves offer slightly different definitions, but converge on discourses as a medium for conveying ideas. For Vivien Schmidt (2008), ideas are the substantive content of discourse and occur at three main levels: policies, programmes, and philosophies. Discourse refers to the interactive process of conveying ideas and serves to communicate dominant perspectives and taken-for-granted assumptions. However, it can also provide a means for expressing and communicating new worldviews, thereby facilitating the process of political change. The first intuition, related to the structuring nature of discourse, fits closely in line with how discourse is understood by many discourse analysts, reflecting upon the ways in which the terms of a discourse can constrain what can be talked about (cf. Foucault 1971; Potter and Wetherell 1987). The second, proposing that discourse can be strategically employed to articulate new ideas, constitutes a departure from many versions, which reject intentionalism and rationality in how discourses are expressed. Consequently, the concept of ‘discourse’ as used by DI scholars does not simply import a consensus definition from discourse analysis, but rather seeks to add and expand what discourses can ‘do’ in political life. Although many feminists adopt more traditional approaches (Stapleton and Wilson 2004), some develop frameworks that also depart from conventional understandings. Bacchi (1999), for example, studies the construction of policy problems. She argues that the ways of framing a problem affect how policy-makers think about how that problem should be resolved. Uncovering these assumptions requires analysing

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competing interpretations to ascertain what effects follow from them, what is left unproblematic, and the ways in which identities are constructed through discourses. The goals of the problem-representation approach, however, go beyond simply documenting the structure of policy discourses. They also entail focusing on the ways in which power operates through discourse to fix certain constructions of gender relations as dominant and to marginalize or exclude counter-discourses. In other words, issues of gender and power are central to the articulation and effects of discourse. The third element of a DI approach, a focus on ‘change’, is a major departure from other schools of NI, which focus primarily on questions of stability (Pierson 2000a; Thelen and Steinmo 1992). To account for instances where change does occur, NI scholars present two models of innovation: one centred on critical junctures and path dependence (Mahoney 2000; Pierson 2000a), and the other criticizing strict separation between institutional creation and reproduction (Greif and Laitin 2004; Pierson 2004; Thelen 2004). For DI scholars, these options do not exhaust possible sources of change. Discourse may play a role in promoting political action as ‘policy makers, political leaders, and the public are persuaded, or not, of the cognitive necessity and normative appropriateness of ideas’ (Schmidt 2006: 11). Shifts in worldviews may also occur via conflicts over meaning and processes of translation (Lynggaard 2007). Feminist scholars and activists share a similar interest in possibilities for change (Driscoll and Krook 2009). Feminist discursive institutionalism: Concepts and innovations The discussion above suggests that there are many points of contact among feminism and DI in terms of attention to institutions, discourses, and change. At the same time, critiques voiced by feminists indicate that it is not sufficient to simply import the insights of DI into feminist research (Kulawik 2009). Rather, these tools must be modified to match feminist commitments by incorporating attention to three additional components: gender, power, and institutional configurations. The advantage of combining feminism and DI is that the revised approach can help better theorize how institutions and prospects for institutional reform shape, and are shaped by, dynamics of inequality and the broader institutional environment. As such, its benefits are not restricted to feminists, but could also be employed by mainstream NI scholars interested in understanding complex patterns of institutional stability and change.

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The concept of ‘gender’ is perhaps the key contribution of feminist research. Although often elided with ‘women’, feminists distinguish between ‘sex’, biological differences between women and men, and ‘gender’, the social meanings given to these distinctions. For this reason, Joan Wallach Scott describes gender as ‘a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes’ (Scott 1988: 42). While gender is a central category, feminists disagree as to what it is: some argue that it is something that people ‘have’ and others frame it as something that people ‘do’ (Connell 1987). Still others describe it as an institution, seeking to capture the nature and social origins of gendered practices and ideas (Martin 2004). Attention to gender in feminist analysis thus intersects in many ways with institutions and power, but is not entirely reducible to either phenomenon. Related to these discussions, a second major axis of an FDI is a focus on ‘power’. As discussed in relation to Bacchi (1999), feminists are aware of how pervasive relations of power are in shaping dynamics of political life. Hegemonic discourses can restrict the issues and interpretations that are possible and desirable to talk about. Attending to questions of power can expose the potential for non-hegemonic discourses, recognizing nonetheless that efforts may face an uphill battle given entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo. This focus provides an important corrective to optimistic beliefs about the potential for alternative discourses to enact change. An emphasis on power also draws attention to the fact that all subject positions are not equal: some confer greater capacity than others to articulate, or mute, new discourses. As such, marginalized groups may be less able to effect change, despite innovations in discursive frames. Finally, an FDI would also highlight the importance of ‘institutional configurations’. As noted above, NI researchers often allude to a range of different institutions. Yet, many restrict their focus to a single institution to understand its origins and effects (Pierson 2004). Adopting such an approach, however, misses an opportunity to explore how various kinds of institutions fit together as part of a ‘complicated ecology of interconnected rules’ (March and Olsen 1989: 170). This is especially important when the effects of one institution may depend on the shape of other institutions (Krook 2009). Although this insight is not restricted to feminists, attention to questions of gender is more closely attuned to interactions. Thus, viewed together, a combination of feminist and DI tools offers prolific prospects for understanding the complexities inherent in the study of institutional effects, reform, and change.

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Institutions, discourses, and gender quota reform Existing research suggests that discursive strategies are crucial to the passage of quota reforms, at the same time that institutional contexts play a decisive role in shaping the impact of quota policies. A synthesized FDI approach thus presents an opportunity to link moments of adoption and implementation, and better grasp the shape and impact of discourses put forward to promote reform. To illustrate the benefits of a combined approach, the analysis examines and compares debates and outcomes in two countries, Sweden and France, where framing processes and reforms are relatively similar, but where there are differences in impact. These parallels and divergences can be explained through attention to the inspiration behind the particular discursive strategies employed in each case, as well as shifts and stability reflected in reigning institutional configurations. This account thus considers (1) how institutional contexts shape discourses; and (2) how discourses alter some, but possibly not all, parts of the broader institutional environment. Introducing ladies’ choice: Varannan damernas in Sweden In Sweden, the word ‘quota’ has a difficult history due to norms of equality, consensus, and cooperation, eventually giving way to the concept of varannan damernas (‘every other one for the ladies’). When implemented, this new policy approach interacted in favourable ways with existing institutions, leading to the election of 47 per cent women to parliament in 2006. The first quotas were proposed in the 1920s, soon after women gained the right to vote, when the Social Democratic Party’s Women’s Federation suggested quotas so that women might be placed in safe seats on the Party’s lists. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that all positions should be based on equal opportunity and subject to open competition (Karlsson 1996). Over the next 50 years women continued to mobilize inside the parties, but generally succeeded in only getting one woman – often described as the ‘obligatory woman’ – on electoral slates, most often at the ‘decorative places’ at the bottom of the lists. By the 1970s, however, Sweden witnessed the ‘sex role debate’, focused on changing both women’s and men’s roles in society. It inspired new efforts to get more women included on party lists, but this time focused on gaining equal – not just token – representation for women in politics. A discursive strategy over the course of the 1980s and 1990s was to argue that women were not a ‘minority interest’ but the ‘majority of the citizenry’ and merited equal inclusion

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on those terms (Sainsbury 2004). As a result, policies proposed for ensuring women’s representation radicalized over time, moving from recommendations to targets, introduced by a number of parties from across the political spectrum (Freidenvall 2006). However, these measures stopped short of formal quotas, given the desire to avoid ‘special treatment’ at the expense of men. While the numbers of women in elected office continued to increase, reaching 32 per cent by 1985, the proportion of women in state committees continued to be low, leading the government to convene a commission on women’s under-representation in this sector. In an important shift, the authors of the final report rejected the view that advances were the result of ‘natural development’ that would continue until equality was achieved. They stopped short of calling for ‘quotas’, however, and proposed voluntary measures with mandatory provisions to be introduced only if women’s numbers did not rise (Varannan damernas 1987). To offer guidance, the report proposed a system of alternating between men’s and women’s names, a system it dubbed varannan damernas. Referring to a countryside dance custom where every other song was women’s turn to invite the men, the term literally meant ‘every other one for the ladies’. While functionally equivalent to a quota, this concept appeared to soften demands for a radical redistribution of power by alluding to more sympathetic rules of ‘taking turns’. As such, it avoided any reference to conflicts of interest between women and men, enabling calls for equal representation to resonate with dominant discourses of ‘consensus’ and ‘equality’ in Swedish society (Bergqvist 1994; Freidenvall et al. 2006). Although the report was not intended to apply to electoral politics when it was published in 1987, it gained renewed visibility in 1991 when women’s representation dropped for the first time since 1928. The election created shockwaves, because many had believed the upward trend to be irreversible. Women’s groups responded by exerting pressure within their parties, as well as by becoming involved in a crossparty network known as Stödstrumporna (the ‘Support Stockings’) that threatened to form a women’s party if established parties did not elect more women. In response, the Social Democratic Party announced in 1993 that it would apply the principle of varannan damernas on all lists for all elections. Similar policies were soon adopted in nearly all other parties, some opting for a policy of strict alternation, and others preferring softer formulations that achieved the same effect through policies of ‘at least 40 per cent of either sex’. The result was the election of 41 per cent women in 1994, 43 per cent in 1998, 45 per cent in 2002, and 47

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per cent in 2006, approximating the demand for equal representation (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2009). Before these debates, Sweden was characterized by a mix of institutions more and less favourable to women’s representation. Electoral rules involved proportional representation (PR) with high district magnitudes and closed party lists. Scholars consistently associate all three rules with higher numbers of women in politics (Caul 1999). Party practices were also encouraging: many parties felt obligated to include women, although varied greatly in their commitment and the tools applied to ensure the selection of female candidates. In general, the parties with the most binding measures were those with the highest proportions of women in parliament (Wängnerud 2001). Norms were perhaps the most contested. Women were initially considered ‘represented’ as long as one was selected. Over time, this definition expanded as women moved from being considered a ‘special interest’ to being recognized as ‘one half of the citizenry’. Yet, women’s groups continued to struggle with the term ‘quota’, which many framed as ‘undemocratic’ and implying the selection of ‘unqualified’ women. These issues were played out through discourses of ‘consensus’ and ‘equality’ that undermined attempts to enact strict quotas (Freidenvall 2005). When women’s numbers declined in 1991, however, the notion of varannan damernas enabled a shift in thinking, drawing on the very discourses that had previously undermined quota adoption. As electoral rules entailed closed-list PR, alternation in selection practices improved opportunities for women to be placed in higher spots on party lists. These changes influenced a reformulation of norms, transforming calls for ‘proportionate’ representation into demands for the election of equal numbers of women and men. Lingering ambivalence over the term ‘quota’, nonetheless, reflected continued normative resistance to positive action that might create unfair advantages. The reference to a dance-floor tradition, however, enabled supporters to frame a 50 per cent quota as a measure aimed at the equal division and sharing of political power, a more radical claim that was, all the same, more consistent with reigning political norms and discourses. Thus, while quota adoption was aimed mainly at reforming party selection practices, debates over these policies intersected in various ways with existing rules, norms, and discourses. In this case, the content of institutions shifted in mutually reinforcing ways, leading to nearly equal numbers of women and men in the Swedish Parliament.

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54 Lenita Freidenvall and Mona Lena Krook

Sexing the universal citizen: Parité in France In France, the word ‘quota’ had similarly negative connotations, related to the strong emphasis on universalism in French conceptions of citizenship. After several failed attempts to institute quotas, supporters developed a universalist critique based on the concept of parité (‘parity’). When enacted, parity interacted with existing institutions, leading to the election of 12 per cent women to parliament in 2002 and 18 per cent in 2007 (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2009). Proposals for quotas in France first emerged in the 1970s, when women inside the Socialist Party (PS) began to demand special measures to promote women’s representation. Advocates argued that quotas were consistent with party ideology and would demonstrate commitment to achieving gender equality. In 1974, the PS approved a 10 per cent quota in Party leadership positions and for elections by PR, a proportion that increased in 1977 and 1979. Further proposals to raise the quota to 30 per cent were not passed until 1990, however, and it was not until 1996 that this quota was extended to elections run by majoritarian vote (Appleton and Mazur 1993; Opello 2006). As these debates took place, several female ministers and members of parliament pursued quotas for women in local politics. In 1982, they succeeded in passing a law as part of a bill on local government limiting to 75 per cent the proportion of candidates of the same sex. Deputies voted nearly unanimously in favour of the measure, but several months later the Constitutional Council declared the quota article unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated the principle of ‘equality before the law’, prohibiting the ‘division’ of voters and candidates into ‘categories’ for the purpose of voting. This verdict reaffirmed a principle of ‘equal opportunities’ that precluded attempts to institute ‘equal outcomes’. Nonetheless, by the end of the 1980s this conception came under scrutiny, as scholars began to attribute women’s absence in politics to the principle of the ‘universal citizen’ (Fraisse 1989). This led to a manifesto, Au pouvoir citoyennes! Liberté, égalité, parité, which proposed changing the law to state that elected assemblies be composed of as many women as men (Gaspard et al. 1992). While the concept of parité emerged in discussions in the Council of Europe, it gained momentum in France as a means to get beyond the impasse of ‘quotas’ (Krook 2007b). In the 1990s, supporters began to argue that reigning understandings of ‘equality’ and ‘representation’ – as well as their subject, the ‘universal citizen’ – were originally deemed to apply only to men. They suggested that inscribing parité in

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the constitution was the only way to recognize the ‘two sexes of the universal citizen’, a reform that was crucial to general welfare, because ‘sex’ was the universal difference cutting across all other groups, categories, and communities (Agacinski 2001). They emphasized that parité differed from ‘quotas’, because while quotas implied special representation rights, parity called for equitable sharing of power between women and men. Inscribing parité in the constitution thus would not reverse the accomplishments of the French Revolution, but rather would fully realize them (Scott 2005). Following public debates, the constitution was amended in 1999 and the electoral law reformed in 2000. Yet the final reforms disappointed many advocates, as ‘parity’ was replaced by ‘equal access’, while the verb ‘guarantees’ was substituted with ‘favours’. The more radical claim for equal representation was thus reduced to the milder goal of increasing the number of female candidates (Bird 2003). The limits of these reforms were apparent in divergent outcomes across levels of government: while women’s representation increased dramatically from 26 per cent to 48 per cent in local councils in 2001, in the National Assembly it inched from 11 per cent to 12 per cent in 2002, and then to 18 per cent in 2007, due largely to decisions by the major parties not to implement the law (Murray 2004). These variations stem from the fact that lists not complying at the local level were not eligible to contest the election, while those that did not comply at the national level were subject to a financial penalty that could be overcome by winning more seats (Krook 2009; Sineau 2001). In the years leading up to the parity debates, most institutions of candidate selection were largely disadvantageous to women’s representation. The electoral rules blocked major gains, as the two-round majoritarian system enabled parties to exclude women. However, this pattern was also true under PR: when applied in 1986, women comprised nearly 25 per cent of candidates, but were placed in less than 6 per cent of electable positions (Mossuz-Lavau 1998: 24–25). Similarly, only the PS adopted a quota, and in that case, its commitment was weak, excluding legislative elections. In spite of these considerable barriers, norms again were the most problematic. Legal decisions in the 1980s reinforced conceptions of ‘equality’ and ‘representation’ that undermined attempts to pursue ‘quotas’ at the statutory level, which were discursively construed as being a threat to the values of French republicanism. Indeed, ‘quotas’ were described as distinctively ‘un-French’ – even disparagingly as ‘American’ – measures that would not improve women’s status, but that would instead escalate claim-making by other groups, and subsequently

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erode the cultural assimilation at the heart of the French Republic (Millard and Ortiz 1998; Scott 1998). In this context, advocates employed the discourses of ‘universalism’ and ‘equality’ that had blocked quota implementation to gain the adoption of a 50 per cent quota law. Interestingly, the need to work within prevailing discourses enabled – and, indeed, required – supporters to press for more radical reforms, because these could be framed as more consistent with existing values. Whereas quotas had been rejected in the 1980s on the grounds that they ‘divided’ citizens into ‘categories’, a focus on parité presented an opportunity to frame women not as a ‘special interest’, but rather as one of the ‘two halves of the human race’. However, the campaign’s concern with norms and discourses was not matched by similar success in shifting rules and practices of candidate selection. In fact, during debates over reform, all major parties opposed change to the electoral system. At the same time, legislators devised very loose regulations for implementation in legislative elections, imposing no placement requirements and a weak financial penalty for parties who did not conform to the law. As a result, the adoption of quotas in France achieved shifts in discourses and formal norms, but made little impact on the rules and practices shaping women’s access to political office.

Gender, discourses, and institutional change Gender quotas constitute one of the widest-reaching electoral reforms of recent years. The origins and outcomes of these policies, however, are not yet well understood. Existing research on these questions indicates that quota policies are largely the result of discursive strategies for political reform. At the same time, however, these measures do not have uniform effects: some lead to increases, while others produce stagnation and even decreases in the numbers of women elected. Seeking to contribute to these discussions, this chapter sought to combine the tools of feminism and DI to better theorize the shape of the discourses employed in quota debates, as well as the role of existing institutional contexts in facilitating – or hindering – the effects of quota policies. The synthesis links together the focus on discourses, institutions, and change from DI with ideas about gender, power, and institutional configurations from feminist research. This revised framework was then applied to a comparison of the cases of Sweden and France, where similar policies produced quite distinct results, despite striking parallels in the quota debates. The analysis reveals the value of engaging

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in a dialogue across feminism and DI, as well as more generally across work on gender, discourses, and political institutions. It suggests that there is space to develop a ‘feminist institutionalism’ that builds on shared concerns, but also imports insights from each approach taken on its own in order to tackle emerging puzzles in political dynamics witnessed around the globe.

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4 Gendered Institutions and Women’s Substantive Representation: Female Legislators in Argentina and Chile Susan Franceschet

Women have made impressive gains worldwide in terms of their access to elected office, a development that has led to two distinct research agendas. The first investigates the factors that shape women’s participation in electoral politics and the second explores whether women’s presence makes a difference, particularly in terms of advancing women’s rights. This chapter combines the main contributions of historical institutionalism (HI) and feminist political science (FPS) to show how a ‘gendered institutionalist’ approach fills in the lacunae in the existing literature. The chapter is divided into three sections. The first provides a critical overview of the existing literature on women’s substantive representation, highlighting some of the gaps in our knowledge about whether, why, and how female legislators ‘act for’ women. The second section outlines the features shared by HI and FPS that address these gaps. The third section applies a ‘gendered institutionalist’ (GI) framework to the contrasting cases of Argentina and Chile, showing how formal and informal institutions structure the legislative process in ways that influence the actions of female legislators and the likelihood that women’s actions will succeed or fail.

Studying women’s substantive representation Over the last few decades, a vast literature has emerged that explores both the attitudes and actions of female office-holders. Much of this research asks whether women in politics contribute to women’s 58

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substantive representation. Other researchers ask whether female legislators differ from their male counterparts in terms of their attitudes or legislative activity. Yet, even researchers who seek merely to uncover sex differences frequently infer that if men and women display different attitudes or behaviours, then this is an indication of women’s substantive representation (see Schwindt-Bayer 2006). Alternatively, researchers who find few sex-related differences in attitudes often conclude that electing more women will likely not have an impact on women’s substantive representation (Htun and Power 2006; Tremblay 1998). The conflation of sex-based differences among legislators and women’s substantive representation is problematic for at least two reasons. First, the concept of women’s substantive representation is inherently complex and impervious to straightforward definition.1 Second, taking sex differences as an indicator of substantive representation is problematic because ‘sex as a simple, dichotomous variable will distort unless it is located in a gendered frame of reference’ (Lovenduski 1998: 339). Third, even when narrowing the focus to one site of representation – the legislature – women’s substantive representation occurs at multiple stages of the legislative process (Mackay 2008; Tamerius 1995). Women’s interests are promoted when legislators introduce women’s rights bills, when they try to mobilize support for these bills (either behind-the-scenes, or publicly in committee and chamber debates), and when women’s rights laws are adopted. Women’s substantive representation can thus be conceived as both ‘process’ and ‘outcome’ (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). A number of existing studies, however, focus on either the legislative process, or policy outcomes, while drawing conclusions about women’s substantive representation as a whole. Studies that focus on process, in particular those that compare the role of men and women in initiating women’s rights bills, tend to find that female legislators are more likely than their male colleagues to take action (Jones 1997; Schwindt-Bayer 2006; Taylor-Robinson and Heath 2003). But while these studies show that women’s presence influences the legislative agenda, they tell us little about legislative outcomes. Without looking at the outcomes of women’s actions we miss out on a fuller account of how the gendered dynamics within legislative institutions affect different aspects of women’s substantive representation. This is important because research that focuses on legislative outcomes, whether defined as women’s empowerment within legislative bodies or the adoption of women’s rights laws, tends to be more pessimistic about the kind of difference that women make (Goetz 2003; Marx et al. 2007; Vincent 2004). Researchers have found that even when

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the proportion of women in the legislature grows, political practices and policy outcomes may not change. However, studies that explore both women’s actions (bill introduction) and their consequences (the adoption of women’s rights laws) demonstrate that the two aspects of women’s substantive representation can occur separately (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). Similarly, Childs distinguishes between the ‘feminization of the political agenda (where women’s concerns and perspectives are articulated) and a feminization of legislation (where output has been transformed)’ (Childs 2006: 9; see also Lovenduski 2005b). A second problem is that scholars use different methods to measure women’s substantive representation (see Mackay 2004; 2008). Scholars have variously measured substantive representation through surveys of legislator attitudes (Htun and Power 2006; Schwindt-Bayer 2006), through bill introduction (Swers 2002; Taylor-Robinson and Heath 2003), or through voting records (Vega and Firestone 1995). Although these research strategies likely reflect pragmatic decisions by scholars seeking to simplify a highly complex process, they can nonetheless lead to mistaken assumptions that a multi-faceted concept such as women’s substantive representation can be measured by a single indicator. Selecting a single indicator implies a relatively straightforward relationship among attitudes, legislator behaviour, and policy outcomes, whereas in reality, any such relationship is highly contingent. Legislators may hold favourable attitudes toward women’s rights and prioritize gender issues, but might not act on these attitudes by introducing or supporting women’s rights bills (Childs 2004). Even when attitudes are translated into action, these actions may fail (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). As such, women’s substantive representation is best conceived as a multi-faceted and dynamic process that includes both legislative activities2 and outcomes.3 A conceptual framework focusing on both process and outcome has at least two advantages. First, it allows a more precise analysis of women’s roles in promoting women’s substantive representation and of the gendered environment in which they act. Although existing studies that focus on process (such as bill introduction) are explicitly addressing women’s roles, studies of policy outcomes may be missing out on the role of women and the gendered environment in bringing about these outcomes. A focus on both process and outcomes permits a firmer grasp of the gendered institutional dynamics in legislatures that either facilitate or obstruct favourable policy outcomes. Distinguishing between process and outcome also draws attention to a broader array of factors that affect women’s substantive representation.

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Existing studies have examined individual-level variables such as feminist orientation and party affiliation, finding that feminist attitudes and membership in a left party are correlated with ‘acting for’ women (Htun and Power 2006; Tremblay and Pelletier 2000; Vega and Firestone 1995). Scholars examining ‘critical mass’ (the proportion of women in a legislative body) have tested whether higher proportions of women increase legislative activity on behalf of women (Grey 2002), and also whether the increased descriptive representation of women produces more gender-friendly outcomes (Bratton and Ray 2002). Partly because this latter group of studies has produced such divergent findings, critical-mass theories have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. There seems to be an emerging consensus that a focus on numbers alone is problematic (Beckwith 2007; Childs and Krook 2006b; Dahlerup 2006a; Mackay 2008; Trimble 2006). Other scholars have expanded the research agenda to investigate contextual factors such as party dynamics, women’s seniority in the legislature (for example, committee leadership positions), and the influence of women’s movements and public opinion (Beckwith and CowellMeyers 2007; Dodson 2006; Swers 2002). While these studies expand the research focus and permit a more multi-faceted understanding of how and why women’s substantive representation occurs, none draws specifically on institutionalist theories of politics to analyse women’s substantive representation. Moreover, with the exception of Beckwith and Cowell-Meyers’ (2007) work, none uses cross-national comparisons, although there are a growing number of edited volumes that shed light on the possible reasons for cross-national variation in patterns of women’s substantive representation (Chappell and Hill 2006; Sawer et al. 2006). The lack of an explicitly comparative and institutionalist focus inhibits the development of a broader conceptual framework for analysing how gendered institutions shape women’s substantive representation (see Waylen 2009).

Gender and historical institutionalism Institutionalists have defined institutions as ‘relatively enduring collection[s] of rules and organized practices’ that are ‘embedded in structures of meaning and resources’ (March and Olsen 2005: 1). Historical institutionalists (HI) explore both formal organizations as well as the ‘informal rules and procedures that structure conduct’ (Thelen and Steinmo 1992: 4). Informal institutions are ‘socially shared rules, usually unwritten, that are created, communicated, and enforced outside of

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officially sanctioned channels’ (Helmke and Levitsky 2006: 5). A focus on informal institutions is something shared by gender scholars and is crucial to uncovering the gendered dynamics in legislative politics. Many of the norms that govern parliaments, such as the preference for an adversarial style or bargaining within ‘old boys networks’, are informal. Importantly, it is the informal nature of these rules that makes them more resistant to change. Informal rules are unwritten and not sanctioned through official channels. Instead, non-compliance might involve career costs such as less prestigious appointments or being shut out of informal power networks. Feminist scholars have highlighted the ways in which gender shapes and is shaped by institutions (Acker 1992; Chappell 2006; Lovenduski 1998, 2005; Waylen 2007). According to Beckwith, ‘gender as a process is manifested as the differential effects of apparently gender-neutral structures and policies upon women and men, and upon masculine and/or feminine actors’ (2005: 132). Gender scholars have noted that institutions, created by men in response to the interests of elite men, often function to constrain the behaviour of women (and, of course, other ‘outsiders’). But feminists have also explored the way that women’s movements and strategically placed ‘insiders’ or ‘femocrats’ can exploit institutional openings and even re-orient institutions and practices to feminist goals (Chappell 2002b). As Beckwith argues, ‘gender as process suggests not only that institutions and politics are gendered but also that they can be gendered’, that is, women inside and outside the state may succeed in ‘recast[ing] the gendered nature of the political’ (2005: 133; emphasis in original). Using the definitions of institutions and the insights of FPS outlined above, the institutions that structure and gender the legislative environment, and influence both legislator behaviour and policy outcomes, include things like electoral rules, party discipline, candidate nomination procedures, executive–legislative relations (especially the formal rules that define the authority and scope of action of each branch). Informal institutions include representative–constituent relations; internal and cross-party dynamics, for example, how parties distribute committee assignments among their legislative caucuses and how participation in floor debates is allocated; and norms of appropriate parliamentary behaviour, for example, whether and how a combative or consensual style is encouraged. In defining institutions broadly and placing them in their historical and gendered context, a GI approach has much to offer. Specifically, there are four aspects of this approach that enhance studies of women’s

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substantive representation: (1) problematization of preference formation, (2) a focus on the gendered power asymmetries embedded in institutions, (3) a focus on ideas and gendered norms, and (4) research methods that are more contextually sensitive. Problematizing preferences Both feminist and HI scholars problematize preference formation, rejecting the assumption that political interests are automatically given by one’s social location or economic position. For HI, institutions shape interests because they embody a society’s norms and values, thereby legitimating the expression of preferences that reflect those values. Political institutions thus reflect the political values held by the society in which they exist, or at least the dominant sectors of society who played a role in constructing those institutions. For example, political systems with extensive checks and balances respond to norms about the concentration of power.4 Likewise, the very names given to institutions express the values they embody. For example, in recent years most Latin American countries have created parliamentary committees to address gender issues. These committees often have names that signify whether women’s autonomy, or their family roles are to be prioritized. In Chile, the parliamentary committee created to address women’s issues was named the Family Committee, whereas in Mexico it is called the Equity and Gender Committee. In the former case, the committee’s name implies that women’s rights ought to be consistent with that society’s valuing of the family. In the second case, committee members are serving on a committee that is more explicitly geared toward equity promotion, thus not constraining the preferences that can be legitimately expressed on the committee to those consistent with a traditional view of the family. In this way, institutions ‘affect the very identities, self-images, and preferences of the actors’ (Hall and Taylor 1996: 939), thereby defining what it means to be a member of a particular institution, for example, a parliamentarian, a judge, or a bureaucrat. These norms, in turn, define appropriate conduct for individuals in different parts of the state and in society. For HI, what is most important is that the meanings inscribed in particular institutions are always contextual, and therefore what it means to be a legislator differs not only cross-nationally, but also across time. Institutions are not static, but are themselves subject to change brought about by new processes and actors’ collective responses to them. Indeed, having parliamentary committees dealing with gender issues is a recent development. The very creation of these committees

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signals that these issues have been accorded a legitimacy that had been denied in earlier historical periods, a good example of how political spaces can be re-gendered. In addition to a concern with preference formation, feminists and HI explore how preferences are translated into action (or inaction) and how political outcomes are derived from these actions. A GI approach thereby provides the causal links that are missing in much of the existing scholarship on women’s substantive representation, while also drawing attention to the multi-faceted and dynamic processes that constitute substantive representation. As noted earlier, some of the existing literature assumes a relatively straightforward relationship between legislator attitudes and substantive representation. A GI approach, on the other hand, shows how institutions mediate the relationship between individual attitudes and actions. According to Immergut, ‘institutionalist theory aims to expose and analyse the discrepancy between “potential” interests and those that are expressed in political behaviour’ (1998: 7). There are a number of ways in which legislative institutions encourage or discourage the articulation of perspectives that advance women’s rights. Women’s caucuses can create space for female legislators to work together to promote issues of concern to women (Archenti and Johnson 2006). The level of legislator activity (the quantity of bills introduced) is also shaped by institutional factors, namely, the human and technical resources provided to legislators. Where legislators have resources to hire highly skilled assistants, they can introduce a greater quantity of bills than in places where legislators do not have such resources. Institutions also determine what kind of bills legislators can introduce. For example, executives in some countries, whether due to formal or informal rules, enjoy exclusive rights to legislate in certain areas, thereby reducing the scope of activity for legislators. A GI approach to studying women’s substantive representation thereby avoids the voluntarism that is implicit in some accounts of substantive representation. Some studies of women in legislatures imply that if female legislators do not ‘act for’ women it is because they do not hold feminist attitudes or do not prioritize women’s rights policies. In contrast, a GI approach assumes that individual action does not spring directly from attitudes and preferences but instead, ‘individuals turn to established routines or familiar patterns of behaviour to attain their purposes’ (Hall and Taylor 1996: 939). Prevailing norms and patterns of behaviour can provide either opportunities or obstacles to the promotion of gender issues: party leaders may exercise strict control over the activities of legislators or put few constraints on legislators to develop

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their legislative priorities autonomously. Thus, in order to explain the kind of actions female legislators take on behalf of women, we need to explore the rules and norms that structure their environment. Gendered power asymmetries A second component of GI involves exploration of the way institutions reflect and reinforce gendered power relations. Rather than viewing institutions as neutral, both feminists and HI assume that institutions mobilize bias in ways that make certain outcomes more or less likely. As historical creations, institutions embody a particular set of power relations present at the time of their creation. Institutions thereby ‘structure politics’, privileging the expression of certain interests over others (Thelen and Steinmo 1992). Feminist scholars add further complexity to HI, pointing to gender as an integral feature of social relations (Acker 1992; Lovenduski 1998). The gendered origins of legislative institutions have important implications for women’s substantive representation. The hierarchies and power relations in political institutions are those that privilege male-defined interests and priorities. The most prestigious and influential legislative committees, for example, correspond to those policy areas that have been defined as most relevant to the ‘national interest’, such as finance, foreign affairs, and industry. According to Kathlene, the fact that men dominate these committees ‘reinforces the given that these are the power committees’ (1995: 168). This may lead women seeking to advance their political careers to eschew the less prestigious ‘women’s issues’ in favour of policy issues considered more prestigious.5 This is another example of how institutions shape individual preferences. The hierarchy of policy issues, where women’s issues are considered of less national or strategic importance, makes it less likely that female legislators seeking to advance their political career prefer to work in these areas. On the other hand, the common assumption that the ‘soft’ policy areas, such as education and welfare, are of greater interest to women has meant that female legislators are often placed on these committees by male party bosses (Heath, Schwindt-Bayer, and Taylor-Robinson 2005). The policy divisions and legislative specializations present in modern legislatures constrain the substantive representation of women in other ways, too. Most of the policy specializations relate to the economy, internal and external security, or social welfare, while many of the issues relating to women’s rights and equality, for example, violence against women or equality in the workforce, are difficult to address as singular policy issues (see Weldon 2002). This complicates the trajectory

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of legislative initiatives on these issues. Often, gender issue bills are sent to multiple committees, which has the effect of increasing the veto points for these bills. Thus, a gendered institutional bias is expressed in the organizational rules that structure legislative institutions. Or, women’s rights initiatives, such as candidate gender quotas or equality provisions, may require a change to a country’s constitution, in which case the threshold for success is much higher, because constitutional change almost always requires more than simple majority support in parliament.6 Gendered power relations are also expressed in legislative institutions through male dominance of leadership positions on legislative committees, making it more difficult for women who do prioritize women’s rights initiatives to move their bills successfully through the committee process (Norton 1995). Women are under-represented in other leadership positions as well, and seldom exert influence over the legislative agenda. The scarcity of women in leadership posts can slow down the progress of women’s rights initiatives, constituting another way that gendered power relations entrenched in political institutions can weaken the link between women’s presence and women’s substantive representation. Ideas and gendered norms A third feature of a GI approach is a focus on the gendered aspect of ideas and norms. For HI, ideas have important ‘framing effects’ that shape policy debates in particular contexts (Steinmo 2008). Feminist scholars take this insight even further, showing how ideas and norms about gender are reflected in myriad ways in institutions (Acker 1992; Chappell 2006). Precisely because ‘institutions have distinctly gendered cultures’ (Lovenduski 1998: 348), women seeking to be both accepted and effective in politics encounter ‘assimilative pressure to conform to the behavioural norm’ (Puwar 2004b: 77). Where behavioural norms and values are masculine, as they are in most legislatures, women may respond by disavowing distinctly feminine (and feminist) concerns, instead favouring both the style and substantive issues of the dominant group. One of the best examples of feminist research into the gendered nature of norms is Chappell’s (2002a; 2006) work on gender and institutions, which shows that even the norm of bureaucratic impartiality ‘is profoundly gendered’. Neutrality norms ultimately support the (unequal) status quo by delegitimizing the efforts of ‘feminist activists who seek to use state institutions – including the bureaucracy – to advance their equality claims’ (Chappell 2006: 227).

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On the other hand, ideas can also serve as powerful mobilizing forces (Sanders 2006). The global diffusion of norms around violence against women legitimized the efforts of women’s movements and their parliamentary allies to achieve comprehensive domestic violence laws (Hawkins and Hume 2002). In Latin America, the adoption of domestic violence laws had more to do with emerging norms about state obligations to address violence against women than the increased presence of women in congress. Likewise, emerging global norms about the importance of equity in political representation have made it somewhat easier for female legislators to mobilize domestic support for gender quota legislation, although this norm remains more contested than norms concerning violence against women (Krook 2009). Contextualized research methods and complex causality The final aspect of a GI approach is an emphasis on contextualized and historical methods and a more complex view of causality. According to Sven Steinmo, ‘rather than treating all political action as if fundamentally the same irrespective of time, place, or context, historical institutionalists explicitly and intentionally attempt to situate their variables in the appropriate context’ (2008). Likewise, for feminist scholars, employing gender as a concept necessarily gives rise to a research strategy that is contextual, comparative, and relational (in that femininity cannot be analysed without reference to masculinity) (see Waylen 2009). This has at least two implications for studying women’s substantive representation. First, it means that the search for correlates of substantive representation that would hold across time and place ought to be abandoned. Taking predefined indicators, especially specific policies such as the existence of reproductive rights, public child care, or anti- discrimination laws, as indicators of women’s substantive representation overlooks the extent to which the historical and political context in each country shapes what substantive representation means for women in that country at that point in time. This taps into what Mackay (2008) has termed ‘thick’ conceptions of substantive representation. This does not make cross-national comparisons unworkable. Indeed, it is only through cross-national comparison that it is possible to appreciate the importance of different institutional factors that affect women’s actions and their outcomes. It does mean that we must avoid predefining the content of those actions and outcomes. Instead, comparisons must be fully grounded in the empirical realities of each case.

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Second, a GI approach means abandoning the quest for a general theory, searching instead for the ‘complex configurations of factors’ that have some causal significance for women’s substantive representation (Immergut 1998: 19). This way, women’s substantive representation becomes a dynamic concept, involving both procedural and substantive aspects (that is, agenda-setting and policy outcomes). Analysis along these lines would lead to ‘dense empirical descriptions’ of how institutional context produces specific preferences among female legislators, encourages their articulation, and generates particular outcomes. Researchers would aim to ‘tell a story’ about the factors that produce (or inhibit) women’s substantive representation in a particular context. To summarize, a GI framework for studying women’s substantive representation includes an investigation of: (1) the formal and informal organizational rules in legislative bodies and the ways in which gendered power relations are reflected and reinforced by these rules; (2) the role of ideas and norms, both in their institutional expressions and as a mobilizing force for facilitating certain actions and outcomes; and (3) a dynamic and comparative approach, where women’s actions and their outcomes are rooted in the historical legacies of an existing institutional context.

Legislative institutions and women’s substantive representation in Argentina and Chile7 This section applies a GI approach to women’s legislative behaviour and policy outcomes in Argentina and Chile, and shows how the formal organizing rules and the informal institutions that structure politics are gendered in ways that influence the promotion of women’s interests. Argentina and Chile offer interesting contrasts. In 1991, Argentina was the first country in the world to adopt a gender quota law (Ley de Cupos), requiring parties to include a minimum of 30 per cent female candidates (and in electable spots) on all candidate lists (Chama 2001). The law has been effective in increasing women’s descriptive representation. Between 1993 and 2007, women’s seat share in the lower house rose from 5 to 40 per cent. When a reform of Senate electoral rules led to the application of quotas to the 2001 Senate elections, women’s presence rose to over 35 per cent. Chile lacks a quota law, and women’s representation remains low.8 Women won 5.2 per cent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies in the country’s first post-dictatorship elections in 1989, and that figure has risen to 15 per cent in 2006. In the Senate, women’s share of seats has ranged from three to five per cent

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(Franceschet 2008). Numerical differences are not sufficient to explain differences in legislator behaviour or legislative outcomes, however. A GI framework draws attention to the different organizational rules, informal institutions, and ideas in the two countries. Formal rules and organization A comparison of Argentina and Chile reveals two important aspects of formal rules that affect women’s substantive representation: (1) legislative–executive relations, particularly the extent of legislative power exercised by the executive; and (2) the presence and location of ‘policy gate-keepers who control the legislative agenda’ (Alemán 2006). The differences between the two countries on these aspects of legislative organization explains why Argentine legislators are more active than their Chilean counterparts in terms of introducing gender rights bills across a wide array of areas, but also why Chilean legislators have greater opportunities for their bills to succeed, if they are willing to ally with the executive women’s agency, the National Women’s Service. Both countries have presidential systems with presidents enjoying a broad range of executive prerogatives. Chile’s Constitution gives extensive agenda-setting and legislative powers to the executive branch. Recent studies of Chilean politics, however, show that a focus on these formal rules, without an understanding of how informal institutions actually curtail the president’s use of these powers, leads to erroneous conclusions about the weakness of congress (Ferraro 2008; Siavelis 2006). Nonetheless, Chilean legislators perceive that they lack power. Many interviewees highlighted the numerous restrictions on their ability to legislate. A deputy from the governing coalition explained that ‘we can’t introduce bills that affect the national budget, which are in fact the most important because everything has to do with money and resources’.9 Another said, ‘I feel that here [in congress] our capacity is very limited’.10 These perceptions, along with real limitations on the types of bills that legislators can introduce,11 is one of the factors that accounts for lower levels of legislative activity on women’s rights issues. In Argentina, none of the legislators interviewed reported feeling constrained in terms of their legislative initiatives, and indeed, women in Congress introduce a far greater quantity of women’s rights bills than their counterparts in Chile.12 A second aspect of formal organization, namely, the location of policy gate-keepers, influences the outcome of women’s legislative initiatives in different ways in the two countries. Policy gate-keepers control the legislative agenda and can advance initiatives they favour

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and block or stall those they oppose (or those that simply are not priorities). But different legislatures entrench different rules that either increase or decrease the power of gate-keepers. In Chile, the executive enjoys substantial agenda-setting powers. Presidents can declare ‘urgencies’ requiring that a bill be discussed in committee or chamber within a specified time period. Argentine presidents do not enjoy these powers (Alemán 2006: 130). But it is not the executive prerogatives of the Chilean president per se that affect policy outcomes on women’s rights. Rather, it is the existence of a relatively well-resourced women’s policy agency, the National Women’s Service (SERNAM), whose director enjoys ministerial status and can thus directly lobby the president to use urgencies to advance women’s rights bills. The existence of SERNAM, and more specifically, the legislative influence possessed by the agency, has compelled feminist legislators to develop a cooperative working relationship with the agency. SERNAM can help to move women’s rights bills through the committee process and on to chamber debates. Indeed, successful women’s rights legislation has almost always been supported by SERNAM, and, in many cases, has been introduced by the executive rather than by legislators (Haas 2006). While this reality can be frustrating for female legislators who would prefer to have their own names associated with particular women’s rights bills, SERNAM’s influence and greater access to technical and human resources13 make cooperation with SERNAM critical for the success of women’s rights initiatives.14,15 Women in Argentina’s congress cannot count on an influential ally whose role it is to promote gender equality in the executive branch. Although there is a women’s policy agency in the Argentine bureaucracy (the National Women’s Council), it has a very low rank and does not enjoy any legislative powers. In the Argentine congress, it is the president of each branch and the leaders of the legislative blocs (party caucuses) that act as policy gate-keepers. Because there are no formal deadlines for committees to address bills within a specified time, committees only deal with bills when caucus leaders or committee chairs take action (Alemán 2006: 133). Although there is a formal body (Commission on Parliamentary Work), comprised of the chamber’s president as well as all the caucus leaders, which sets the legislative agenda, a former staffer explained that it is the president of each chamber that enjoys the ‘full capacity to choose which bills are addressed and which are not’.16 Similarly, a senator explained in an interview that ‘it’s totally up to the committee chair [whether a bill advances], and even if there’s political will there, someone higher up – the president for example – will send signals to

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committee chairs about whether a bill should move or not’.17 This is why women’s rights bills almost always die in committees rather than being rejected in floor votes. Indeed, data show that caucus leaders’ control over the legislative agenda filters bills in such a way that those that make it to floor votes already have the support of the majority party (Alemán 2006: 144). In sum, the formal organizational rules in Argentina and Chile create different incentives for female legislators to introduce women’s rights initiatives and different opportunities for these initiatives to succeed. In Argentina, where caucus leaders play a key gate-keeping role, it is more difficult to have gender issues considered a high priority. Party leaders rarely prioritize gender issues, and party leaders tend to be men. In Chile, the executive has important agenda-setting powers. A legislator explained in an interview that the most common strategy for seeking progress on a legislative initiative is to generate support from the relevant ministry and lobby the minister to have the bill declared urgent.18 Hence, the existence of a well-resourced women’s policy machinery in the executive means that female legislators have an ally in that body.19 Although a women’s policy agency exists in Argentina as well, it does not play a legislative role, and has virtually no resources that could be deployed in the research, design, or lobbying in favour of women’s rights legislation.20 Gendered norms and informal institutions Women in Argentina’s congress have been far more active on certain gender issues, for example, reproductive rights, than their Chilean counterparts. The explanation for this is not that Argentina has a substantially larger proportion of female legislators, or even that there are more stridently feminist legislators in congress. Instead, there are certain informal rules and norms that govern the political process in the two countries that account for this difference. One of the most deeply entrenched informal institutions governing the Chilean political process since the return of democracy in 1990 is the norm of consensusseeking and conflict avoidance (Borzutzky and Weeks, forthcoming; Siavelis 2006). In practice, this means that the formal powers of the executive, for example, the ability to force debate on a bill by declaring ‘urgencies’, are only used after a president has already built support for the bill within the coalition parties and the opposition as well. According to Peter Siavelis, ‘reaching a pre-legislative acuerdo [agreement] is an integral part of the Chilean informal political game, with consequences for violation’ (2006: 50).

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Chile’s ‘democracy by agreements’ produces a substantial degree of self-censorship, whereby even female legislators with well-known feminist views avoid introducing bills on conflictual issues. In a context where abortion is highly controversial, few congresswomen have taken up the issue of decriminalizing abortion.21 The avoidance of policy initiatives on abortion was entrenched after a female legislator, Adriana Muñoz from the governing coalition, introduced a bill to decriminalize therapeutic abortion in 1991. She was vilified in the press and by conservative legislators (Blofield 2006). She also failed to win immediate re-election (although she did go on to win subsequent elections). This intensely negative reaction has reinforced the norm of self-censorship among feminist legislators, none of whom have associated themselves with explicitly pro-choice positions on abortion. In recent years, male legislators have been more active in pursuit of liberalizing abortion law, and a male legislator expressed some concern about his female colleagues’ hesitancy in pushing harder on this issue.22 This implies that it is easier for men to challenge informal institutions, especially on issues related to women’s gendered roles. But it is also important to note that both male and female legislators sympathetic to liberalizing Chile’s abortion law are more likely to be members of the centre-left governing coalition, a factor that further reduces women’s propensity to rebel or violate the norms of consensus-seeking. The costs of defection or rebellion are higher for members of governing parties, as Swers’s (2002) research on the USA finds. There, female Republicans were more likely to cross-party lines to ally with Democrats when their party was in opposition. In contrast, when the Republicans controlled Congress, women were less likely to defect from their party’s position on women’s issues. In Argentina, in contrast, the norms of politics do not include an emphasis on consensus-seeking or conflict avoidance. Indeed, political leaders often act in a unilateral fashion, and it is not uncommon for legislators to put forward initiatives that are controversial, or potentially divisive. In this context, women are more active on abortion than in Chile, even though Argentina already has a slightly more liberal law. In Argentina, there have been 37 bills to liberalize the abortion law between 2000 and 2008, with women introducing 76 per cent of the bills (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). In Chile, there have been only six initiatives to expand reproductive rights in that same time period (and only two of these bills can be considered explicit attempts to liberalize the law).23 These bills carry 26 signatures in total24 with women’s signatures representing 38 per cent of the total. This difference cannot

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be explained by numerical differences in women’s presence in the two bodies. Instead, the strong norms of conflict avoidance help to explain women’s behaviour in Chile. In Argentina, legislators perceive greater freedom to introduce bills on a range of issues, even if these issues are unlikely to receive their party’s support. If legislator actions (and inactions) were unproblematic indications of individual preferences, one would conclude that female legislators in Argentina are contributing to women’s substantive representation, while Chilean legislators are not (at least on this issue). But if the gendered institutional context is explored, it becomes evident that female legislators in Chile face greater constraints in acting on their preferences. The norms of conflict avoidance in Chilean politics, and the fact that most feminists are members of the governing coalition, encourage legislators to focus on issues that are less divisive and that have a greater chance of attracting broader support. Hence, female legislators have been more active on violence against women than reproductive rights due to the cross-party support for expanding the state’s role in protecting women from violence and for increasing sanctions for violent acts. Norms like consensus-seeking and conflict avoidance produce distinctly gendered outcomes, particularly because Chile’s parties are programmatic, well-disciplined, and organized around ideology. As such, gender issues are subject to partisan conflict, with conservatives taking positions that prioritize the traditional family and the more constrained gender roles that go along with it. The norm of consensus-seeking has thus led consecutive governments to avoid taking up potentially polarizing issues, especially women’s reproductive rights. In this way, the informal norms governing the political process in Chile reinforce unequal gender relations and mobilize bias to keep certain issues from assuming a spot on the policy agenda. Ideas Both HI and FPS emphasize the mobilizing potential of ideas. A good example is Argentina’s quota law (Ley de Cupos), whose impact goes beyond the greater numbers of women elected since its adoption in 1991. Quota laws can also create the idea that women are needed in politics precisely to act as substantive representatives for women. Hence, in countries where quota laws are adopted because of broad-based mobilization campaigns led by women, female legislators may perceive an obligation to represent women, an outcome that Franceschet and Piscopo (2008) term a ‘mandate effect’. Interviews

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with female legislators in Argentina reveal a sense of debt to women as a group because it was women’s collective action that produced the institutional changes that facilitated women’s access to elected office. As one legislator noted, ‘I would not have received the second spot on the list had it not been for the quota’. Not surprisingly, as women’s presence in both chambers grew as a result of the quota, the number of women’s rights bills introduced expanded considerably (Franceschet and Piscopo 2008). In this way, legislated gender quotas are a potential source of institutional change. To use Kathleen Thelen’s term, quotas may be a form of ‘layering’, whereby ‘institutional arrangements are renegotiated periodically in ways that alters their form and functions’ (2003: 213). Following Beckwith (2005), quotas are also a way of re-gendering politics in ways that legitimate both women’s presence and their actions as substantive representatives. At the very least, the incorporation of legislated quotas constitutes an explicit recognition that gender discrimination exists and needs to be remedied by institutional mechanisms. But, by explicitly acknowledging that women’s absence in politics is a problem, quotas also create the idea that women’s presence is needed precisely to promote issues of concern to women. This, in turn, legitimizes the idea that women are a politically relevant collective, which entails an explicit re-gendering of political institutions. In countries where the adoption of a quota law is preceded by extensive mobilization and political debate, the ultimate adoption of the law can therefore strengthen the link between women’s presence and women’s substantive representation. This occurred in Argentina. In Chile, on the other hand, while proposals for a quota law have been introduced by female legislators (on three occasions) and in 2008 by President Michelle Bachelet, advocates have been unsuccessful at generating much support, either across the political parties, or in civil society. Unlike in Argentina, women’s movements have not embraced the idea of gender quotas, perhaps reflecting the growing distance between the political class and social movements. Within the political class, quota opponents reinforce this division by framing quotas as a mechanism that would primarily benefit ‘elite’ women while doing little for ordinary Chilean women. Quota critics also emphasize that affirmative action policies are inconsistent with Chile’s deeply rooted meritocratic norms (Franceschet 2008). The nature of these debates, and the scant interest in quotas among organized women, do little to entrench the kinds of ideas and norms that would foster a sense

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of mandate or obligation for women in congress to focus on gender issues. By looking at informal institutions and norms, it is possible to understand why patterns of bill introduction differ across the two countries, particularly why women in Chile’s congress have been less active in certain areas. On the other hand, the contrast in the organizational rules, and particularly, the role of policy gate-keepers in the two countries, provides insight into why there have been more policy successes in Chile than in Argentina, despite the greater legislative activity by women in the Argentine Congress. The existence of SERNAM in Chile, combined with the executive’s greater agenda-setting powers means that, at least on issues where a cross-party consensus is possible, women’s rights issues can become legislative priorities. In sum, while the norms of consensus-seeking and conflict avoidance constrain the articulation of legislator preferences on potentially divisive issues, there are other organizational rules and institutional features that create opportunities for legislative success. In Argentina, in contrast, there are fewer constraints on female legislators to act on their preferences by introducing bills (even on controversial issues), but women’s lack of power in legislative institutions (i.e. their lack of leadership positions in congress), and their lack of an influential ally in the executive, means that their legislative initiatives face greater obstacles to success.

Conclusion This chapter argues that combining HI and FPS provides valuable tools for studying women’s substantive representation. A GI approach encourages a broader conception of substantive representation, one that includes both the actions of female legislators and the outcomes of those actions. This focus draws attention to gendered power asymmetries as well as the informal institutions that shape the legislative environment. A further strength of a GI framework is that it encourages scholars to abandon the search for a general theory in which specific variables are linked in a relationship believed to hold across space and time. Instead, this approach would seek a more contextualized and richly detailed account of how gender relations are inscribed in institutions in ways that shape women’s preferences and actions in legislative bodies and how those actions produce (or fail to produce) their desired outcomes. Cross-national comparisons are useful in this task because they draw

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attention to the importance of factors that may not be obvious to those who study single cases. The analysis above reveals not only that scholars of gender and politics ought to make more use of the concepts and methods used by HI, but also that HI would benefit from borrowing tools from FPS. Explicit attention to the gendered origins and underpinnings of institutions provides greater specificity to the power asymmetries and the mobilization of bias that HI seeks to uncover. Likewise, while HI emphasizes the importance of ideas and norms, FPS draws attention to specific ideas, namely, ideas about gender and expectations about the appropriate behaviour for men and women in specific gendered institutional environments. Finally, attention to gender offers a potential explanation for institutional change, something that HI is sometimes accused of lacking (Waylen 2009). A GI approach assumes that institutions can be regendered, as feminist activists and their allies seek change both from within and outside of institutions. The outcomes of these actions can produce new institutions (such as women’s policy machineries) or produce changes to existing institutions (such as candidate gender quotas).

Notes 1. Theoretical debates about women’s substantive representation have raised concerns about essentialism and the coherence of ‘women’s interests’ given the heterogeneity of women as a group. Due to space constraints, the chapter does not delve into these debates. The author’s view, however, is that the concept of ‘women’s interests’ remains useful so long as it is understood that the content of women’s interests is shifting, contextual, and open to democratic dialogue, rather than static and essential (see Vickers 2006). 2. This can include a number of things such as bill introduction, behind-thescenes lobbying to generate support for a bill, communication and sharing information with women’s organizations in civil society, and speaking out in support of gender issues in committees and parliamentary debates. 3. The distinction between substantive representation as process and outcome is drawn from Franceschet and Piscopo (2008). Some of the best work on women’s substantive representation in the USA, such as Dodson (2006), Swers (2002), and Tamerius (1995), also examines multiple stages of the legislative process. 4. Of course, because HI views institutions as historical creations, the organizational rules also reflect the outcome of conflict and power struggles. This is discussed in the next section. 5. This is not meant to imply that gender interests cannot be expressed in foreign affairs or finance. Indeed, these areas have important implications for gender relations. But even within these policy domains, the gendered aspects tend to be accorded less attention, particularly because they are defined as

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6.

7.

8.

9. 10. 11.

12.

13.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

19. 20.

21.

areas of ‘national’ interest and are therefore less amenable to the advancement of particularistic or group-based claims. In a number of Latin American countries, legislative initiatives have been introduced (and adopted in some cases) that add ‘right to life’ provisions to the Constitution, thereby substantially increasing the level of support needed to decriminalize abortion. This is an example of how institutional rules create obstacles to particular women’s rights policies. The analysis in this section is based on 32 interviews with legislators, staffers, and legislative assistants in the Argentine and Chilean Congresses. These interviews were conducted between July and December 2006 and May and June 2008. Interviewees were asked general questions about the legislative process, their strategies for pursuing their legislative goals, their motivations for taking up certain issues, and their perceptions about the role of women in legislative politics. The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The main reason for women’s under-representation in politics is not the lack of a quota law, but rather an electoral system that sets up very high barriers to women’s entry (Franceschet 2005). Interview, 20 May 2008, Valparaíso, Chile. Interview, 20 May 2008, Valparaíso, Chile. The executive enjoys the exclusive right to introduce legislation affecting the budget. Indeed, comparative politics scholars have noted that ‘the budgetary powers of Chile’s president are among the strongest in Latin America’ (Ferraro 2008: 103). A recent comparative study of legislators in Argentina and Chile found that Chilean legislators, on average, introduced 10.6 bills in the period under study, compared with 28.9 in Argentina (CERC 2005). SERNAM has a legal reform department whose role is to research and design legislative initiatives that promote women’s rights and equality. Individual legislators in Chile do not have access to the same resources. See Haas (2006) for a discussion of the tensions that have defined the relationship between feminist legislators and SERNAM. Interview, 6 June 2008, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Interview, 6 September 2006, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Interview, 20 May 2008, Valparaíso, Chile. SERNAM does not always promote the issues favoured by female legislators, and even when it does, it does not always succeed in convincing the president to prioritize the issue and use executive prerogatives to advance a bill. As will be discussed in the next section, there are a number of informal institutions governing the political process that determine what kinds of issues are more likely to advance. This was confirmed in interviews with a number of legislators and legislative assistants in Argentina. Under Chilean law abortion is illegal in all instances. While therapeutic abortion had been legal prior to 1989, the Pinochet dictatorship, as one of its final acts, re-criminalized abortion in all instances, including danger to the mother’s life. Interview, 23 May 2008, Santiago, Chile.

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78 Susan Franceschet 22. There was another attempt to decriminalize abortion in October 2006, but the bill, sponsored by a group of male legislators, was deemed inadmissible. (Interview with legislator from the Socialist Party, 21 November 2006, Valparaíso, Chile, and interview with one of the bill’s sponsors, 23 May 2008, Santiago, Chile.) 23. The records kept by the Chilean Congress do not distinguish between a bill’s primary sponsor and co-sponsors. 24. Interview, 2 August 2006, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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5 Gendering the Institutional Reform of the Welfare State: Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland Michelle Beyeler and Claire Annesley

Due to the intervention of feminist scholars, the gendered dimensions of welfare states have increasingly been recognized. In welfare state analysis there is now a clear understanding of the role of intersecting institutions in the structure of the welfare state, referred to as ‘welfare regimes’. Very importantly, feminists showed how different social policy systems enforce or weaken the ‘male-breadwinner principle’, which defines a gendered division of labour within the family (see for example Lewis 1992; Lewis and Ostner 1994; O’Connor et al. 1999; Sainsbury 1996). The contribution of feminist scholars has widened the scope of institutions considered significant in these regimes to include, for example, the gendered dynamics of the family and caring relationships, as well as the way in which these gender relations play out in other socio-economic spheres such as the labour market. In an unprecedented fashion, the significance of gender has become recognized and adopted by mainstream scholarship (Amenta 2003; Bussemaker and Van Kersbergen 1994; Esping-Andersen 1996, 1999; Pierson 2000b). Yet, while much progress has been achieved in classifying the gendered nature of welfare institutions, the literature is less adept at understanding the process of reforming the gendered institutional architecture of the welfare state in a way that promotes more gender equality. The male-breadwinner ideology clearly has lost its influence in the Western world. In many welfare states, policies were changed and services extended to improve the possibilities of reconciling family and work for both sexes. Examples are the recent far-reaching reforms in the 79

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United Kingdom and Germany. The male-breadwinner ideology, however, has not completely disappeared and, indeed, it still receives open political support from conservative forces in countries like Switzerland. Moreover, not all policy changes really lead to more gender equality. Some reforms of policies and institutions that at first sight look womenfriendly may turn out to set wrong incentives, or have unintended consequences that in the end reproduce gender inequalities. In this chapter we argue that a feminist institutionalist (FI) perspective should emphasize the dynamic aspects of welfare state analysis so that it is not only possible to understand the gendered institutional relations of the welfare state, but that it also becomes possible to theorize the ways in which these can be altered for more gender equality. An FI approach would thus focus on theorizing and analyzing (1) reasons, (2) agents, (3) opportunities and obstacles, and (4) directions for change. This approach draws on the conceptualization of institutions in new institutionalism (NI) as complexes of formal and informal rules. Therefore, we claim that an FI perspective should take a pluralist attitude towards the different schools of NI. Arguably, an open and pluralist attitude was one of the reasons why feminists have had such a significant impact on the welfare state literature thus far. In the first section, we outline our perspective on FI. In the second section, we briefly introduce the debate on welfare regimes and gender regimes, where we argue that such an FI perspective already exists, even if it has not previously been labelled that way. We claim, however, that the focus on reform could still be enhanced. In the third section, we therefore sketch different possible research questions related to the transition of the ‘male-breadwinner model’ based on our outline of FI. We illustrate our arguments with examples from the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, and Switzerland. We then conclude by summing up and presenting some lessons that can be drawn from the FI as it has been developed, and is still developing in the welfare state literature for other research fields.

Outline of a feminist institutionalism Feminist political theory is concerned with the reasons and effects of gender inequality and the unjust power structures that perpetuate them. Distinct from other theoretical positions, it also seeks to develop a political agenda aiming at more gender equality. Partly stemming from this political agenda, women’s agency and feminist agency, in particular, constitute core preoccupations of the feminist perspective. In our

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view, feminism has the potential to improve mainstream institutionalist analysis by bringing in the issues of gender, gender inequality, and women’s agency, as well as the awareness of the implications of explicit or implicit gender norms in society, policies, and political research. Can and should feminist scholars learn from NI, and to what benefit? In a recent issue of Politics & Gender (volume 5, number 2, 2009), feminist scholars involved in the FI development project have discussed concepts from rational choice institutionalism (RCI), sociological institutionalism (SI), historical institutionalism (HI), and discursive institutionalism (DI) and how these could be used, reformulated, and changed to fit the demands of feminist political science (FPS). We argue for a different path. FI should be developed as a different NI variant, developing and presenting its own concepts. The important questions, in our view, are not whether feminists should learn form different NI concepts or whether NI should rather incorporate feminist concepts of gender and power (Kenny and Mackay 2009; Krook and Mackay, this volume). The important issue in our view is to develop FI as an NI variant that is broad enough to capture as many issues and questions related to feminist concerns as possible, and at the same time is close enough to other NI variants to make a dialogue with the mainstream possible. To get there, we claim for an FI that takes a pluralist attitude towards the different NI variants. At the same time, FI should be ready to incorporate the core claim of NI, namely its conceptualization of institutions as systems of rules that can be both formal, like written norms, procedures, laws, and contracts, and informal, like norms of behaviour, codes of conduct, and conventions (Hall 1986; Hall and Taylor 1996; North 1990; Steinmo et al. 1992). Conceptualizing institutions as complexes of rules and norms helps to disentangle agency and structure in our analytical and empirical work. Institutions do not, in themselves, act or behave. Institutions are structures of incentives (Scharpf 2000) that influence perceptions and options of actors, but do not determine them. One should not lose sight of two core implications of this conceptualization. First, institutions consist of formal and informal rules, and second, institutions are complex systems of rules. These two aspects are particularly relevant for feminists and their strong interest in the issue of change and development. One always has to be aware that even if some formal rules are radically changed, the outcome will not necessarily be as radical, since many other – formal and often informal – rules still persist (North 1990). Similarly, while formal rules may be highly

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resistant towards reforms, institutions may nevertheless be changed in more subtle ways through developments in informal structures. Although sharing commonalities in the conceptualization of institutions, NI variants greatly diverge in their conceptualization of the relationship between actors and institutions. Feminist scholars often consider HI, and sometimes DI, to be the NI variants that are most compatible with feminist research. We diverge from this view and call for a pluralist attitude towards different NI variants. We contend that the different NI variants tend to complement rather than to contradict each other. HI, for instance, can be most fruitfully used to analyse the origins of gendered institutions and policy regimes, as well as the reform paths and the sources of stability. It provides, however, only incomplete analytical guidance regarding the chances and directions of change. In addition, HI has little to say about how institutions affect actor behaviour. In fact, when it comes to the discussion of institutional effects, HI often implicitly or explicitly relates its arguments to other institutionalist perspectives. In RCI analyses, institutions are seen primarily as external constraints that affect actors’ choices independently from their values, beliefs, and tastes. The advantage of treating institutions as independent from values is that they become amenable to relatively simple and straightforward choice models. The disadvantage is that RCI obscures indirect, unconscious, and long-lasting effects of institutions in perpetuating power imbalances and value structures. At first sight this seems to be incompatible with feminist concerns. Still, the simple and straightforward models derived from the RCI perspective should not be neglected in the analysis of gender-related issues. There are gains from analysing institutions in their capacity to set incentives and disincentives for gender-relevant decisions. From an analytical, scientific point of view, it is interesting to analyse how political regulations constrain and influence the choices of politicians, parliaments, individuals, and families in ways that affect gender relations and gendered outcomes. Due to their simplicity, such analyses are likely to gain political influence and point to specific reform needs. Political institutions constrain the decision-making process in a polity. In this function, institutional structures determine under what conditions and to what degree new policy solutions can be implemented. Furthermore, they specify the type and size of the policy coalition needed for a reform. Institutionalists pay attention to these various effects of decision-making rules. From a feminist perspective it makes

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sense to analyse the effects in terms of how gender issues and ideas are constrained or promoted within the general institutional setting. However, RCI arguments explain behaviour only up to a certain point. More complex, cultural models have to be applied when the simple, rationalist assumptions reach their limits. SI emphasizes the fact that rules and norms not only affect choices, but are often also internalized by actors, thereby shaping their perceptions, observations, and interpretations (Edeling 1998). SI and its conceptualization of actor behaviour as following a logic of appropriateness within institutional contexts (March and Olsen 1989) offers helpful tools for analysing the construction of gender-specific identities within specific organizational settings. Moreover, by pointing to internalized constraints, an SI lens helps uncover hidden gender effects of institutions stemming from processes of socialization and learning. Since the different institutionalist schools provide different lenses and perspectives that are useful for the analysis of institutions and gender issues, FI should not be contained to one variant. Openness towards the different disciplines and an emphasis on commonalities and complementarities of the different approaches is likely to offer greater breadth for motivating a diverse and interesting research agenda. Moreover, a pluralist attitude also makes it easier for feminist researchers to communicate and collaborate with mainstream researchers. The core distinguishing element of the FI approach per se, in our view, is the preoccupation for issues of gender equality and the question of how gender equality is achieved. A focus on political reforms requires including political actors and political power structures in the analysis. From a feminist perspective, particular attention should thus be given to political activity of, and for women. Extending simple group and coalition theories, institutionalist analysis points to the role of formal and informal constraints in mediating between political actors and their interests on the one hand, and political outcomes (for example, regulations, laws, administrative structures, and polices) on the other. Power and conflict in FI analysis should therefore be conceptualized as constrained and shaped by institutions.

FI already exists: The literature on gender and welfare regimes We discuss and elaborate these claims based on examples of welfare state research, noting that FI already has been developed and applied very successfully in feminist contributions to the welfare regime literature.

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One fruitful way of conducting institutionalist research that is attentive to complexes of rules and norms is to identify ideal-typical institutional regimes. A regime perspective helps to compare, classify, understand, and analyse countries. In welfare state analysis this approach has been very influential, especially since Esping-Andersen’s seminal Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990), whose scholarship introduced an approach towards the welfare state which argued that complexes of different policy measures reflect similar political ideologies and principles. Crucially, his approach highlighted the ways in which institutional configurations are interrelated to form distinctive yet coherent regimes. These were, for him, the social democratic, conservative, and liberal welfare state regimes. Esping-Andersen initially paid little attention to gender issues, thereby provoking forceful and lively feminist critique from scholars such as Lewis (1992), Orloff (1993), and Fraser (1994). More generally, the exclusion of the family and caring relationships from Esping-Andersen’s original analysis was particularly obvious in his core concept of ‘decommodification’. Feminist scholars quickly realized that this concept was flawed with regard to the situation of women. ‘Decommodification’ refers to formal policies which enable citizens to enjoy a certain standard of living independent of their labour market participation. However, for many women, welfare policies concerned ones which enabled them to take up a job in addition to performing care responsibilities. The paradox was that non-working women had to become ‘commodified’ before they could become ‘decommodified’, and no welfare state value was attached to the roles they performed in the family. Finally, Three Worlds failed to recognize the crucial role that non-working women performed to enable men to be breadwinners, freeing them up from domestic work, or the fact that formally employed women would be less likely to benefit from such free domestic assistance. Feminist scholars did not contain themselves to criticisms, but also offered alternatives and amendments to the Three Worlds typology. Esping-Andersen’s basic idea of analysing welfare states by identifying complexes of rules, norms, and policies was, in general, not challenged by his feminist critics. On the contrary, their concepts and arguments indicate that an FI approach already exists. Instead of analysing the degree of ‘decommodification’ of social policies, these scholars focused on the degree to which the male-breadwinner model was implemented in different welfare systems (Lewis 1992; Sainsbury 1994, 1996, 1999). Lewis (1992), for example, characterized Western welfare states according to the degree to which the welfare state is prepared to support a

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woman independent of a male breadwinner, labelling these as either strong, modified, or weak male-breadwinner states. Sweden counted as an example of a weak male-breadwinner country, France as a modified male-breadwinner state, and Ireland and the UK as strong malebreadwinner countries. Along similar lines, Sainsbury (1994, 1996) showed that contributionbased social protection systems in particular tend to assume a gendered division of labour in the family with an earner, who gets social protection through compulsory contributions to social insurances, and a carer, whose social rights are derived from a spouse’s contributions. Although this is, in general, not formally regulated, the basic assumption is that women take the part of the carer and men the part of the earner. Welfare states that strongly rely on contribution-based protection systems are frequently also characterized by strong measures to protect employees from dismissal. These labour market regulations reflect a preoccupation of the state for securing the (male) breadwinner income. In addition, other policy principles, such as the joint taxation of couples, as well as the definition of care responsibilities as private, and their assignment to the tasks of the family, contribute to perpetuating the male-breadwinner model through the welfare state. In later contributions, Esping-Andersen (1999, 2003) accepted the core of the feminist critique and included familialism as a second dimension to his welfare regime analysis. He managed to add this dimension without changing the most fundamental of his 1990 claims by showing that familialism is particularly strong in countries belonging to the conservative cluster and particularly low in countries belonging to the socialdemocratic countries. He argued that the welfare regime also defined the relationship between state, market, and the family. For the organization of care work this implies that liberal welfare regimes (like the United States) emphasize private solutions, while the social-democratic welfare regimes (like Sweden) prioritize public services. Conservativecorporatist regimes (like Germany) rely on a familial division of labour with one earner, who is protected on the labour market and entitled to social security benefits, and a carer, whose social rights are derived from those attained by the earner. The Three World typology and its relevance for gender outcomes, however, remained controversial (Adams and Padamsee 2001). Lewis (1992) had already showed that gender regimes do not necessarily coincide with Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime: the male-breadwinner principle was quite modified in France (classified as a conservative welfare state) and rather strongly implemented in the UK (classified as a liberal welfare

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state). Similarly, O’Connor et al. (1999) argued that within the liberal countries (Canada, Australia, the UK, and USA), considerable variation exists with regard to gender policies. Yet, studies including wider ranges of countries showed that differences in family policies, at least partially, cluster with the conventional regime typologies (Gauthier 2002; Gornick et al. 1997). Further work emphasized the societal organization of care work, identifying care arrangements or care regimes (Bettio and Plantenga 2004; Daly and Lewis 2000; Lewis 1998; Pfau-Effinger 2005). In all these contributions, a preoccupation for gender equality issues was clearly visible. There appears to be, however, a shift in the core preoccupations raised by the scholars. While in its first wave, feminist contributions to the welfare regime discussion were primarily concerned with bringing women into the labour force (that is, ‘commodification’), with newer accounts increasingly shifting towards policy measures that incite men to take up an equal share with regard to caring responsibilities. This turn is connected to the growing awareness among feminists that, for many mothers working in the formal labour market the price has been a much higher workload than that of men. Feminist researchers of policy debates realized that the issue of care and of who does what amount of care work in a society is frequently neglected. Mahon (2006) shows that the discourses on reconciliation policies in the OECD emphasize the role of mothers in formal labour and in the economy, and neglect the roles of parents (of both sexes) as carers for dependent children and frail elderly. Lewis (2006) identifies a very similar policy discourse at the EU level. There are a number of remarkable features with regard to these debates. A feminist lens clearly shapes the way in which institutions and institutional mechanisms are analysed. Feminists shared the view that Esping-Andersen’s analysis of welfare regimes was deficient and they contributed with interesting and influential approaches to the debate. These contributions, even if they had not been presented under that label up to that point, can be conceived as FI analyses of the welfare state. They built upon, or provided alternatives to the existing welfare state concepts (see also Sainsbury 2008). The scholars were open towards different cultural, historical, and rational (political economy) approaches. And finally, most importantly for our classification of FI, they were preoccupied with the institutional effects on women as a category and, more specifically, with gender equality. And as, for instance, Morgan (2008) or Lewis et al. (2008) nicely demonstrate, the analysis may lead to concrete policy recommendations for the wider feminist cause.

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What is especially noteworthy about feminist interventions into welfare regime analysis is the fact that it has been taken up by the mainstream, not least Esping-Andersen, who has firmly adopted the institution of the family into his analysis. Gender issues have, as a consequence, become a central pillar in welfare state research. According to Pierson, feminist scholarship has made a major contribution to welfare state research as ‘it has explained why the outcomes that welfare state scholars have traditionally investigated need to be reconceptualized and expanded’ (2000b: 800).

Pushing the FI agenda in welfare state research: Making sense of recent reforms The male-breadwinner model as a guiding principle is increasingly losing its relevance in social policy programmes. Many advanced welfare states currently face massive changes with regard to family policies and a considerable expansion of publicly subsidized child-care programmes. Among the welfare states that faced the largest reforms are Germany and the UK. Both countries have been traditionally strong male-breadwinner states and have now strongly changed the basic policy settings towards the dual-earner principle. How can we understand and explain these massive reforms? How can FI contribute to analysing these reforms? We discuss a number of issues and possible research questions that arise from an FI lens as we specified it above. We illustrate our arguments with examples from Germany, the UK, and Switzerland. According to Esping-Andersen’s Three World typology, Germany belongs to the conservative cluster and the UK to the liberal one. Switzerland does not clearly belong to either one: its contributionbased schemes point at the conservative side, but the labour market has many liberal characteristics. In contrast to Germany and the UK, there have been only smaller changes towards more women-friendly family policies in Switzerland. High reform capabilities and favourable reform discourses in Germany One core issue of institutional analysis has always been to show how institutional structures constrain and enable policy change (Hall 1993). A simple institutionalist model of reform would emphasize two issues needed to bring about change: first, the reform capabilities defined by the political power distribution as well as the decision-making institutions and, second, the awareness of reform needs defined by the

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dominant political discourse. Large reforms are possible, once the ideas that underpin the policy programme and the policy instruments come under strain (Baumgartner and Jones 2002). If a frame of a failed policy dominates the debate, new policy proposals are likely to mark a very clear departure from the previous solution (Palier 2005: 141). Germany, in our view, is such a case, where large reform capabilities and a frame of policy failure have led to significant reforms. German family policy after reunification rested on high cash transfers to families but only few services (for example, child care). By the end of the 1990s the system was increasingly criticized for its ineffectiveness, given persisting child poverty and low birth rates. In addition, marriage-related benefits were considered problematic as they incited partners in childless couples to stay at home, and generally reduced women’s labour market participation (Ostner, 2010). The new policy solutions that were proposed marked a clear departure from the maternalist, family-based values. The new agenda to be met was primarily based on employment (mothers should take up paid work) and to a lesser degree educational (public high-quality care of children) goals. The policies were not primarily framed as measures to increase gender equality. The policy ideas and the framing strategies were in line with proposals debated in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union (EU), that emphasize the activation of mothers, while neglecting the wider issue of parenting and caring (Lewis 2006; Mahon 2006). This discourse, together with a large reform capability due to a coalition government between the Christian and the Social Democrats, resulted in extensive reform programmes. In 2007, a new tax-funded parental leave was introduced, granting a wage replacement of 67 per cent of former earnings for 14 months. The leave is only fully paid for a lone parent or if the second partner takes at least two months of the leave entitlement. This new scheme was designed to encourage higher qualified, well-paid women to continue employment when having children and for skilful employed women to have children. Moreover, by introducing two socalled daddy months, the reform took up the newest feminist concerns of engaging fathers more in the care work. Contrary to the older leave scheme, the new one discourages longer labour market exits of mothers. While rewarding the well-paid working parents, poorer parents are worse off with the new scheme, because benefit rates and duration of the leave were cut down. Still, combined with larger programmes to extend the provision of day-care facilities, the new policy is clearly consistent with the goal of having mothers in the labour market.

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While classical NI models may suffice to explain why there have been large reforms, there are still many open questions that should be analysed from a feminist perspective. How can we explain this strong focus on the activation of women? Why have arguments about the support for carers (Betreuungsgeld) been marginalized (see Ostner, 2010)? Maybe the reason is a lack of mobilization of women and the marginalization of gender issues in the political debates. But these issues still need further investigation and comparative assessments. In particular, we should aim at developing new concepts that help to classify, and evaluate, and compare such reform efforts with regard to their impacts on gender equality. Reform inconsistencies in Switzerland Given the large reforms in family policy, influential scholars have cast doubt on the further applicability and usefulness of welfare regime typologies for studying gender issues and the welfare state (Lewis 2006). Regime analysis, as Esping-Andersen (1999: 73) points out, has a strong static component. The approach is very helpful for identifying large, general patterns, but does not perform particularly well as a tool for grasping development and change. This is certainly true. But the regime approach also teaches us that there are complex interrelationships between formal rules and informal constraints, as well as between different sectors. These interlocking institutions have to be kept in mind when it comes to analysing change. Women-friendly changes in one policy field – even if they are significant – in the end may only have little impact on gender equality, if inequality persists in other domains. Thus, even a massive expansion of public day-care facilities may have only limited effects on gender equality if the institutional set-up of the labour market still contributes to the resilience of gender inequalities. If career and working models are still based on the idea of continuous, full-time engagement for the firm, parenthood is likely to put dualearner couples under a high strain to reconcile the demands of their children and their bosses. If this is the case, it is plausible that the couple may decide to concentrate on one career and that the second earner may only work part-time and give up his or her career aspirations. This is known as the ‘one-and-a-half-adult-worker-model’.1 In almost all cases, the part-time component, which is more likely to be linked to the renouncement of a career, is taken by the woman. This phenomenon is widespread in Switzerland. Although female employment is rather high in Switzerland compared to most other OECD countries, many women, especially when they have small

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children, only work short, part-time hours. Twenty-five per cent of all women work less than 19 hours a week and another 22 per cent work between 20 and 29 hours. These are the highest short, part-time rates in the OECD world with the exception of the Netherlands, where working part time is, however, also quite common among men.2 Gender-specific role models, as well as societal values linked to motherhood, may explain this pattern to a certain degree. Of large concern from a feminist perspective should, however, be that policy regulations are set up which set incentives towards such a gender-specific, workcare pattern: Buetler (2007) calculated for the city of Zurich3 the direct household income effects of a change in working hours of a dual-earner couple with small children in formal day care. Because subsidies are only given up to a certain threshold household income, an increase in working hours may reduce total household income. This negative effect on the household income is particularly large if both parents have a middle-high income, for example, as teachers or in positions in lower management. Moreover, the effect is particularly pronounced if the second earner switches from a 40 per cent to a 60 per cent workload. In the Swiss labour market, shorter-hour, part-time jobs, for example below 60 per cent of an equivalent full-time position, are mostly incompatible with executive functions and responsibilities. Because there is no deduction of tax for private contributions towards child-care facilities, high-income couples also face negative incentives (to a certain degree) in choosing to work longer hours. Such perverse incentives partially explain why shorter-hour, part-time employment for women is so high in Switzerland. On the other hand, the system also reflects the institutionalized principle of a model that gives the mother the possibility to work part time in order to stay in the labour market, but no incentives to keep her career aspirations intact. The likely result is a strong persistence in horizontal labour market segregation. This example points out that it is not sufficient to focus on seemingly gender-friendly policy developments, such as public measures to expand day-care facilities, to decide whether the welfare state has become more ‘gender friendly’ or not. New policies may also create new disincentives to gender equality. Such disincentives may arise from cost–benefit calculations at the level of households, which may be influenced by policies. This example also shows that the simple and straightforward models derived from the rationalistic perspective should not be neglected in the analysis of gender-related issues. There are gains from analysing institutions in their capacity to set incentives and disincentives for

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gender-relevant decisions. From an analytical, scientific point of view, it is interesting to analyse how political regulations constrain and influence the choices of individuals and families in ways that affect gender relations and gendered outcomes. If incentives create problematic gendered outcomes, one might also be able to develop a highly compelling political argument for why, and in what direction the regulation should be changed. Due to their simplicity, such analyses are likely to gain political influence and point to specific needs for reform. Women’s agency and welfare reforms in the UK One strand where gender analysis and feminist research has also contributed greatly to the welfare literature relates to analyses focusing on the role of women in the formation and development of welfare states. To date, feminist historical studies on the origins of welfare states have found evidence of the role played by women’s political agency in shaping social policies in the period from 1880 to 1920. Studies by Koven and Michel (1990), Skocpol (1992), Skocpol and Ritter (1991), and Lewis and Ostner (1994) have identified the important role of women’s agency in the period of welfare state construction in the UK, the USA, France, and Germany. Koven and Michel (1990), for example, argue that in those four countries large-scale welfare policies and programmes emerged at the same time as women’s social action movements. Although women lacked the formal political power to shape the welfare state according to their vision, they nonetheless played a significant role via women’s grassroots organizations and national and international lobbying groups, which pressed for maternal and child welfare benefits. More recent studies (Daly and Lewis 2000; Daly and Rake 2003) make some important claims about women’s social and economic agency as clients of the welfare state. However, there is a gap in the literature on the capacity of women as political agents to shape and reform the programmes and policies of the contemporary welfare state (Annesley 2007). There are important indications that feminist agency can play an important role in welfare reconfiguration and this can be illustrated by the significant reforms in the domain of work–life reconciliation policy in the UK since 1997. These have extended to women’s and men’s rights to leave when a child is born, as well as the right to request flexible employment to parents of young children and those with other caring responsibilities. From 1998 to 1999, the government extended the entitlement to paid maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks with and additional 29 weeks’ unpaid leave, and implemented the European Union parental-leave directive, offering parents 13 weeks’ unpaid parental

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leave. Further reforms were introduced incrementally, with the rights being extended and improved at each stage. The first major wave of reform, set out in the Work and Parents: Competitiveness and Choice Green Paper (2000), extended the right to maternity leave to 52 weeks in total, 26 of which were paid. It also introduced to fathers the right to two weeks’ paternity leave. A second Green Paper, Work and Families: Choice and Flexibility (2005) led to a further set of reforms which extended the right to paid maternity leave to 39 weeks (with a commitment to 52 weeks by the end of the legislative period) and introduced the possibility of developing legislation to allow a mother to transfer her second six months of maternity leave to the father. These reforms are significant in at least two ways. In the context of a liberal welfare regime, they introduce generous periods of paid leave, currently 39 weeks with a promise of 52. The flip side of this development is that the level of payment during maternity leave is not high: 90 per cent of previous earnings for the first six weeks, but then a flatrate statutory maternity pay – at £123.06 per week at the time of writing – kicks in. This rate is low. To put it in perspective, if one worked 35 hours on the government’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) one would earn £203.00. The second significant feature of these reforms is that the emphasis is strongly on extending extensive rights to mothers, rather than to parents, or to mothers and fathers on an equal basis. Fathers have just two weeks’ paid leave at the statutory rate of maternity pay, and the proposed six months’ transferable maternity leave, if it ever comes to fruition, would be in the mother’s gift and paid at below the NMW rate of statutory maternity pay, if at all. As such, the reforms reinforce the social view that women care for children, and the reforms do little to redistribute the division of informal labour in the institution of the family. The developments pose two questions about (1) how the extension of welfare rights is possible in a liberal welfare state in an era of liberal political economy and welfare retrenchment, and (2) why these policy developments take the gendered direction that they do. The answer is feminist political agency. The welfare reforms were articulated, developed, and pushed through by an informal, but tightly-knit, group of Labour Party feminists. This group forged close links during Labour’s period in opposition from 1979–1997, campaigning for improvements to women’s representation in parliament. Politicized by this, the group pushed from 1997 onwards for feminist reform of the economy, welfare state, and international relations. In welfare policy they advocated

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reform to support women, but paid less attention to men, as they were aware that women’s votes won Labour the election in 1997 and there were no similar demands from men. Despite calls from gender equality groups such as the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Fawcett Society, work–life balance policies which emphasized men were not pursued. The key to policy change was the presence of key feminist actors in the institutional sites most important for the process of UK policy-making. This gets at the important finding that Labour Party feminists held office in the key sites of decision-making in the UK: the core executive, with ministers, the Prime Minister’s Office (No. 10), and the Treasury, as particularly significant. For example, Patricia Hewitt was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women from 2001–2005 when the second wave of maternity reforms was being pushed through, while Carey Oppenheim was Social Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair and played an important role in developing the agenda and fostering support internally and externally (Annesley 2010).4 This is an example of where feminist actors in a political system promoted a certain gendered discourse on welfare reform – a gender difference discourse, extending rights for mothers – and secured concrete policy outcomes. However, discourse on welfare reform comes from different sources, including the EU and other international organizations. Moreover, the UK government faces comparatively low levels of institutional constraints to reform. In contrast to Switzerland, where strong federalism and especially direct democracy often make reforms difficult and timely, the reform capabilities were very high.

Conclusions FI, according to our conceptualization, brings together feminist theory and institutionalist concepts not only to analyse differences and change, but also to contribute to feminist reforms. It takes a pluralist attitude towards the different NI variants and keeps an eye on its conceptualization of institutions. We argued that FI analysis is already very present and influential in welfare research. We also pointed at some puzzles and questions related to the newer welfare state dynamics, where we would like to encourage further FI work to develop. In particular, we call for the development of concepts that allow us to evaluate and compare the recent reform programmes with regard to their effects on gender equality. Such concepts should not only take into account activation of mothers, but also focus on the concept of

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care and a more equal sharing of caring tasks by women and men. A clearer evaluation scheme will also be helpful for studying the conditions and political contexts under which reforms that lead to greater gender equality are possible. Such studies should be attentive towards women’s agency and the structural conditions under which women are likely to have an effect on reforms. Feminist research was, and very likely will continue to be influential in welfare state research. A last question we therefore want to address is whether this feminist success story might be transformed to other areas of FPS. Welfare policies do have obvious, observable effects on women and gender role models. In most other areas of political research, the importance of women’s issues is potentially less obvious and less visible to the mainstream, making it certainly more difficult to awaken gender awareness. Moreover, welfare state researchers tend to be more preoccupied with their issue than with developing a particular methodology or theoretical approach. This contributed to a research field that is more open than others to different methodologies and interdisciplinary arguments (Amenta 2003). Still, there is a lesson for feminist researchers in other fields: one thing that made feminist arguments about the welfare state compelling to mainstream researchers was that they not only criticized, but also built upon the concepts used by the mainstream. This made the dialogue possible and fruitful.

Notes 1. An equal sharing of care responsibilities in such a labour market setting is of course possible, but in such cases both parents risk losing their career opportunities. 2. OECD family database (www.oecd.org/els/social/family/database) accessed October 2009. 3. Public day-care subsidies are regulated at the communal level, and the tax system varies between cantons. The mentioned study calculates income effects in the context of the city of Zurich. While there have been recent attempts to change the financing rules, similar systems still persist in other Swiss communes, especially in the German-speaking part of the country. 4. This case study derives from Claire Annesley’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project RES–000–22–1615, ‘Gendering Welfare Reform in Emerging Adult Worker Model Welfare States: The UK’.

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6 Gender and Institutions of Multi-Level Governance: Child Care and Social Policy Debates in Canada Joan Grace

It could be said that to study Canadian politics is to study institutions. While much has been written about the formal and informal practices that have animated the Canadian institutional landscape, analysing macro-governing structures through a feminist lens remains remarkably understudied. To be sure, there have been important contributions. Early work by Teghtsoonian (1992) investigated the influence of federal institutions on child-care policy development, a key policy sector of the feminist movement activism, while the contribution of Vickers (1994) squarely placed the tension between feminism, women’s policy objectives, and federalism at the centre of analysis. More recently, Chappell’s (2002a) analysis of feminist policy advocacy in Canada and Australia added comprehensive and significant comparative insights about the impact of federal structures. I propose to build on this seminal work by marrying the theoretical and empirical tenets of historical institutionalism (HI) with the transformational objectives of feminism to provide a gender critique of the idea and practice of Canadian federalism. From one vantage, HI draws our attention to the institutions that comprise the state, the consequences of history regarding the institutionalization of practices, and the relative permeability of multi-level governance structures. From the other, feminist political science (FPS) brings to the analysis a gendered conceptualization of federalism and a focus on how the institutions of the state contribute to perpetuating women’s inequality. For my purposes, federalism is conceptualized as macro-political structures which 95

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have institutionalized power sharing and multi-level governance as ‘a system of continuous negotiation among nested governments at several territorial tiers’ (Marks 1993: 392). I apply feminist institutionalism (FI) to critically examine the principles of Canadian federalism and the practice of multi-level governance highlighted through two policy debates: the Social Security Review (SSR), which took place between 1994 and 1995, and the 1999 Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA). These two policy events were selected because they were defining moments in restructuring the social safety net in English Canada and because they represent the concretization of neo-liberal politics. As such, the SSR and SUFA are interconnected policy developments as part of a historical trajectory towards the development of flexible intergovernmental relations. The SSR and SUFA underscore the necessity to analyse the public policy landscape from an FI perspective. Although largely gender blind, Canadian academic enquiry has often had an institutional focus amply demonstrating how federalism has structured federal and provincial intergovernmental dynamics, policy outcomes, and state–society relations (Bakvis and Chandler 1987; Bakvis and Skogstad 2002; Rocher and Smith 2003). A feminist analysis brings to the fore overlooked and under-conceptualized dimensions of the politics of multi-level governance in Canada. The SSR experience reveals, for example, the importance of looking to the dominant political discourse, which ironically obstructed a gendered understanding of child care. A gendered analysis redirects institutional attention to women’s policy agencies to assess whether they were able to promote a progressive agenda and whether state feminism was able to extend beyond the institutional confines of the two levels of government to advance the goals of the women’s movement. With respect to SUFA, FI highlights the gendered dimensions of fiscal arrangements between the levels of government and the way in which women’s voices were marginalized from policy discussions within the closed practices of accommodation associated with executive federalism. Overall, I have two objectives. The first is to make the case for FI as a critical approach to political analysis, which brings to new institutionalism (NI) a radical understanding of institutions, the political context, and policy outcomes. The second goal is to explore Canadian federalism through this rigorous lens. I ultimately conclude that the SSR and SUFA, framed by a politics of accommodation, were critical junctures which provided an opportunity to develop a child-care policy that could have addressed some of the English Canadian women’s movement policy

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demands, yet the result was no, or little policy outcome due to degendered intergovernmental machinations.

From historical to feminist institutionalism HI attends to the consequences of policy trajectories and the ways in which institutions mediate politics. It is an approach that has been highly productive in reminding analysts that institutions are embedded in a particular socio-political context and that history matters (Thelen and Steinmo 1992: 3). In building the case for a feminist critique of federalism and multi-level governance, I look to HI to recognize institutions as ‘the legacy of concrete historical processes’ (Thelen 1999: 382). It is a perspective, Waylen reminds, which demands careful analysis through ‘structured comparison and historical process tracing’ (2009: 246). HI is also a fruitful approach because it highlights how past choices often hinder future policy developments and institutional change (Wilsford 1994: 251–283). Path dependencies are of particular interest to social policy advocates, who often seek dramatic change to existing public policy regimes. From a feminist perspective, policy and institutional continuity pose a formidable challenge for women’s groups, who not only advocate policy reform, but who also wish to contribute to a rewriting of history that counters and subverts institutionalized practices and normalized policy relationships. This is often difficult given the complex architecture of Canadian federalism which presents to feminist policy advocates a wide stretch of government to navigate (federal, provincial, territorial, and sometimes municipal), and hence a broad array of political elites to persuade. This situation is often vexing to women’s groups, who neither possess significant policy influence, nor the financial resources to engage in sustained political campaigns. However, as Thelen (2004) notes, part of the analytical endeavour of HI is to uncover interactions among institutionally located actors or to expose negotiations and events which take place within various sites of institutional activity which open up possibilities of change. In other words, path dependencies can be disrupted or derailed due to critical events or junctures, and because institutions continue to ‘evolve in response to changing environmental conditions’ (Thelen 1999: 387). HI, however, does not theoretically consider institutions to be gendered, nor does the approach empirically analyse institutions of government and the machinery of the bureaucracy as perpetuating gendered power relations. From a methodological, theoretical, and empirical

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perspective, feminist theorizing intensifies HI by critically unravelling understandings of institutional effects. From this point of view, we come to understand institutions as ‘instruments of social organization that exercise collective power over a number of generations’ (Vickers et al. 1993: 133–134), with power understood to be stratified by gender, sex, sexuality, race, ability, and economic status, which is unevenly distributed within society and the economy. Indeed, one of the great strengths of FI is that gender and power are analytically anchored (Kenny 2007; Kenny and Mackay 2009) by attending to women’s different relationship to the welfare state from men’s (Vickers 1994). That is, while at times protecting and advancing women’s equality, the Canadian welfare state institutionalized women’s systematic discrimination by engendering particular attitudes about women’s roles in the private and public spheres. Women were recognized in emergent Keynesian welfare states largely as members of a gender regime ‘through the lens of the nuclear family as wives, mothers, and widows ... to reinforce a particular family form and model of social reproduction’ (Brodie 2008: 150). Although many of the most egregious, sexist laws have been repealed and the patriarchal regime has shifted and even muted in some sectors, gendered power dynamics remain relative yet steadfast. Women activists continue to confront a political landscape that is at times hostile to feminist policy goals, or is simply blasé about women’s sustained inequitable treatment and socio-economic situation. As a consequence, women’s groups persist to subvert gendered relations of power, and along the way, reveal why, and why not, governing practices either accept or obstruct their policy objectives. Although path dependencies are a policy and institutional reality, FPS cautions that the state should not be taken to be static nor overly determinative; it is ‘mutable and multi-faceted’ and hence can be a ‘terrain of struggle’ (Dobrowolsky and Saint-Martin 2005: 4). We see this in the Canadian context, with the state form shifting during the 1970s from a Keynesian welfare state influenced by social liberalism, to the more contemporary neo-liberal, social investment state. With this in mind, this study applies a rather loose conception of path dependency to be mindful of ‘unpredictable outcomes and ongoing contestation’ (Waylen 2009: 251). FI is adept in highlighting the often challenging interface between women’s groups and the state by further revealing how gendered power relations are embedded in bureaucratic rules and practices located within the state, and how women’s policy agencies, as an inside ally to the women’s movement, attempt to act as a counter-balance. From an FI perspective, informational resources and norms that structure

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individual participation and behaviour within institutions are understood to be gendered. Here, gender is understood in terms of the work of Scott’s two propositions that gender is a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes, and gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power (1986: 1067). To argue that a policy outcome is gendered refers to the way in which ‘advantage and disadvantage, exploitation and control, action and emotion, meaning and identity, are pattered through and in terms of a distinction between male and female, masculine and feminine’ (Acker 1990: 146). A gendered institution means that gender is present in the ‘processes, practices, images and ideologies, and distributions of power’ within that site (Acker 1992: 567). Norms and values within institutions shape the behaviour of actors buttressed by ‘well-defined guidelines about how men and women should act and the value that is ascribed to masculine and feminine behaviour’ (Chappell 2002a: 11). Although durable, these differences and distinctions, however, are not always transparent. Practices and internal cultures of these organizations rest on gender neutral principles of merit and assumptions that neither the ‘sex of bureaucrats, nor of policy recipients, makes a difference to the objectives of policy, to the ways policies are implemented, or to the ways in which the interests of men and women are institutionalized in public administration’ (Goetz 1992: 6). And often the interests of women, Fraser (1989) would argue, become depoliticized within bureaucratic structures due to expert needs talk or administrative discourses that translate politicized needs into manageable needs more commonly referred to as social services. Once in the administrative surrounding, for example, women’s need for child care as primary caregivers becomes decontextualized from the social (set apart from women’s experiences within the gender relations of power) and recontextualized within the bureaucratic confine.

Contesting Canadian federalism The principles upon which federalism was established at Confederation in 1867 have had a lasting impact on the way in which federal and provincial governments have responded to women’s policy objectives. Political compromise set in place by constitutional division of powers ensured a measure of centralized power, while also facilitating the expression of local autonomy. Asymmetrical features of the constitution and local autonomy have generally worked to the advantage and preference of the feminist movement in Quebec, who have participated

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in provincial state-craft and nation building. For women in English Canada, however, policy areas crucial to women’s equality were put into the hands of provincial governments with less fiscal strength, limited taxation powers, and hence weaker policy clout (Vickers 1994). The federal government was empowered with responsibility for national fiscal and monetary policy, and enjoyed much wider taxation capability, while provincial jurisdictions were given responsibilities over policy sectors of import to women, such as education, health care, income security, and workplace safety. From a feminist perspective this is significant, since crucial aspects of women’s well-being have been left within jurisdictions that are sometimes unable to comprehensively fund, or even develop substantive policy. The division of powers also set in place normative ideas that women’s issues were best left to the local jurisdiction, which became further institutionalized during welfare state development. Due to the division of powers, federalism in Canada has been practised and cast in terms of interdependence between the two levels, or as ‘the art of accommodation taken to the level of a principle of government’ (Peach 2007: 3). Of course, seeking accommodation has not always been easy or been achieved. There have been protracted eras of conflictual federalism, notably during the 1970s and 1980s, which resulted in the patriation of the constitution. Seeking accommodation has, nonetheless, been a defining element of Canadian federalism attempting to balance federal political priorities with the jurisdictional powers of provincial governments. During the last three decades or so, accommodation has often been sought through interstate federalism, or executive federalism, a term developed to characterize one-to-one meetings of provincial Premiers and the Prime Minister, or meetings between Premiers (executive inter-provincialism). Since the 1970s, executive federalism has become an important feature of federal– provincial–territorial relations, arguably because political elites have sought an intergovernmental forum to negotiate pressing policy issues unencumbered by the demands of bureaucratic or public scrutiny. From this admittedly brief overview of federalism, and looking to the work of Rubenstein (2006), Canadian federalism constitutes two broad, although intimately linked, aspects. The first aspect is the principles or values which underpin Canadian federalism, which are analysed here through the lens of political accommodation. The second aspect is the practice of federalism, which includes executive federalism and intergovernmental relations to highlight the importance of multi-level governance and associated policy processes. The principle and practice

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of federalism have been problematic for women. Canada is decidedly a territorial federal system, with policy jurisdictions divided between two quite powerful levels of government, each keenly protective of their political interests. The trajectory of accommodation with respect to federal–provincial relations evolved down a path, especially since the emergence of executive-federalism, with provinces and the federal governmental authorities as the accommodated actors, and citizens as the indirect beneficiaries. Territorial accommodation has become the conventional frame of reference and the accepted political discourse. Moving beyond these ideational confines is a challenge for the women’s policy agenda. Federal government elites have often been preoccupied with responding to provincial concerns to the detriment of including policy communities and alternative policy prescriptions. The institutions and policy development processes which have emanated from federal–provincial accommodation have meant that federalism is one of the structural barriers women push up against in their efforts to shift the political agenda and to achieve equality (Vickers 1994: 141). Divided policy terrains are further entrenched when provincial and federal governments engage in a politics of blame avoidance. That is, provinces are able to publicly charge that they do not have enough financial resources from the federal government to mount programmes of import to women, while federal government authorities defend their actions, arguing that the policy field is in the provincial domain. Substantive policy developments in child care, to name one policy sector, have suffered from this type of political obstruction. Executive federalism too is troublesome. Agreements between the central government and provinces are hammered out in private, elite accommodation sessions with no public involvement, no media scrutiny, and no gender analysis. While Canadian women had never previously enjoyed the benefits of generous government programmes, under the ‘political rationality’ of social liberalism they often looked to the Keynesian welfare state as a source of support (Brodie 2008; Vickers 1994: 137). Once the federal government began to retreat from programme spending and off-loaded to provinces most concertedly during the 1990s, while promoting a political discourse framed around the degendered citizen as the subject of the SSR, women were placed in a vulnerable position. As Banaszak, Beckwith, and Rucht (2003: 3) have argued, under neo-liberal globalization, women’s movements in North America increasingly confronted a reconfigured state which offered opportunities to advance feminist claims, but one that also threatened feminist success. As one of the few

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comprehensive modern-day reviews of Canada’s social safety net, the SSR instigated a national debate on the costs and benefits of maintaining Canada’s social liberal consensus. The women’s movement did take part in this discussion, but did not realize its policy objectives. A few years later, SUFA held the promise of reviving the social union, under an agenda of social investment, but ultimately federal and provincial leaders did not take up feminist policy aims. A federal presence was restored, although only in terms of cash transfers to provinces, which further entrenched flexible federalism framed by a politics of territorial accommodation. Social Security Review (SSR) – Child-care policy In February 1994, the House of Commons directed the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development to make recommendations to modernize and restructure Canada’s social security system. Lloyd Axworthy, then Minister of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), stated that the objectives of the SSR were to address the changing nature and ‘very difficult’ needs of children and families; the question of young people and their transition from school to work; the re-employment of working age adults; the independent living movement; and the issue of social assistance and how incentive-based systems can help individuals find employment (House of Commons Canada 1994: 122–123). The Standing Committee received approximately 200 briefs presented at public hearings, tabling their interim report, Concerns and Priorities Regarding the Modernization and Restructuring of Canada’s Social Security System, on 25 March 1994. In November 1994, the Standing Committee travelled across Canada with the government’s Green Paper in hand, previously released on 5 October 1994. The Green Paper, Improving Social Security in Canada: A Discussion Paper, outlined the government’s recommendations for change, set within three broad themes – work, learning, and security (Canada 1994a). The hearings received substantial media and public attention, receiving over 1,000 submissions (Rice 1995: 43–44). The final report, Security, Opportunities and Fairness: Canadians Renewing Their Social Programs, was released in February 1995 offering 52 recommendations for improvement (Canada 1995: 251–292, 293–309). The SSR was initially welcomed by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), Canada’s leading national feminist organization, albeit with cautious optimism given the review was being conducted amidst the government’s deficit reduction strategy (NAC

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1994a: 1). Indeed, the February 1994 budget delivered by the Minister of Finance, Paul Martin, made it well known that the SSR would have to adhere to firm ‘savings parameters’, most notably in terms of reforming the unemployment insurance system and transfer payments to the provinces (Battle and Torjman 1995: 6). These comments reflected the federal government’s overall neo-liberal political strategy to encourage economic competitiveness and job creation, while being more respectful of provincial jurisdictions in policy sectors such as education and social assistance. NAC noted that they were pleased with the Liberal government’s attention to child care. The Green Paper outlined that Canadians needed ways to reconcile work and family, while the Supplementary Paper on child care went even further stating that ‘good’ child care had to address accountability, quality, affordability, and availability (Canada 1994b). These principles reflected those long advocated by NAC, although NAC reminded the Standing Committee that some assurance had to be given to the development of a comprehensive, non-profit child-care system and national program, given its importance in eradicating women’s poverty and enabling women to enter the paid labour force (NAC 1994: 7). The federal government’s commitment to developing a national child-care framework, however, was cast in terms of reconciling work and family and promoting healthy child development rather than women’s economic independence or women’s equality. Moreover, success on this front hinged on entering into partnerships with interested provinces and territories, which at that juncture of the SSR, was yet to be determined and seemingly, entirely left off the table. Dissatisfied with the tone and tenor of the SSR, feminist social policy principles were presented to the Minister of HRDC in a national women’s consultation held in Ottawa in December 1994, which brought together over 80 women’s groups to discuss proposals contained in the Green Paper. The message to the Minister was clear in that women’s equality had to be a central goal of the SSR. The meeting, however, ended acrimoniously after Sunera Thobani, then president of NAC, informed the Minister that proposed changes to the Unemployment Insurance Act would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, since lowering benefits for repeat users, many of whom were women, clearly contravened the equality section (Women’s group sees discrimination in plan to reduce UI repeat benefits 1994: A4). This left relations between the Minister and NAC strained, and NAC all the more sceptical about the legitimacy of the review.

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Status of Women Canada (SWC) did not assume a direct role in the SSR policy debates, although the Secretary of State of SWC pointed out to Members of the House of Commons the social and economic disadvantages women faced, and therefore the need to take women into account during the review (Hansard Canada 1994a: 659–662; Hansard Canada 1994b: 7108–7111). Her statements, however, were framed in full support of the government’s policy objective to ensure the ‘sustainability and affordability’ of government programs (Hansard Canada 1994b: 7108). SWC did facilitate, however, women’s participation in the SSR by organizing a teleconference between 18 women’s groups and the Minister of HRDC in October 1994 (Status of Women Canada 1994: 4). The Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW), however, was quite critical of the Liberal government’s proposals, taking on the role of defending women’s rights and supporting the policy goals of NAC. And the CACSW was well situated to do so, since they were included on a Ministerial Task Force struck by Lloyd Axworthy to provide direct advice to him and senior civil service officials involved in the SSR. In a detailed brief submitted to the Task Force, the CACSW fervently recommended that the SSR, in order to be effective and legitimate given the government’s commitment to women’s equality, had to be analysed within a gender-sensitive framework. CACSW pointed out that the conceptual framework applied by the government simply attended to three populations: youth/children, families, and working age adults. Women were absent from this framework, rendering their experiences as policy recipients invisible as individuals within the private sphere of the family, or as degendered working parents. CACSW further urged the Task Force to disaggregate and analyse the data by sex and beware of androcentric frames of reference (Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women 1994: 3). On the child-care front no new policies were developed. The Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) was eventually dismantled, replaced by the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST). This substantially changed the social policy context and government spending priorities. Following a commitment made by the Liberal Party in the Red Book, the federal government eventually promoted the idea of a national child-care strategy in 1995, dependent on provincial–territorial agreement. This attempt ended in failure after agreement could not be reached. The SSR is an interesting case study to reveal and trace policy trajectories and institutionalized language which were a challenge to derail. The first of these dimensions was the discourse that framed SSR debates. Throughout the review, there was marginal mention of women. Beyond

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disaggregating data by sex to indicate say, the number of women in the work force, there was no attempt to analyse the impact of reform proposals on women. More often than not, universal, degendered terms blanketed differences between men and women. Rather than referring to the disadvantaged position of women, and how public policies often have differential impacts on women, they were treated and referred to as Canadians, individuals, family members, clients, or as working age adults. Neo-liberal discourse evolving around deficit reduction, individual self-reliance, and building federal–provincial partnerships in the development of certain social policies, clashed with NAC’s policy goals centred around the need for government intervention and importantly, collaboration between the two levels. The oft-cited need to reduce overlap between the levels of government and respect policy jurisdictions obscured the reality that the federal government was increasingly pulling out the provision for funding social and economic programmes. Policy authorities were able to recast the practice of federalism by removing conditions on how provinces were to spend transfer payments, setting in motion the reconfiguration of the welfare state under flexible federalism. Another institutional dimension was how women’s policy agencies (WPAs) participated. SWC took on a facilitative role by encouraging members of parliament to think about women during the SSR and by organizing a meeting between women’s groups and the Minister. SWC, however, did not mount a counter-voice to the prevailing debates and framework of the SSR, nor did they offer any critiques of the Green Paper’s policy proposals. The CACSW, on the other hand, assumed both a counter-voice and a critical role in the public realm. The CACSW’s position as an insider participant on the Ministerial Task Force provided the opportunity for a feminist voice to be directly interjected at the ministerial level. The presence of two WPAs who advocated differing, if not contradictory policy proposals, may have, in the end, worked against NAC’s policy agenda, however, the government could easily make the case that they listened to women, and responded accordingly, while also being able to ignore policy proposals which contradicted their own. An unexpected product of the SSR was that the Final Report, Security, Opportunities and Fairness, challenged women’s traditional gender roles much more substantively than had previously been the case during the SSR. In fact, one section of the final report, called ‘securing equality’, emphasized the importance of promoting women’s equality. A further

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recommendation was that the SSR be subjected to a gender analysis to ‘ensure women’s increased and equal social and economic participation in the paid labour market’ (Canada 1995: 100). The inclusion of a gender analysis in the final report indicated that NAC may well have had some influence. The Final Report used fewer degendered categories, such as worker, and included a discussion about the structural discriminations women encounter due to violence, low pay, unpaid household caring, and poverty as an outcome of divorce or as lone parents. The gender analysis, however, was minimal and far too late in the process. Once the dust settled, NAC’s recommendations were ignored. Since then, many women’s groups have found it increasingly difficult to engage in policy advocacy after their organizational funding was decreased, particularly within a policy context that was increasingly becoming hostile to feminist demands. The federal government retreated from the social policy sphere by reducing programme spending and was adverse to setting conditions on how the funds were to be spent by the provinces. These actions set the stage for a dramatic realignment of federalism and intergovernmental relations. Social Union Framework Agreement The Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) was signed in 1999 by all provinces and territories except Quebec. SUFA came off the heels of strong criticism from the provinces of the unilateral action of the federal government which began with the deficit reduction program during the SSR, particularly when the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) was announced in the February 1995 budget. The CHST collapsed all transfer payments, except equalization, into one block fund, while also significantly decreasing transfer payments to provinces from $17.5 billion in 1994–1995 to $13 billion in 1996–1997. As a political accord, SUFA was part of a process to rebuild co-operation between the two dominant levels of government, and to reconstruct a new ‘social union’ for Canadians (Biggs 1996). The agreement identified three priority areas: health care, post-secondary education, and social assistance. The first section of the agreement outlines the principles of SUFA, which include the ‘fundamental values’ of equality, respect for diversity, fairness, individual dignity and responsibility, and mutual aid. The second section concerns mobility rights of Canadians and the third section stipulates accountability measures. The following three sections deal directly with federal–provincial–territorial relations, stipulating a commitment to work in partnership to improve social programmes

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and to clarify the role of the federal spending power. The last section specifies that a review of the SUFA will take place after three years with all parties using comparable indicators to track progress. A Ministerial Council was created to support ministers in collecting data and receiving reports from the provinces. One of the commitments of SUFA is to respect the equality rights of ‘all Canadian women and men and their diverse needs’ (Canada 1999). The agreement also stated that federal and provincial governments were to work in partnership with ‘individuals, families, communities, voluntary organizations, business, and labour’ so that Canadians could have meaningful input into social policies and programmes. After years of deficit reduction, SUFA was welcomed by some social policy advocates (White 2002). The National Council of Women of Canada (2002) supported the principles, and feminist activists associated with NAC, Barbara Cameron and Judy Rebick (a former President of the organization), felt it was a step forward, since SUFA stipulated that the federal government could develop ‘new initiatives’ with agreement of a majority of provinces, which meant getting the nod from six rather than from all ten (Cameron and Rebick 1999; White 2002). A policy outcome was the emergence of the National Children’s Agenda, which included the establishment of the National Child Benefit (NCB), a federal programme targeting child poverty developed just prior to the signing of SUFA. The NCB received substantial federal funding, $15 billion between 1998 and 2004 (Bakker and Brodie 2007). The implementation of the NCB continued to be tracked as part of the SUFA reporting guidelines. A year later, the Early Childhood Development Agreement (ECD) was agreed to at an annual First Minister’s meeting held in September 2000. The ECD stipulated a number of objectives and four key ‘areas for action’: the promotion of health in pregnancy, birth, and infancy, an improvement in parenting and family supports, strengthening early childhood development, learning and care, and strengthening community supports (Canada 2000: 2). Child-care advocates such as the National Children’s Alliance ‘strongly supported’ the principles of SUFA, but had been concerned about the mechanisms for implementation, specifically with respect to the capacity of provinces to develop social policy under the CHST funding regime (Canada 2002: 3–4). Under the guise of renewing Canada’s social union and investing in children, SUFA came to be understood as a mechanism to decentralize the federation, protect provincial jurisdiction, and harness the federal spending power, rather than as a means to develop a robust social

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policy safety net or a child-care system. As Inwood (2000: 133–136) rightly indicates, SUFA was buttressed by new public management to instil within the public services, and Canadians, as programme beneficiaries, an ethos of efficiency, fiscal accountability, and transparency through performance measurement and citizen empowerment. For example, funds transferred to provinces as part of the National Child Benefit could be clawed back from payments to social assistance recipients. Moreover, the Early Childhood Development Agreement, which had additional monies directed to provinces to build early childhood learning capacities, was spent by provinces on an array of items, sometimes marginally connected to the goals of the agreement (Bakker and Brodie 2007). Indeed, Armine Yalnizyan reported that, based on her gender analysis of federal budgets, provinces and territories only spent 8 per cent of the 2000–2001 funds on expanding regulated child-care spaces (Bakker and Brodie 2007). In the social services sector, just after signing SUFA, British Columbia implemented a restrictive social services reform measure, which reduced benefits by 25 per cent, and cut a number of programmes such as child-care allowances. As well, SUFA offered very little in the way of setting up processes or institutions for citizen engagement. First, the development of SUFA was undertaken within a highly closed, elite system described by Inwood as an ‘amalgam of cooperative and executive federalism’ (2000: 130). To be sure, there was reporting on the implementation of various aspects of the agreement (for example, the number of recipients) and organized civil society groups were asked to participate in the three-year review. They did so, however, through the Ministerial Council, a formal, highly-managed process with identified groups receiving letters of invitation to make submissions. There were no in-person consultations, nor community-based methods put in place to reach women beyond established policy networks. Moreover, in their submission to the Ministerial Council, The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC) pointed out that not enough time was given to non-governmental groups to substantively respond during the review. Indeed, Martha Friendly, with the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, commented that the SUFA review did not meet the terms set out in the agreement, citing that opportunities to participate in the review were ‘unevenly distributed across Canada’ (Canada 2002: 9). Overall, most social policy observers agree that SUFA did not live up to its promise, particularly in the hope of building a child-care system (Friendly 2001). What has been successful, however, has been the normalization of a highly decentralized federal–provincial relationship,

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and ironically, a bureaucratic social policy regime. Open federalism, the vision of federal–provincial relations as advocated by the current Conservative Party government elected in January 2006 and re-elected in October 2008, has even furthered entrenched the decentralization/ new public management elements of SUFA, although not within the discourse of building a social union or necessarily through social investments. In an April 2006 speech given in Montreal, the Prime Minister outlined his government’s aspirations (Conservative Party 2006), elaborating three specific components of open federalism: taking advantage of provincial and territorial expertise, respecting provincial jurisdiction, and limiting the use of the federal spending power. This vision, however, only serves to further marginalize women’s advocacy groups from the policy process and the political system. Under the Conservative government, adherence to a strict understanding of the division of powers, coupled with a low-key approach to intergovernmental relations and the selective use of the federal spending power (Teliszewsky and Stoney 2007: 39–40) can be characterized as a form of quiet accommodation which has situated the progressive women’s agenda squarely outside the walls of the intergovernmental system. At the federal level, we have further evidence of the marginalization of the equality agenda. Once in office, the new government scrapped the Liberal national child-care plan, replacing it with a modest, monthly direct payment to parents.

Conclusion In the Canadian multi-level system, policy change is often an arduous journey, in part due to constitutional division of powers and subsequent programme and fiscal interdependence. Consequently, federal and provincial policy authorities have often had to engage in accommodation through negotiation and intergovernmental agreement. Accommodation, however, has sometimes been more rhetoric than practice. During the SSR, the federal government made much about entering into partnership with the provinces to implement good social policy, while also not securing their agreement and then ultimately unilaterally decreasing transfer payments to provincial coffers. This meant that women’s groups, who in NI theory could have looked like an alternate institutional layer for policy redress, could not count on provincial governments due to local financial realities and policy priorities. The two case studies indicate, however, that the SSR and SUFA proved to be critical policy events that opened some room for feminist policy

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advocates to engage in substantive policy dialogue, thereby disrupting typical intergovernmental policy development. NAC was a visible, participatory actor during the SSR debates and was able to organize a feminist policy review which brought together a wide array of women’s groups from across the country. This feminist gathering was in many ways an opportunity for women’s groups to transform the SSR into a site of resistance and struggle given their feminist challenge to the government’s attempt to dominate the discourse and policy direction of the SSR (Timpson 1999). SUFA and the ECD, which emerged due to a contestation between the federal and provincial governments, also provided some institutional access through participation in the three-year review. Accountability measures that were set up also allowed policy advocates to track progress of the implementation of the ECD and the NCB well outside normal institutional avenues. However, the SSR and SUFA ultimately proved also to be events that entrenched an unwelcome institutional landscape for feminist policy advocates, rather than derailing elite accommodation negotiations. Moreover, in the post-SUFA era, the shift to open federalism transformed the federal spending power into a national spending power requiring provincial agreement, making the field of intergovernmental relations much more politically crowded, and hence agreement on future initiatives sticky (Friendly 2001: 3; White 2002: 113–115). The practice of federalism and principle of accommodation, which at times was pried open to allow the interjection of non-governmental voices, remains a deeply embedded structural barrier that feminist activists confront in their attempt to achieve policy gains. The crowded policy field of intergovernmental relations providing access to political and bureaucratic authorities will no doubt continue to be part of a formidable political opportunity structure for feminist activists. While women’s policy agencies were able to facilitate some access for NAC during the SSR, they were altogether absent during the development of SUFA. This is supported by the work of the RNGS project, which analysed the relationship between women’s movement organizations and the influence of women’s policy agencies. Unlike the situation during the mid-1980s, NAC was able to interject into the Canadian Jobs Strategy some of their specific policy goals, in part achieved because of the presence of SWC, and due to the relative strength of the women’s movement (Teghtsoonian and Grace 2001). However, as Outshoorn and Kantola (2007: 13) point out, under neo-liberalism the closer the agency is to the governing party the more likely it will be co-opted into supporting the political agenda. The SSR demonstrates to us that this was

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the case for SWC, while the CACSW, an arms-length organization, was able to mount a counter, anti-government stance. Realizing feminist policy goals also depends on the degree to which an equity discourse is taken up by policy-makers (Teghtsoonian and Grace 2001). As the SSR and SUFA further demonstrate, achieving child-care policy objectives will continue to be a challenge under neo-liberalism and the social investment state, since institutional and intergovernmental discourses degender and depoliticize women’s experiences by framing them as workers, individuals, or family members. As a result, the feminist framing of child care as a women’s equality issue has been effectively supplanted by a focus on the family, and more specifically, on children’s issues and early childhood education (Friendly 2001: 1). To conclude, FI reveals a pathway to construct a feminist understanding of institutions as containers and perpetrators of gendered power relations. It is a framework which focuses attention on why policy trajectories take a certain path, which actors hold power at which institutional sites, and how policy meanings are devised within a political and administrative surround which is often very difficult to overturn. The SSR and SUFA reveal a historical continuity around a discourse of accommodation and territorial politics, with moments of voice interjected by women’s groups, which largely detracted or ignored the experiences of women resulting in marginal, or little policy change of consequence to feminist aspirations. By taking gender into account and conceptualizing institutions and associated practices through a feminist lens, we come to appreciate that just as HI makes the case that institutions matter, FI makes a stronger case that they matter quite differently for women.

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7 The Institutional Roots of Post-Communist Family Policy: Comparing the Czech and Slovak Republics Hana Hašková and Steven Saxonberg

This chapter takes a feminist institutionalist (FI) approach to understanding post-communist family policy. It argues that in order to look at family policies from a feminist perspective, it is necessary to investigate how institutional arrangements influence policies that in turn structure gender relations.1 As many feminist scholars have noted, probably no other social or other governmental policies in democratic societies influence gender relations as much as family policies (Hernes 1987; Lewis 1993; Sainsbury 1994). Family policies influence gender relations in the public sphere by influencing the ability of women to have the time and energy to compete equally with men. Such policies as access to day care and type of parental leave can either make it easier or more difficult for mothers to balance work and family. Family policies influence gender relations in the private sphere, by either encouraging women to remain in their traditional role as the sole carers, or by encouraging men to share equally in caring tasks. The post-communist countries provide a particularly interesting case for a feminist analysis, since during the communist period, the countries tended to combine conservative and ‘defamilializing’ policies. The policies were defamilializing and promoted gender equality in the sense that the communist governments radically increased access to public child-care facilities, which made it easier for mothers to work, and egalitarian wage policies, which forced most women to work as it was difficult for a family to survive on one income. Consequently, female labour market participation rates were the highest in the world. 112

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Meanwhile, parental leave policies were conservative, in the sense that they encouraged mothers to leave the workforce for long periods by adding ‘extended’ maternity leave that paid low, flat-rate benefits to the original income-based maternity leave. This unusual combination of policies makes it particularly interesting to study whether family policies in the post-communist period would build upon the aspects of the state–socialist model that promotes gender equality and follows the Nordic path towards the ‘individual earner–carer model’ (Sainsbury 1999), or upon the conservative leave policies that follow the male-breadwinner model that most of Europe is now starting to abandon. The post-communist countries also provide an extremely interesting case from the institutionalist perspective, because traditional path dependency approaches would have likely seen the collapse of the communist regimes in 1989 as ‘critical junctures’ (Peters et al. 2005; Rothstein 1988; 1992). At these moments, important decisions were presumably made that enabled the establishment of new institutions and sent the countries down different paths of development. Our chapter challenges this assumption and argues instead that post-communist family policies are still much more influenced by important decisions that were made before, and during the communist period than decisions made after the collapse of communist rule. Moreover, similar to Haydu (1998), we argue further that it would be wrong to look at path dependency as the result of just one decision made at a historical ‘critical juncture’. Rather, it should be seen as a series of decisions that build upon each other. Torfing makes a similar point when he concludes his article on path dependency by asking: Are we bound to be caught up in the paradox according to which the very possibility of revolutionary change is conditioned by the former policy path from which it radically breaks away? Is it possible to show that even revolutionary reform strategies in their eager attempt to negate the old policy path reproduce traditional dichotomies and sustain what they aim to reject? (2001: 306–307) The Czech and Slovak cases, in particular, show that even when a country is dramatically changed by a mass uprising that brings down a dictatorial regime, the new reformers are still dependent structurally and cognitively on the paths that were chosen under the previous ‘revolutionary’ communist regime. Moreover, our analysis shows that even

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the communist regime followed a path that was highly influenced by choices made under the pre-war ‘bourgeois’ regime. Not even the fact that Czechoslovakia has now split into two separate countries has had much impact on these countries’ family policies, as they both continue to follow similar paths. Finally, Czechoslovakia is especially interesting from a comparative perspective, because today’s Czech and Slovak Republics comprised the same country from 1918–1992 (with the exception of the war years 1939–1945), which means that during these years they had the same family policies. Since previous studies have already shown that these two countries still share the most similar family policies in the region today, we can be even surer that historical institutional developments have greatly influenced present policies (Saxonberg 2003; Saxonberg and Szelewa 2007; Saxonberg and Sirovátka 2006). In examining Czech and Slovak family policy, we use a synthesis of feminism and institutionalism because we believe that a fruitful analysis of family policies must begin with the gendered power relations that exist in society, but we also need to investigate how institutional arrangements structure these relations. We believe that our feminist starting point enhances traditional institutional analysis by showing how institutions are embedded in power relations and that institutions, in turn, influence the manner in which power is exercised and relationships can change. Our focus on family policy and the types of family policies that we focus on come from our feminist understanding that these policies have great influence on gender roles and power relations between men and women. This chapter proceeds by first giving a brief overview of gender relations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It then discusses our FI approach, focusing on connections between gender relations, institutions, and policy development. Next, the chapter examines the four key critical junctures in family policy making, in which policies that often did not seem so important at the time were able to shape not only future policies and gender relations, but also attitudes towards gender roles. Finally, the chapter shows how these four critical junctures have influenced post-communist policies, so that even though Slovakia might be expected to have more conservative policies, being a much more Catholic country than the secular Czech Republic, family policies and gender attitudes have remained remarkably similar after the fall of communism, as the old institutional arrangements continue to influence policies and attitudes.

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Gender relations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia Pre-communist gender relations in the Czech lands and Slovakia were not much different than in other former members of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. As in most of Europe, the public sphere was extremely male dominated as conservative, Bismarkian social policies aimed to confine women to the home, while men were expected to be the only breadwinners. Communist-era policies departed at first from the conservative model by encouraging all women to work through a combination of income policies that made it extremely difficult for families to live off one income and by increasing access to public child-care institutions, which made it easier for women to return to work earlier. However, no effort was made to encourage men to share in the child-raising responsibilities, as caring leave was only available to mothers first in the form of maternity leave (giving mothers 75–90 per cent of their previous income for 18 and later 26 weeks), then in the form of added ‘extended maternity leave’ (which was a flat rate at very low levels). Since it was extremely difficult for women to raise children, take responsibility for the main household tasks, and have a career, most women felt they had to forsake their careers for their family. Similar to Hirdman’s discussion of the Swedish gender contract (2001: 181), we would argue that in Czechoslovakia a gender contract emerged that was based upon a system of power relations in which men had power over women. By ‘gender contract’ we mean implicit and explicit rules that assign different labour, values, duties, and responsibilities to men and women. The rules are defined on three levels: (1) cultural superstructures, namely norms and values; (2) institutions, like the labour market, family policies, and educational systems; and (3) socialization processes, mainly in the family (European Communities 1998). In communist Czechoslovakia, this contract meant that virtually all women worked, mostly full time, but that only men had careers ˇ ermáková 1997: 391). Consequently, although women became as (C well-educated as men, the top posts in the economic, as well as the political sphere were regulated to men. Thus, the income of women only reached about 64–71 per cent of men’s income. This difference in income was facilitated by the fact that women interrupted their participation in the labour market to have children, while men worked continuously (Krˇížková and Hašková 2008: 51–52). Most women accepted this contract giving women responsibility for the home, because under the semi-totalitarian rule of the Communist Party, the home gained in

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prestige as the one place in which citizens could feel rather safe from the outstretched ear of the state and to some extent follow Havel’s advice to ‘live in Truth’. This division of responsibilities also extended into the sphere of politics. Although parliamentary quotas for women existed, parliament had little power. No women ever joined the Politiburo where the most important decisions were made, and only one woman – briefly under the ‘Prague Spring’ in 1968 – became a minister (Wolchik 1995). Similarly, after 1989, in both countries very few women have become ministers and in several governments no women at all held any cabinet positions (Rakušanová 2003; Saxonberg 2003). Even though the communist-era gender contract still has some influence, the contract no longer enjoys much support. Post-communist policies have attempted to replace the contract with a more conservative one that still expects men to have careers, but no longer expects women to work. Meanwhile, most women feel that they either want to work or they feel they need to work in order to survive. Rather than leave the labour market, many have left the reproductive market, as fertility rates are now around half of what they were in the 1980s (Saxonberg 2003; Saxonberg and Sirovátka 2006). As a consequence, a period of differentiation is arising, as professional women take advantage of new career opportunities that were not available to them under communist rule, while other women still accept the old communist-era gender contract in which they continue to work, but let their husbands have the careers. In still other cases, some women have gone back to the housewife role, while in others, families have begun sharing household and child-care duties more equally as more and more men decide to go on parental leave (which has been allowed since 1990). In contrast to countries like Sweden, where governmental policies in recent decades have aimed at improving the position of women, postcommunist policies have thus not aimed at improving the position of women, but rather aim to worsen the position of women by sending gender relations down a more conservative path. However, these moves have basically failed to influence gender relations, as women have mostly exited the reproductive market rather than the labour market. In fact, even if current policies fall in line with Hirdman’s (2001) classification of a contract based on gender difference, in many areas women are achieving much more equality than under communism. For example, there are many more women now in high management positions and most governments now have several female ministers. Thus, both

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the Czech Republic and Slovakia are in periods of flux in which no clear new gender contract has emerged.

Institutions, path dependency, and critical junctures Social science research has increasingly recognized the role of institutions in influencing policy making. Historical institutionalism (HI) has emphasized the importance of decisions that are made in certain periods, which set countries along different trajectories (Mahoney 2000; Peters et al. 2005; Rothstein 1988; 1992). Once countries follow a certain path, it becomes increasingly difficult to leave this path, hence the term ‘path dependency’. A decision that sets a country down a new path is commonly referred to as a ‘critical juncture’ (Collier and Collier 1991). In contrast to mainstream theorizing about critical junctures, we argue that the important decisions that sent the countries down their paths might not have seemed very important at the time. As some scholars have noted, small choices about institutional arrangements can have great impact at a later date (Berman 1998; Pierson 2000a). Moreover, as Kenny (2007: 95) notes, ‘seemingly neutral institutional processes and practices are in fact embedded in hidden norms and values, privileging certain groups over others’. Most studies focus on one critical juncture, which is usually attributed to ‘exogenous shocks’ (Pierson 2000a: 266). However, we see institutional development as a continuous process in which several critical junctures might arise, whereby the decisions undertaken at a second critical juncture are greatly influenced by the path taken during the first critical juncture. This approach is close to Haydu’s (1998) notion of ‘sequenced problem solving’, in which policy makers make decisions that influence the path of development, but these decisions are made also based on previous decisions. However, we differ in that Haydu argues that policy makers make these important decisions to solve problems that are directly related to the outcomes. In contrast, we believe that the decisions that turn out to be the most important were not necessarily made to solve issues that policy makers perceived to be grave problems. In this sense our description falls somewhere in between what Pierson (2004 especially Chapter 3) terms a ‘causal chain’ and a ‘cumulative cause’. Similar to the causal chain, we see that policy outcomes, such as the decision to introduce extended maternity leave, can have their roots in decisions made many decades or even a century ago. However, in contrast to Pierson’s description, we do not believe that the outcomes

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come quickly after new policies are made. Rather, we see it as a longer cumulative process, but we disagree with Pierson’s description, as we also do not see this process as something structurally determined, but rather based on a chain of decisions, which in turn also influence attitudes. Thus, we combine an HI approach with what Hall and Taylor (1996: 948) call sociological institutionalism (SI) by emphasizing the manner in which institutions influence norms and attitudes. As Pierson (2000a: 260) summarizes, ‘[d]rawing on work in both cognitive psychology and organizational theory, researchers argue that actors who operate in a social context of high complexity and opacity are heavily biased in the way they filter information into existing “mental maps” ’. However, we agree with Thelen’s criticism of SI, which emphasizes the manner in which shared cultural understandings shape the original decisions in creating institutions (2003: 217). Instead, we place greater emphasis on the manner in which institutions – once created – go on to influence cultural values. While accepting Pierson’s argument that even social interpretations can have positive feedback leading to increasing returns, our approach still differs from his in that we do not conceive of a country constantly moving down one clear path, but rather, we see that several choices are made at different periods. Although these choices are highly influenced by previous choices, each choice at a critical juncture pushes the country in a slightly different direction. Our approach approximates what Streeck and Thelen (2005: 9) consider to be incremental rather than abrupt change by gradual transformation. It also comes close to the way they use the term ‘layering’. Thelen (2004) previously saw layering as the expansion of welfare programmes to include new groups. Streeck and Thelen (2005: 23) modify this to include other types of reforms and state that political actors introduce important changes that they initially sell as only corrections in order not to ‘provoke countermobilization by defenders of the status quo’. We also agree with Thelen’s model (2003) emphasizing a combination of ‘lock in’ and ‘innovation’, where already existing institutional structures to some extent lock actors in a certain path, but still leave openings for innovation. Thus, we argue that the state socialist model locked the Czech and Slovak Republics in a certain path (such as having a two-tiered system of parental leave and child-care facilities). However, it also allowed for some innovation, so that by following the logic of the previous system they moved in an increasingly conservative direction.

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Critical junctures and family policies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia Our analysis focuses on four critical junctures, and in all four cases it is extremely doubtful whether the policy makers could have imagined what kind of impact these decisions would have had on Czechoslovak society: (1) the incorporation of the two-tier model of separate care for younger and older pre-school children in 1872, (2) the decision in 1948 which made kindergartens for pre-school children from the age of three a fixed part of the national schooling system under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, (3) the decision in the early 1950s to place nurseries for children under three under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, and (4) the decision in the late 1960s to introduce a paid extended maternity leave. The first critical juncture: 1872 and the adaptation of the two-tier model The roots of public child-care facilities in the Czech and Slovak Republics date back to the nineteenth century when the territory was part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire. In the 1850s, the first nurseries for children up to the age of three were established in the territory later called Czechoslovakia. In the Austrian Empire, nurseries came about so that poor mothers could work (Fellner 1884: 15). German-language kindergartens also arose around the same time. They were for children from three to five years of age and were based on Friedrich Fröbel’s pedagogical model. As they charged fees and were only open four to six hours a day, they catered more to middle-class parents (Ficker 1873; Mišurcová 1980). In 1869 the first Czech kindergarten was established to care, train, and educate children from two to five years of age. Czech and Slovak kindergartens followed the Volkskindergarten model that combined Fröbelian pedagogy with long opening hours so that poor mothers could send their children there while they worked (Fellner 1884; Helm 1851; Heckel 1969). Since the teaching at these schools was in the native languages, Czech and Slovak nationalists supported these institutions as a way to spread the use of their native languages in opposition to the dominating German language. This heritage can help explain the continued support of kindergartens in both countries today even among conservatives, who ideologically could be expected to favour having children stay at home with their mothers rather than attending daycare facilities.

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In 1872 the first critical juncture arose with the Imperial School Act, as the Austro–Hungarian Empire institutionalized the incorporation of the two-tier model of nurseries for children under three and kindergartens for children from the age of three. Kindergartens were supposed to care and educate children under the control of School Offices, while nurseries only had to follow basic sanitary guidelines. This act thus codified the division of pre-school children into two groups and ingrained into society the notion that only children over three should be included in kindergartens. It would have been difficult to imagine this at that time, but this institutional division was to have great impact on gender roles a century later. The second critical juncture: 1948 and the decision to divide authority of child care When the communists came to power in 1948, the main goal of family policy was to induce women to work, both because the leaders thought it would increase production levels and because they thought women would become ‘liberated’ if they became financially independent of their husbands. For these reasons, the government wanted to quickly build up both kindergartens for children of three to five and nurseries for children under three. As a result, the number of working women increased from 38 per cent of the total workforce in 1950 to 44 per cent in 1965. The number of children in the relevant age categories enrolled in nurseries increased over the years from 3 per cent to 9 per cent between 1950 and 1965 and the percentage of children aged three to five enrolled in kindergartens increased from 35 per cent to 52 per cent, especially in kindergartens with all-day services, amounting to about ten hours a day (Cesky Statisticky Urad 1984). However, in the case of nurseries, this ‘productionist’ view allowed for little interest in pedagogical issues. The main concern was to keep children from becoming ill, because if they became ill, mothers had to miss work to stay at home. At the time, women’s organizations, such as the Czechoslovak Women’s Council and the National Women’s Front, shared this productionist view, supporting more day care without demanding that fathers should spend time at home with children, and without discussing the pedagogical needs of small children (Uhrová undated). When the communists took over in 1948 they saw no need to treat day care for children under the age of three as a pedagogical issue. Kindergarten employees had lobbied to gain the status of teachers and unify school curricula for several decades already, and both the government and women’s organizations argued for child care more to

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enable women to work than to see to the needs of children. Thus, in the year of their takeover, a second important critical juncture arose as the communist regime introduced the Act on Unified Education (No. 95/1948 Coll.), which moved kindergartens from the Ministry of Social Care (which they also dissolved in 1951) to the Ministry of Education (Schiller 1971). Henceforth, kindergartens became a fixed part of the unified schooling system, with clearly stated pedagogical goals. Other existing pre-school facilities, such as nurseries, remained outside the influence of the Ministry of Education. If the communist regime had not divided the responsibility for nurseries and kindergartens to different ministries, the separation of age groups would not necessarily have been permanent. Rather, it would have been possible to merge the two organizations into one later on, as when ‘joint facilities of nursery and kindergarten’ were established to simplify children’s transition from a nursery to a kindergarten in the 1960s. The operation of those facilities was seen as rather problematic, though, due to the different authorities and legal requirements of care in the joint facilities. Thus, their numbers stayed very low and they were legally dissolved in the first half of the 1990s. The third critical juncture: 1952 and the creation of the health problem While kindergartens came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, in the 1950s the Ministry of Health officially took over responsibility for running the nurseries. The law defined them as healthpreventive facilities. At that time, the concept of preventive healthcare for all was discussed mainly in connection to vaccinations, company doctors, local healthcare offices, and the fight against child mortality and illness. The spread of infectious diseases was seen as a threat. Thus, rather than hire teachers, nurseries hired nurses. Even though the nurses were specialized in caring for small children and had courses in pedagogy (Klíma 1969: 80; Jancˇíková 1979: 10), their education was primarily medical. The definition of young children as a health issue was part of the productionist view: if the main goal was to enable women to work, and women were the sole child rearers at home, then if their children become sick, mothers must stay at home and take care of their children. Another aspect of this productionist view was that many childcare facilities were established by the enterprises and cooperatives. This is especially true of the nurseries. Already by 1950, 22 per cent of all Czechoslovak nurseries were operated by companies or cooperatives and this increased to 29 per cent in the 1980s (Bulírˇ 1990).

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Since the primary goal of nurseries was to keep children from being sick, they did not focus primarily on the psychological needs of the children. The state saw nurseries as economic units, and as such, they were viewed as more ‘efficient’ if the ratio of children per nurse and nursery was relatively high. According to Jancˇíková (1979), there were about six children per nurse and 20 children per child minder each day and children were divided into separate age groups. Nurseries gained rather poor reputations for their quality, for being overcrowded, and for ˇ ermáková making it easy for illnesses to spread among the children (C et al. 2000: 92; Heitlinger 1996). Given the productionist view, even when the regime began examining the quality of nurseries in order to find ways to improve them, its main focus remained the ‘efficiency’ of nurseries, defined in economic terms. Large child–carer ratios at nurseries were cost effective if children did not become ill. If children did get sick and mothers stayed at home, or if it was necessary to decrease the group sizes to prevent children from getting sick, then the regime felt it was more efficient to encourage mothers to stay at home for longer periods of maternity leave than to pay for smaller nursery groups. From the regime’s perspective, the problem was that smaller groups of children were costly, while larger groups made it easy for illnesses to spread among the children, which prevented nurseries from reaching full capacity (Klíma 1969). In summary, just as the decision to incorporate a two-tier system of child care constituted a critical juncture with children under three attending nurseries and children three to five attending kindergartens, so did the decision to bring kindergartens under the Ministry of Education and nurseries under the Ministry of Health. Even if the communist regime had decided to keep the two-tier system, it still did not have to place responsibility for nurseries under the Ministry of Health. However, once the communists employed the productionist approach, forces were set into motion that pushed nurseries and care for children under the age of three outside the realm of pedagogical issues but inside the realm of health issues. This then contributed to overcrowded nurseries that actually increased rather than decreased the rate of children’s illness. The fourth critical juncture: The 1960s and the introduction of the extended maternity leave By the second half of the 1960s, the policy of promoting child-care services came into question as fertility rates continued to fall as

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women increasingly worked, at the same time that both nursery and kindergarten places were not adequate enough to meet demand. One possibility to encourage women to have more children would have been to make it easier for them to balance work and family life by inducing fathers to share in the household and child-raising chores. However, the communist regime never gave fathers the right to take child-care leave (Hašková 2008). Instead of increasing gender equality, the new leaders decided to encourage women to have children by making it easier for them to stay at home with children. As a result, in the late 1960s a fourth critical juncture arose as the communist regime decided to introduce an ‘extended maternity leave’ that paid a flat rate (Klíma 1969). Even though it took several years before the extended maternity leave expanded to cover all mothers, the country began moving down the conservative path of inducing mothers to stay at home for long periods. The decision to offer extended maternity leave as an alternative to nurseries found support in professional discourses. In the 1960s physicians and psychologists began criticizing the possible socialization defects of public facilities on children (Klíma 1969; Langmeier and Mateˇ jcˇek 1963; Wagnerová 2007). Although psychologists drew a distinction between orphanages and nurseries, the mass media sometimes blurred this picture. In the 1960s, the director Kurt Golberger produced a documentary film together with the psychologists Langmeier and Mateˇ jcˇek entitled Children without Love, which influenced governmental thinking when it was shown in parliament (Scott 1974: 175–179). Heitlinger (1979: 169) notes that after showing this film the mass media began discussing the ‘harmfulness’ of nurseries and ‘over-employment of women’. As a result of these discussions and policies, the number of newly built nurseries slowed, and at the beginning of the 1980s, the number of places in nurseries started to stagnate before decreasing during the last years of communist rule. Because of these policy developments, as SI would expect, attitudes towards nurseries became even more negative, as the institutional arrangements strengthened the belief that mothers should stay at home with their children until they were three. A survey taken in 1979 showed that the largest group of respondents (40 per cent) believed that mothers should stay at home with their children until they were three, while 30 per cent said until they were six (Bauerová and Bártová 1980: 3, 11 cited in Pavlík 1985: 108). Thus we see how the artificial cut-off point of three years for kindergartens, coupled with the disscussions on the poor manner in which nurseries had been organized for children under

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three and the introduction of extended maternity leave, all contributed to the creation of the dogma that the mother should stay at home until the child is three years old. 1989 and post-communist (non)-developments Returning to Torfing’s (2001) question about the paradox of revolutionary change, our answer is that despite the collapse of the former communist regime, the former policies had a strong influence on post-communist leaders. As a result, they did not contemplate radical departures from communist family policies, such as policies that would aim to increase gender equality by inducing fathers to share in the child-raising tasks. Instead, their policies amounted to a strengthening of the direction that communist policies had been taking since the 1960s. When the anti-communist coalition formed the first government, the new leaders were convinced from the communist legacy that young children were better off staying with their mothers than attending day care and they quickly decided to prolong benefits paid during the extended maternity leave (Act No. 382/1990). Even though the government opened up the benefits for men, it was clear that the policy makers did not expect any men to utilize this right. In fact, until 1996 fathers were not even able to go on this leave unless the mothers gave them official permission (McClune 1996)! Even if men could receive parental leave benefits, they still did not have the right to return to their jobs afterwards, until 2001 when the government succumbed to European Union pressure and introduced a new labour code (Government Decree No. 461/2000 to Labour Code). Moreover, the government continued to call it an ‘extended maternity leave’ until the amendment No. 155/2000 to the Labour Code in 2000. Since the Czech and Slovak governments expected all mothers to go on the extended maternity leave until their children were at least three years old, they also cut-off subsidies to nurseries. They gave economic responsibility for running child-care facilities to the local governments, while the Ministry of Health continued to have control over licensing nurseries. Since local governments are not allowed to implement their own taxes, even if some local municipalities would want to support nurseries, they would have difficulties obtaining the financing since they have no way to raise their revenues. Consequently, nurseries became expensive for the local governments as well as for parents and the number of nurseries radically declined, such that today hardly any nurseries exist in the Czech and Slovak Republics. Even though

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the decision to cut-off support for nurseries came after the collapse of communism, these policies represent a continuation of the trend that took place under the fourth ‘critical juncture’, in which the communist regime decided to give priority to extended maternity leave rather than increased access to nurseries. The path dependency of previous decisions further negatively influences the possibilities of private alternatives. Since nurseries remain under the Ministry of Health, private initiatives using alternative pedagogy – such as Montessori nurseries – cannot emerge, since they would not hire nurses. Therefore, such organizations would not receive approval from the Ministry of Health, which demands that nurses have the main responsibility for children. Nevertheless, since the demand for child care remains, parents have tried to send their two-year-old children to kindergartens. In both countries, kindergartens are allowed to accept such children if they have places, so around 10 per cent of children from zero to two in the Czech Republic and 5 per cent of such children in Slovakia attend kindergartens (Saxonberg and Sirovátka 2006). Even though the demand for public child care for children under three is rising, in line with the prediction of SI, the communist-era institutional arrangements still influence public opinion, even if their influence is decreasing. Saxonberg and Sirovátka (2006) show that Czechs and Slovaks do not have more conservative views toward gender relations than in Western Europe on such issues as whether men should share more household and child-raising duties, or whether the state should provide support to families. However, they are much more likely to fear that pre-school children would suffer if their mothers work. While the percentage of the population with such fears is decreasing as a new generation of adults is emerging, among young families 74.9 per cent still favoured giving families financial support over access to high-quality child care so that the mother could stay at home as long as possible (Saxonberg and Sirovátka 2009). Thus, earlier institutional arrangements giving nurseries bad reputations influenced the views of the population as well as policy makers. Nevertheless, path dependency does not completely determine subsequent developments. Within institutional arrangements, political actors still have some room to manoeuvre. Thus, some differences have emerged between the two countries even though their policies are much closer to each other than to any other post-communist countries (Saxonberg and Sirovátka 2006). The main difference is in the parental leave schemes. In the Czech Republic, the parental leave

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benefits were increased in 1995 so that parents could stay at home for as long as four years (Act 117/1995), while in Slovakia parents can receive benefits for at most three years. Furthermore, in 2007 the Czech Republic Social Democratic-led coalition government increased the parental leave benefits to nearly double the level by increasing them to 40 per cent of the average wage in the public sector (Act 490/2006), making its parental leave benefits much more generous than in Slovakia, but still not generous enough to encourage fathers to share in taking leave. In 2008, the new centre-right government in the Czech Republic decided to replace the lump-sum benefit with a three-tier system that rewards parents for taking shorter leave. At first glance this might seem like a clear departure from the conservative path, since mothers gain higher benefits per month if they return to work more quickly. However, as virtually no places at nurseries are available, even if mothers would want to return to work earlier, they have little possibility of doing so. Part of the problem comes from the inherited institutional arrangements. Since the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has responsibility for paying parental leave schemes, while the Ministry of Health remains responsible for nurseries, even if the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs wanted women to return more quickly to work by combining the ‘fast-track’ option with support for day care, they are unable to do so, as the Ministry of Health must decide to give support to nurseries. In actuality, the Ministries of Health in both countries have been uninterested in nurseries and have declared several times that nurseries should not be under their authority. Given the lack of public child care, parents turn to private alternatives, but ˇ ermáková et al. (2000: 92) note, few families can afford to do so. As C a female doctor would have to devote her entire salary to pay for a nanny or babysitter.

Conclusion This study shows the importance of path dependency in influencing current policies. Decisions made in earlier periods of history set the Czech and Slovak Republics down the path of conservative family policies, even though the communist regime forced almost all women to work and claimed to support gender equality. However, we have a more complicated understanding of path dependency than those notions that are based on the idea of one critical juncture. Instead, we note that several critical junctures arose and decisions made at each of these

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moments sent the Czech and Slovak Republics farther down their conservative paths. Our chapter shows the interplay between gendered power relations and institutional arrangements in an attempt to reach a synthesis between feminist and institutionalist analysis. Our feminist starting point is the existence of conservative gender relations that were in place before the communists came to power, which prevented the communists from even considering the possibility of men sharing in child-care leave despite their radical emancipatory ideology. The institutional arrangements that already lay the possible groundwork for a conservative family policy, namely the division between nurseries and kindergartens, existed already nearly a century before the communists came to power. However, the anti-feminist bias of this arrangement was not apparent when the system was codified. Thus, we argue that decisions that have long-standing consequences do not necessarily have to be taken during a period of crisis, nor do they have to be a conscious part of a problem-solving process, as Haydu’s (1998) sequential approach suggests. By emphasizing the need to combine an SI with an HI approach, we can better understand how institutional arrangements reproduce themselves, and not only prevent the emergence of feminist policies, but rather we can also understand how institutional developments influence the way much of the population perceives gender relations. The perceived ‘need’ for mothers to stay at home during the first three years of a child’s birth arose directly from certain institutional arrangements, such as the separation of children into groups below and above three years of age. The decision, in turn, to move nurseries to the Ministry of Health led to a lack of popularity for the nurseries. This induced the communist regime to introduce extended maternity leave, which in turn increased the belief among the populace that the mother should stay at home during the first three years and thus have prime responsibility for child-rearing and household tasks, leaving men to concentrate on their careers. Thus, we show that institutional developments can bring about the conservation of traditional gender relations even under a system that had originally had the goal of emancipating women.

Note 1. This chapter was written with the support of a grant project under the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, project no. 403/09/1182 The Revenge of History?

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128 Hana Hašková and Steven Saxonberg An Examination of the Historical Roots of Childcare, Healthcare and Elderly Care Policies in the Czech Republic; and the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission, project no. 028746–2 FEMCIT: Gendered Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: The Impact of the Contemporary Women’s Movement. It was also supported by the Baltic Sea Foundation in Sweden for the project Family Policies in Post-Communist Europe: Influence from the Swedish or German Model?

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8 Gendering Federalism: Institutions of Decentralization and Power-Sharing Jill Vickers

This chapter has two goals: to explore how federalism affects women’s politics and to develop the best approach for theorizing such effects. Federalism is a state form with power divided vertically between central and regional governments in complex networks of institutional systems. The mainstream federalism literature involves many approaches, so a framework is needed which can draw on multiple conceptions of institutions and change which can be combined with sex/gender analysis, which mainstream federalism scholarship ignores. I argue that federalism’s impact is best understood by drawing insights from feminist adaptations of institutionalism applied to federations. Using the resulting toolbox, I explore the impact of federal institutions and the dynamics of change on women’s politics in federal and unitary democracies and different types of federations. The comparisons focus on the concept of the ‘federalism advantage’ which bridges between mainstream and feminist approaches. I derive the concept from: Simms (2001: 20), who claims Australian ‘federalism enabled greater democratization [ ... ] and more political spaces for women’; Bashevkin (1998), who argues that in ‘conservative times’, women fared better in federations (Canada and the USA) than in unitary states (the UK) because they could move between government levels to find which was ‘friendlier’; and Chappell (2002a), who claims (symmetrical) federations foster multi-level state feminist networks, enhancing women’s substantive representation. Measured by women’s descriptive representation, however, federations do not seem to advantage women since fewer women on average sit as ‘national’1 legislators in federal than unitary states. 129

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This chapter tests the hypothesis of a ‘federalism advantage’: that the properties distinguishing federations from unitary states give organized women unique advantages for advancing feminist projects. Part of the claim is that this advantage is available only under conditions which I test in relation to characteristics which differentiate types of federation. To measure their impacts, I unpack ‘women’s politics’ into descriptive representation and patterns of organization and advocacy. Identifying strategies based on a ‘federalism advantage’ makes a valuable contribution to political analysis for more than 40 per cent of the world’s women who live in federations, by identifying conditions which help them take advantage of unique opportunities for change. The text also makes a theoretical contribution by challenging the unitary-state bias in feminist political science (FPS). Federations share these ‘properties’: vertical allocations of sovereign power between two governments; multiple points of access to decisionmakers; a written power-sharing pact; and an umpire for resolving conflicts. ‘Differentiating characteristics’ which distinguish federal types include: age;2 the extent of ‘constitutional decentralization’3 (Watts 2000: 159); territorial saliency; and whether regional governments’ powers are the same (‘symmetrical’); or if one has different powers (‘asymmetrical’). I assess how specific strategies fostered by institutional types could increase women’s representation, or achieve more ‘women-friendly’ politics through: constitutional activism; alignments with leftist or nationalist governments; judicial review; and multi-level state feminism. The paper has three parts. First, I develop a framework for analysis, using feminist adaptations which link federalism and institutionalism. Second, I survey accounts of women’s experiences of federalism and feminist federalism scholarship, in relation to mainstream federalism scholarship, and develop six hypotheses about the ‘federalism advantage’. In part three, I test these hypotheses regarding seven Western federations, drawing from a data set constructed from the secondary literature.

Feminist adaptations of institutionalist approaches My framework draws on three literatures: feminist comparative politics; institutionalist approaches; and a vast, predominantly gender-blind literature on federalism. To connect them, I use feminist adaptations of institutionalist approaches which relate to some aspect of federalism. Although it is premature to determine which adaptation best promotes

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understanding of how federalism affects ‘women’s politics’, I show the value of an eclectic set of concepts and insights for this project. Understanding how complex sets of federal institutions affect women’s politics requires a two-fold comparison: with unitary states and then across different types of federation. Chappell’s (2002a) feminist adaptation of historical institutionalism (HI), comparing two federations’ impact on women’s politics, forms the basis for my framework. But because I conceptualize federations as involving multiple institutional forms (Vickers 1994), this requires multiple concepts of change. Consequently, I incorporate other adaptations with more effective conceptualizations of change. Chappell conceptualizes male dominance as part of a state institution’s ideational apparatus, requiring comprehension on how ideas contribute to change. Following Douglas (1986), I conceptualize legitimizing ideas as parts of institutions, and seek adaptations that can illuminate how such legitimizing ideas are changed. To explain why Australian and Canadian women’s movements relate differently to apparently similar federal states, Chappell combines political opportunity structure (POS) concepts to her HI framework. By disaggregating federation’s institutional arenas and analysing how their different configurations of institutions and interactions affect women’s politics, Chappell (2002a: 171, 11) theorizes ‘relationships between feminists and political institutions’ as ‘co-constitutive’, hence, ‘the institutionalization of gender values isn’t “fixed” [because] gender norms [ ... ] fluctuate across time and between states’. Consequently, differences in how institutions are ‘gendered’ produce the different political opportunities in different federations. Chappell concludes that the two movements adopted different strategies because they faced different POSs produced by the two federations’ differentiating characteristics, notably a/symmetry and bureaucratic cultures. To illuminate how institutional change occurs and the role of ideas in effecting change, I draw first on the work of Connell (1987, 1990: 523), who theorizes that each political institution has a ‘gender regime’ composed of a gender division of labour, a power structure, and a gendered pattern of emotions, each the sum of gender contestation. Gender regimes change when contradictions develop among the ‘substructures’ or with related institutions. However, Connell’s framework does not explain why changes in gender/power relations in some institutions are temporary and easily reversed, whereas in others they are hard to achieve, but once achieved prove to be fairly permanent. Nor does the approach provide tools to explain the entrenchment of

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gender/power relations in institutions which reinforce one another in hard-to-change interlocking networks. If federations involve different kinds of institutions, and institutions operating in different contexts, multiple conceptualizations of institutional change are needed. This is evident especially in feminist work on women’s politics in federal states. Connell conceptualizes ‘gender’ as discursively constructed, and institutions as temporary, patterned suspensions in patterned behaviour. Franzway, Court, and Connell (1989: 41), however, portray the Australian federal state as static, with highly (heterosexually) masculinized central institutions (legislature, judiciary etc.) and less masculinized, peripheral institutions such as ‘welfare apparatuses’. Consequently, there are two institutional types: an individual institution in which gender regimes are discursively constructed and changed by internal gender/power struggles; and interlocking networks of political institutions, which are ‘culturally masculinized’, such as central institutions including parliamentary legislatures fused with executives, judicial, and prison systems. These are harder to change, and apparently changed by different processes. In what might be characterized as a feminist sociological institutionalist (SI) approach, Walby (1997) conceptualizes gender regimes as societal, and theorizes change occurring when transnational, socioeconomic forces precipitate crises and institutional restructuring results. Walby believes that the way societies respond also reflects initial institutional designs, and the impact of feminist activism. However, she neglects the role ideas play in formulating and communicating alternative responses. Using a ‘world models’ SI framework, Berkovitch (1999: 6–11) theorizes that change occurs when international elites and organizations, using ‘normative systems and cognitive frames’, pressure governments to end their exclusions and discrimination against women on grounds that these are now ‘unacceptable to the world community’. Organized women gain leverage for promoting change from contradictions between the norms in the ‘world models’ and their own experiences. Feminist adaptations of rational choice institutionalism (RCI) illuminate the logics of institutional arenas and systems in federations. For example, Harvey (1998) examines the case of women’s suffrage in the United States. The long exclusion from citizenship of US women meant their organizations were unable to influence public policy after winning the vote because they lacked experience in mobilizing women as voters. Harvey usefully distinguishes the impact of sex in electoral-system

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logics from the negative gendered consequences of exclusionary electoral laws. She shows how important the rules of institutional operations are in studying federal systems. The concept of ‘systems effects’ captures such logics; for example, the intended and unintended effects of dividing state power between levels and creating multiple points of access to decision-makers. Whether relations between ‘national’ and regional governments are mainly competitive or collaborative is another such system effect. These feminist institutionalist adaptations use ‘gender’ as more than a synonym for ‘women’. They add ideational and international dimensions and provide new insights about change. They also reveal discursive as well as structural dimensions of institutional change, and show that age, complexity, constitutional status, system effects, and territorial salience all affect how federal institutions change. I theorize that older, more complex, constitutionally entrenched, and territorially shaped institutions are more path dependent. Interlocking institutions resist change to a greater degree than newer, individual institutions. While Walby thinks external triggers are needed for institutional restructuring, Berkovitch insists both external and internal triggers are required. Using a framework drawn from multiple feminist adaptations of institutionalism permits the development of a more subtle understanding of institutional change, focused on multiple types of institutions. Analysing the impact of federalism involves two-way comparisons between federal and unitary states, and among federations of different types. Mainstream federalism scholarship offers comparative typologies of federations, but no theory of how state architectures shape politics. Following Chappell, I disaggregate state activities into institutional arenas. Limiting comparisons to institutional systems, rather than whole federations, reduces the risk of over-generalization. Territory and diversity are key differentiating characteristics with considerable power to shape political institutions. Territory shapes institutions somewhat in all federations, but where it is highly salient, class and sex/gender must compete with it.

Federalism and women’s politics In this section, I survey both mainstream and feminist scholars’ views of federalism.4 Mainstream, orthodox critics of federalism believe it creates weak, undemocratic governments which constrain majority rule (Stephan 2000). Federations are considered as

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legalistic, subject to intergovernmental conflict, slow decision-makers, inefficient with service duplications and overlaps, and prone to jurisdiction-shopping, and buck-passing. Feminist critics, especially socialist feminists, think the divided powers inherent in federalism make feminist goals harder to achieve. Their critiques reflect many women’s real-world experiences with specific federations. If part of a dominant majority, or a non-spatial minority, organized women favour concentrated central power. But women who are part of spatial5 minorities may prefer separation (their own unitary state), or an asymmetrical federation with key jurisdictions controlled by their regional government. Banaszak (1996) insists women’s movements must work with their federation’s logic to effect change. But asymmetrical federations involve multiple logics and may also involve multiple women’s movements. For example, the pan-Canadian women’s movement looks to the federal government for ‘national’ standards, but the Quebecois movement promotes asymmetry and more power for Quebec (Vickers 1991: 21). Feminist scholars also critique the effects of federal power divisions which disproportionately affect women’s lives. When social and welfare programmes are assigned to regional government, for example, women in less wealthy states/provinces are disadvantaged by such arrangements. In several federations (Sawer and Vickers 2001), women’s movements struggled for decades to relocate policy responsibilities crucial for sex/gender issues onto the ‘national’ governments’ agenda, or to agitate for ‘women-friendly’ constitutional change. Majority and (spatial) minority feminists, disagree, however, on which government level should control family and criminal law, and be responsible for social and welfare programmes. Feminists disagree about the value of de/centralization for women’s politics. Some (e.g. McClellanme 1991) think women’s influence is greater on ‘close-to-home’ governments. But most (Dobrowolsky 2003; Goetz 2004) think decentralization disadvantages women. (Spatial) minority women support asymmetry and decentralization to the extent that they expect to benefit from it. But recently, neo-liberal governments confused the issue with rhetoric about making policies ‘responsive to local conditions’ used to disguise cutbacks achieved by ‘downloading’ responsibilities (and costs) to regional government, exacerbating fears of decentralization. Women’s experiences of federalism vary over time: while intergovernmental relations in one period may be competitive and facilitate feminist equality-seeking (Riedle 2002; Vickers 2010); in other periods,

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relations may be very bureaucratic, and closed to women not holding high office. Revisionists reject orthodox portrayals, instead claiming that federalism advantages citizens. Trudeau (1968: 147, 124–150) claimed progressive policies such as universal medical insurance can be introduced more easily in federations than in unitary states by being established in one region and then spread to others when the voters demand it.6 To Cameron (1978: 1248), federations are ‘multiple, independent centers of public authority’ which expand into ‘bigger government and [ ... ] programs’, giving federations as much governing capacity as unitary states. Other theorists (Breton 1985; Cairns 1994) consider intergovernmental competition a key source of government innovation. Federalists (Weinstock, 2001: 76–79) make normative/ideological claims about federalism’s benefits including: the superior protection of individual liberties; limited government; the promotion of active citizenship by making more political levers available to citizens; and partial accommodation of national/cultural minorities’ ambitions for self-rule through the control of the regional state. Feminists see no advantage in limited government, but some advance the idea of a ‘federalism advantage’, which claims that dividing state power between levels of government creates multiple points of access to decisionmakers. This advantages organized women by providing opportunities to move from level to level to take advantage of supportive governments and avoid hostile ones. Many feminist scholars of federalism (Chappell 2002a; Gray 2006; Riedle 2002; Vickers 1991, 1994, 2010) adopt a ‘conditional approach’, theorizing that federalism advantages women under some conditions. Six conditions have been theorized as contributing to organized women’s strategic success, or to policy outcomes important for women: (1) distribution of powers (Pierson 1995); (2) how regional governments are represented in ‘national’ government (Bakvis and Chandler 1987; Pierson 1995); (3) the extent of the federation’s commitment to equalization (Pierson 1995); (4) symmetrical or asymmetrical nature (Chappell 2002a); (5) saliency of territoriality (Chappell 2002a; Grace 2008); and (6) extent of federal/regional governments’ competitiveness (Breton 1985; Vickers 2010; Watts 2000). Six hypotheses express these conditions as employing the ‘federalism advantage’ as the basis of successful strategies.

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Hypothesis 1: Multiple points of access to decision-makers constitute a potential federalism advantage for organized women (Bashevkin 1998; Chappell 2002a; Gray 2006; Sawer 1991; Vickers 2010). Hypothesis 2: Strategies employing the federalism advantage succeed best where territoriality is most salient and institutional systems are highly federalized (Vickers 2010). Hypothesis 3: Strategies relying on a ‘federalism advantage’ succeed best when relations between governments are competitive (Breton 1985; Vickers 2010). Hypothesis 4: Women are disadvantaged by divisions of powers which assign historically ‘private-sphere’ issues to regional governments (Grace 2006; Mettler 1998; Resnick 2001; Rubenstein 2006). Hypothesis 5: In asymmetrical federations, majority and (spatial) minority women’s experiences differ, and they disagree on how power should be shared (Vickers 1991, 1994). Hypothesis 6: The femocrat strategy is most successful in symmetrical federations (Chappell 2002a). I relate these hypotheses first to strategies requiring a ‘federalism advantage’, and then comparatively to strategies developed in unitary democracies.

Federalism’s impacts on ‘women’s politics’ I conceptualize ‘women’s politics’ as involving descriptive representation, organizational patterns in movements and interest advocacy, and projects promoting substantive representation. In this section, I focus on why the strategic choices organized women made in seven OECD federations differed from choices in unitary democracies. Showing that the strategies developed in unitary states often fail in federations, or succeed only under some conditions, I find support for Banaszak’s (1996) thesis that the strategies chosen by organized women must ‘fit’ their federation’s logic to be successful. The five strategies considered are: (1) ‘critical mass’ strategies – to increase women’s substantive representation by getting more women as ‘national’ legislators usually using the mechanism of ‘quotas’; (2) the strategy of ‘aligning’ with ‘leftist’ governments/parties; (3) the strategy of ‘aligning’ with ‘nationalist’ governments/parties; (4) ‘constitutional reform’ and ‘judicial review/litigation strategies’; and (5) the strategy of working through ‘multi-level femocrat networks’. Strategies 3, 4, and 5 employ specific federal properties: multiple access points (H1) and competition between regional and federal governments

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(H3).7 The hypotheses identify differentiating characteristics likely to support strategies based on a ‘federalism advantage’, including high territorial saliency, federalized institutions, and asymmetries created by (territorial) cultural diversity. Symmetrical federations with low territorial saliency are theorized as most resembling unitary states so that strategies developed in unitary states are more likely to succeed. This gives women in symmetrical federations access to more diverse strategies. Critical mass/quota strategies On average, fewer women are elected as ‘national’ legislators in federations than in unitary democracies.8 Quota strategies which promote women’s numerical representation experience little success in federations with territorial salience manifested in locally controlled candidate selection, and territorially based electoral systems. The multiple governments of federal systems all have elected offices to be filled. There is little cross-federation analysis of women’s presence in regional legislatures. The average level of women’s representation in regional legislatures is rarely higher than in ‘national’ legislatures, suggesting the factors repressing women’s representation are similar at both levels. In the United States, however, states with higher average levels of women legislators are smaller, less-competitive, part-time ‘citizen-legislatures’ with poorly-paid, under-staffed members. Of the 11 US states with 30 per cent or more of women legislators, only California is large, with a full-time, well-compensated, and well-staffed legislature.9 In large states, with professional legislatures, women face the same barriers as when running for Congress, with comparable results. In Canada, only provinces with large metropolitan areas elect more than 30 per cent women legislators10 and women’s representation is consistently lower in less urbanized provinces/territories with resourceextraction economies (Calvert 2008). The institutional logics of electoral systems, especially if shaped by high territorial salience, resist affirmative recruitment mechanisms. So quotas only work in recently restructured federations with centrally controlled electoral systems. Consequently, on average (in 2007), more women hold appointed offices in federations – as senior judges and bureaucrats – than are elected legislators. Moreover, more women in federations hold appointed office than in unitary systems. The proportion of women in federal cabinets, however, rarely exceeds the proportion elected to federal legislatures.11 In parliamentary systems, cabinet ministers are usually drawn from the legislature, but the

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proportion of women legislators seems not to dictate the proportion of cabinet ministers. In congressional systems, there is no apparent relationship between proportions of women legislators and cabinet members. Provided there is no ideological shift, the key determinant of women’s presence in cabinets seems to be their presence in previous cabinets. These tentative patterns produce the hypothesis for future testing that electoral and legislative institutions are strongly path dependent, and are harder to change the older they are, unless restructured. Proportions of elected women are higher in new and recently restructured institutions.12 Alignments with leftist governments Alignment with leftist governments (or parties likely to form government) is a common strategy in unitary democracies, in which party systems are organized mostly around class divisions. Opportunities for this strategy are rare in asymmetrical federations because territory and diversity trump class, fragmenting party and interest-advocacy systems. In some symmetrical federations (Austria, Australia, Germany), however, class mobilizes both federal and regional party systems, facilitating left-alignment strategies at both levels, and interlocking policy development in integrated parties. In Australia, the feminist movement could align with both Commonwealth and state Labour governments (as in 1972) because class was a strong enough mobilizer to produce Labour governments at both levels; and both levels of the Labour party were integrated into one institution. Despite state governments’ constitutional responsibilities for criminal and family law, the Commonwealth, with High Court concurrence, assumed many state responsibilities, including social programmes. Australia has no spatial minority to resist this weakening of regional states. In EU federations including Austria and Germany, alignment is usually with leftist parties which are (or expect to be) part of a left-leaning coalition government. Leftist alignment strategies in these federations have been important in promoting quota provisions, and increasing the proportion of women legislators (with the focus on ‘national’ governments). Left-alignment strategies in EU federations have been less successful than in unitary states, however, in promoting women-friendly policies. Constitutional and legal strategies Periods of constitutional restructuring provide opportunities for women’s movements to promote change in federal systems (Sawer and

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Vickers 2001: 3–6). Women’s movements can initiate constitutional change, but success is more likely if they can form alliances with other equality-seekers, or piggy-back on government projects compatible with their objectives. Bashevkin (1998: 10) claims that federal characteristics helped advance women’s interests in the USA and Canada better than in a unitary system like the UK, where a hostile conservative government exerted ‘a reliable power of veto over group claims’. UK feminists tried to evade Thatcher’s vetoes by shifting to the local level, but the central government could abolish or reduce the powers of local government. In federations, regional governments are constitutionally protected,13 so even with hostile federal governments, movements could re-focus on friendlier states or provincial governments. Measured by equality legislation and judicial decisions, Bashevkin concludes that better outcomes for women resulted in the two federations in ‘conservative times’, than in the (pre-devolution) unitary UK, and that Canadian outcomes were best because of the successfully re-gendered Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Women’s movements undertook constitutional activism for the right to vote, and to entrench sex equality (Canada), ‘parity democracy’ (Belgium), symbolic equality (Austria), and for equal rights amendments (USA, Switzerland). In some federations, women’s movements avoid the constitutional arena. For example, when the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) declared abortion unconstitutional, feminists protested the decision and lobbied women legislators for compromise laws. But they did not strategize about changing the judgment, likely because of the FCC’s ‘great legitimacy; and the mysterious mechanics of appointments’ (Ferree et al. 2002: 289). Whereas US Supreme Court decisions are seen as opinions of a specific individual – with strategy focused on changing personnel or promoting more women-friendly interpretations – in Germany, this remains inconceivable. The legal regime’s nature also plays a role: in common-law federations judicial review expands the constitutional arena and creates opportunities for feminist legal activism. In Roman-law federations, these practices are under-developed. Canada’s constitutional restructuring facilitated activism by an alert English-speaking women’s movement.14 Recognizing problems15 in the Liberal government’s proposed equality provisions, (s. 15 in the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms), a coalition of feminist politicians, legal scholars, and activists crafted an alternate version, legitimized by a quickly convened Women’s Constitutional Conference, and (successfully) lobbied the provincial premiers to exempt the new sex-equality

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clause (s. 28) from the over-ride provisions they demanded. This produced gains for women, including decriminalized abortion rights and legalization of same-sex marriage. It also established new norms regarding the presence of women in federal courts.16 Alignment with nationalist governments Some feminist scholars claim women’s movements expand democratic space (Dobrowolsky 1998). But by entering constitutional politics, organized women may also ‘intensify conflicts over the division of powers’ (Field and Rocher 2000: 45), especially if divisions of power assign culturally sensitive powers to regional governments. This may divide women’s activism, but it also provides women opportunities unique to asymmetrical federations. Alignment with a modernist nationalist government is a positive strategy provided the nationalism fosters women’s political participation, and women’s equality projects are part of the nation-building projects. In the 1970s and 1980s, the federal Liberal government in Canada, seeing a unifying, pan- Canadian women’s movement as one possible antidote to Quebec separatism, funded its peak organization and feminist initiatives. Despite provincial responsibility for social programmes, the federal government assumed leadership and developed ‘national standards’. Feminist equality became part of this pan-Canadian citizenship project, which culminated in the Charter of Rights. Nation-building at both federal and Quebec levels promoted progressive gender regimes to gain women’s support. Pan-Canadian and Quebec feminists gained from this alignment with nationalist projects. But Aboriginal women active in the ‘First Nations’ nationalist projects were not advantaged and continued to experience negative outcomes from the federal government’s neo-colonial laws. Alignment with modernist nationalist governments is a viable strategy in asymmetrical federations under the right conditions. Feminist nationalism became an integral part of discourses about Quebec as a ‘distinct society’ in which sex/gender equality and generous, womenfriendly social programmes became its defining features. Quebec’s demands for more powers increased the federation’s asymmetry because other provinces demanded additional powers. While the election of a Progressive Conservative federal government ended English-speaking feminists’ alignment with the federal government, nationalism is still very much a part of the framework of Quebecois politics and, therefore, Quebecois feminists’ leverage based on their role in nation-building persists.

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Multi-level femocrat strategies An effective strategy in symmetrical federations is to work through a multi-level femocrat network. Lovenduski (2005a: 4) defines ‘state feminism’ as any advocacy of women’s movement demands within the state. The UN defines it as promoting ‘women-specific’ issues through women’s policy agencies (WPAs), or through ‘national’ machineries (Outshoorn and Kantola 2007: 2–3). Regional agencies and multi-level networks are usually neglected in the literature despite their importance for the strategy’s success in Australia, Germany, and Spain. Chappell (2002a) and Sawer (1994) claim successful ‘femocrat’ networks at each level need a central (hub) agency within the cabinet of a sympathetic leftist government. In Australia, femocrat agencies duplicated at both Commonwealth and state levels were especially effective because the network of femocrats which emerged coordinated policy development, spreading innovations from one jurisdiction to another. Australian femocrat structures were new so could avoid some problems feminists encounter with path-dependent bureaucratic structures. The (newer) Australian public service accepted internal advocacy more than older, Westminster systems. Although cooperation between federal and regional femocrats gave Australian state feminism its strength, leftist governments (or parties preparing for government) were needed at both levels. Women’s organizations also had to be willing to align with them for strategy to be viable. Moreover, in Australia, Labour generally governed without coalition partners. In Canada, successful WPAs have existed in some provinces for decades, but not in a multi-level network. WPAs established by provincial leftist governments, usually were disbanded when they were defeated. With a fragmented party system, no leftist federal governments, and a fragmented women’s movement, federal WPAs have been weak, under-funded, under-staffed, or disbanded. Moreover, the pan-Canadian movement opposed an Advisory Council instead of its own peak organization, as long as the federal government funded it. Therefore, despite effective WPAs in federal departments and provincial governments, the federation’s asymmetry did not provide the conditions for a multi-level femocrat strategy. Multi-level femocrat networks also exist in Germany. Post-unification federalism reform doubled the WPA base because the eastern states adopted the western states’ equality laws and machinery. Lang (2007: 127–128) claims the expanded network gained from Germany’s ‘cooperative federalism’.17 Outshoorn and Kantola (2007: 284) claim ‘the

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rise of multi-level governance ... and decentralization [let WPAs ] ... set the agenda with gender issues at the (regional) state ... levels’. State feminism also became stronger in Belgium, undergoing federalization, partly because of the competition between Flanders and the ‘national’ government (Celis and Meier 2008: 64–67). State restructuring and nationalist intergovernmental competition produced these new opportunities.

Conclusion There is evidence that the characteristics of federations, notably multiple points of access, can advantage women’s movements in achieving their goals (H1) under the right conditions. But in asymmetrical federations, majority and (spatial) minority women experience federalism differently and usually disagree on how power should be divided (H5), resulting in disagreement on strategies despite common goals. The hypothesis that strategies based on a ‘federalism’ advantage succeed best where territoriality is most salient and institutional systems are most federalized (H2) was not supported. Rather, the multi-level femocrat strategy succeeded best in symmetrical federations (H6) because their institutional systems are little affected by territory or diversity in identity, permitting class-based party and interestadvocacy systems. This resulted in federal leftist governments that women’s movements could align with, and integrated parties, so that femocrat policies could operate at both regional and federal levels. The thesis that women’s projects are more likely to be advantaged if regional/’national’ government relations are mainly competitive (H3) was sustained for asymmetrical federations (Canada, Belgium). If competing governments needed women’s support, they were more responsive to their demands. But in symmetrical federations (Australia, Germany), organized women gained from collaboration between government levels. Although German ‘cooperative federalism’ is adverse to innovation, it produced an expanded WPA base because of that property. Identifying the conditions under which competition or collaboration in intergovernmental relations advances or inhibits women’s projects is a key area for future feminist institutionalist research on federations. The thesis that women are disadvantaged by decentralized divisions of powers (H4) proved hard to assess, because arguments about whether ‘decentralization’ advantages or disadvantages women often reflect different understandings of the term. Often, arguments reflect different

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views about whether institutions, such as divisions of power, are especially hard to change because they are path dependent. Future research will need to focus on how path dependency is manifested in federations with written constitutions, court umpires, and judicial review, and whether ‘entrenchment’ and path dependency are synonymous. Many feminist scholars think ‘national’ governments can dominate with enough political will, regardless of constitutional provisions. Others point to the difficulty of reforming some federal institutions, especially regarding particular issues and populations. Courts often allow ‘national’ governments to ‘stretch’ jurisdictions when economic or security issues are involved, but they also tolerate damage to women’s lives resulting from regional-state control of family and criminal laws. Consequently, the mechanisms of path dependence in federations need unpacking and analysis. Because decentralization can advantage (spatial) minority feminists, debates about jurisdictions often reflect conflicts of interest among women equally committed to feminism. (Spatial) minority feminists want increased regional–state powers if they think this will result in more women-friendly regional governments, policies, and programmes. The federation becomes more decentralized when other regional governments demand the same powers, but these womenfriendly programmes are not transferable because the nationalist arguments feminists used to get them do not exist in the other regions. Only where there are multiple regions organized around peripheral (versus central state) nationalisms or regionalisms (as in Spain) is there a competitive dynamic. Those debating the effects of decentralization often talk past one another because they focus on different kinds of institutions with different change trajectories. Outshoorn and Kantola (2007) claim decentralization – even resulting from neo-liberal ‘downloading’ – can produce re/strengthened regional WPAs. But if institutionalized, these WPAs would be relatively new, free-standing structures with fluid change trajectories. This would make them easier to change than older, more complex institutional systems such as the permanent state bureaucracy they are lodged in. Moreover, in the Anglo–American federations, neo-liberal policies have generally resulted in the disbanding or gutting of WPAs. Separating the effects of institutional restructuring, neo-liberal ‘downloading’, and an entrenched division of powers is a difficult task, so general propositions about decentralization’s impact on women’s politics in federations remain unproven. While most majority-culture feminists in

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the Anglo–American federations distrust decentralization, based on current evidence, feminists within the EU seem not to fear negative consequences from the subsidiarity principle, which assigns responsibility for state activities to the government closest to citizens best able to perform them. Moreover, (spatial) minority feminists in the UK consider devolution positive for achieving their goals. The difference may be that multi-level governance in the EU permits organized women to choose among levels of governance without being limited by a rigid constitution, or constitutional doctrines. The presence of judicial review in common-law federations, and its absence in Romanlaw federations, also needs more research as potential mechanisms of path dependence and/or change. What was not anticipated was the importance of the restructuring of state architecture for creating opportunities for women. Despite claims that the restructuring of power relations to facilitate gender regime change requires large-scale, transnational forces such as globalization, evidence from the Belgian, Canadian, and German federations, and the UK, suggests that opportunities for changing gender/power relations also result from federalization, unification, constitutional activism, competing nationalisms, devolution, and discursive shifts. As Walby theorizes, moreover, how societies respond in terms of their sex/ gender arrangements to large-scale changes like globalization depends partly on their founding state architectures and initial institutional arrangements, and also partly on women’s movement activism. When complex institutional networks are restructured, they are released from some aspects of path dependence, especially if structural change is supported by discursive shifts. So, when structural and discursive shifts coincide, organized women can use a ‘federalism advantage’ more effectively. This discussion shows that focusing on state architectures expands our theoretical understanding of how sex/gender relations change, especially in complex institutional systems – knowledge not attainable from mainstream studies, or from feminist studies of unitary states or individual institutions. My approach of developing a conceptual toolbox with insights drawn from different feminist adaptations demonstrates that an eclectic approach provides substantially more insights into how federal properties affect women’s politics than any single approach would have achieved. Moreover, to the extent that my argument is correct that federations comprise several different kinds of institutions with different degrees of path dependency and different

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change trajectories, a single approach would fail to encompass the full complexity of federal institutional systems, and especially the importance of systems effects.

Notes 1. I problematize ‘national’ as meaning ‘central’ because in some federations there are also nations associated with regional governments. 2. A federation’s age reveals the values embedded in its institutions. 3. ‘Constitutional decentralization’ is the allocation of powers to regional governments. 4. See Gray (2006) for references to the mainstream federalism scholarship. 5. Spatial minorities are concentrated geographically and form a dominant majority in a regional state. Organized around a peripheral nationalism, they may be secession threats. 6. Regressive policies are also spread this way. For example ‘workfare’ programmes, which force women with small children into poorly-paid jobs, were initiated in (mainly white) Wisconsin and then spread to many other state governments (Johnson et al. 2007). 7. I developed no hypothesis regarding federations’ secondary properties because gender scholars have not adopted the mainstream thesis that a written constitution and court umpire can produce more robust rights regimes. Irving (2008) suggests that the founding rights regimes in older federations – the USA, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland – advantage elite men, but disadvantage women. 8. Data from 2007 for ‘national’ (N) and ‘regional’ (R) governments: Australia (N) 24.7 – (R) 29.4; Belgium (N) 34.7 – (R) 33.9; Canada 20.8 (N) – 21.1 (R); Germany (N) 31.6 – (R) 27.6; Switzerland (N) 25 – (R) 24.2; USA (N)16.3 – (R) 23.5. *Austria (N) 32.2 ; regional data n/a. (Vickers 2010). 9. See National Conference of State Legislators, www.ncsl.org/programs/ press/2004/backgrounder_fullandpart.htm (accessed 15 January 2007). 10. An exception is Manitoba with 30 per cent but with no large metropolitan region. 11. Germany is an exception with 15 per cent more women cabinet ministers (46.2 per cent) than legislators in the lower house (31.6 per cent). The proportion in the upper house chosen by the regions is lower (27.6 per cent). 12. Note, however, that federations also have produced or coexisted with authoritarian regimes. 13. Their existence is protected, although arguably their powers could be devolved to the federal and/or local governments. 14. Quebecois feminists did not participate because they considered the Charter part of the Liberals’ pan-Canadian, nation-building project, designed to weaken Quebec nationalism. 15. The original formulations were those which disadvantaged women in cases heard under the previous legislated Bill of Rights. Quebecois feminists consider provisions of the legislated Quebec Charter passed in the 1970s to be superior. It has explicit rights for lesbians and gays, for example.

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146 Jill Vickers 16. In 2009, women were 44 per cent of the court plus there was a female Chief Justice. Other federal courts are re-gendered to this level. 17. Lang (2007) defines German ‘cooperative federalism’ as ‘a governance regime’ based ‘on multi-level and decentralized decision-making’ which is ‘consensus oriented, conservative and ... adverse to ... innovation’. That is, inertia was a system effect which resulted in a multi-level result.

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9 Gendered Institutionalist Analysis: Understanding Democratic Transitions Georgina Waylen

This chapter explores some ways in which historical institutionalism (HI) could serve as an important tool for feminist political scientists (FPS) seeking to understand how transitions to democracy are gendered and why the gender outcomes of different transitions vary substantially.1 In so doing, it highlights the potentially distinctive contribution and advantages of a feminist HI (rather than a feminist institutionalism per se) for feminist political science and particularly for a feminist comparative politics.2 The starting point is therefore that HI is potentially more useful for FPS, and particularly comparativists, than other categories of new institutionalism (NI). More specifically, I argue that comparative historical analysis (CHA), a subfield of HI, provides a particularly useful approach for a feminist comparative politics that seeks to undertake analyses of this kind (Mahoney and Rueschemeyer 2003). Mahoney and Rueschemeyer (2003: 6) understand CHA not as ‘any single method of descriptive and causal inference’ but as ‘orientated towards the explanation of substantively important outcomes’ and ‘defined by a concern with causal analysis, an emphasis on process over time and the use of systematic and contextualized comparison’. As such, HI works not engaged in systematic comparison do not fall within CHA.3 I suggest that HI’s overall approach and underlying assumptions – in particular, its relatively methodologically pluralist, problem-driven, and historically focused tendencies – make it potentially more open to incorporating gender into its frameworks than other forms of NI. Although this does not necessarily occur in practice, it does sometimes happen, for example in Skocpol’s (1992) work on the development of 147

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American social policy and some of Pierson’s (1996) work on European integration, in which he examines gender equality in the European Community. My aim is therefore to refine a problem-driven approach that will aid the development of a comparative politics of gender and help feminist scholars to answer important questions such as why gender outcomes vary in different contexts, and which ones play a role in any attempts to lessen gender inequality. The potentially significant contribution of a feminist HI (FHI) is therefore to assist in answering some of the ‘big questions’ important for a feminist comparative politics – in particular how and why institutional change comes about – which in turn can help us to understand how positive change, such as improvements in women’s descriptive and substantive representation, can occur. This later question is obviously not only of academic, but also of political concern for feminists who wish to increase levels of gender equality. HI approaches are not appropriate for every research question, but are ideal for comparative analyses that further an understanding of how transitions to democracy are gendered. They can also provide one way to solve some problems that have detracted from FPS’s capacity to answer these big questions such as how certain institutions and regimes are gendered, how they came into being, and how change can come about. Until recently, gender research – not just in political science, but also in related areas like sociology, development studies, history, and international relations – on democratic transitions has tended to over-emphasize actors and conversely downplay the institutional context. Using social movement theory, it has been especially interested in documenting the contributions of women actors mobilizing for progressive change often within social movements and outside of the state and formal institutional arenas (Chuckryk 1989; Schild 1998). This led to a large literature on grassroots women’s movements, particularly within the developing world, and more recently to the studies of transnational women’s movements (Basu 1994; Friedman 2003; Stienstra 1999). Many gender scholars that have researched institutions, both in transitions to democracy and more generally, have tended to concentrate on particular aspects, primarily policy initiatives around gender equality, rather than looking more broadly at how state institutions are gendered. Therefore, while there is excellent work on the state, much of it looks at questions related to gender mainstreaming, state feminism, and women’s policy agencies (WPAs) (Outshoorn and Kantola 2007; Rai 2002; Stetson and Mazur 1995). In contrast, less FPS has engaged

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with wider debates around governance (Waylen 2008). This narrow emphasis has compromised the ability, not just of some of the literature on gender and transitions, but also of some of the gender and politics research, to answer big questions or resolve the structure/agency debate that has preoccupied so many other social scientists. With these trends and ambitions in mind, the rest of this chapter will explore how analyses grounded in an HI approach could enable better understandings of the interaction of structure with agency and facilitate a greater understanding of why and how positive change can sometimes occur in the context of transitions to democracy.

The HI framework and feminist analysis The potential of HI for feminist analysis is its ability to integrate the analysis of structure and agency, and thus, to help scholars better theorize and understand the dynamics of gendered institutional change over time. Focusing in particular on one strand of HI, I will outline a number of the key characteristics that make it a useful approach for FPS, especially gender scholars focusing on democratization. First, HI is interested in addressing real-world puzzles, especially in explaining variations in important or surprising patterns of events. In doing so, HI, as its name would imply, takes history seriously.4 But it does not just ‘tell the story’. Through structured comparison and historical process tracing, it aims to identify the causal mechanisms that lie behind particular empirical processes.5 But according to its advocates, this is not done through functional explanations that argue, for example, that institutions/regimes emerge because they are appropriate, or by emphasizing the tendency towards equilibrium as rational choice institutionalism does (Thelen 1999). Instead, HI uses various notions of path dependence, ranging from the very loose to the more rigidly determining, to look at the ways in which slow-moving causal processes are linked (Thelen 1999; 2003; Pierson and Skocpol 2002). ‘Critical junctures,’ defined ‘as a period of significant change, which typically occurs in distinct ways in different countries ... and which is hypothesized to produce distinct legacies’ (Collier and Collier 1991: 29), play a key role in setting these path dependent processes in train. Counteracting claims that HI is biased towards structures and institutional continuity (Hay and Wincott 1998; Hay 2006), Thelen (2003, 2004) turns her focus to three different questions related to how institutions are created, reproduced, and changed: what are their origins,

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why do they persist, and how can we explain their demise? Focusing on understanding institutional change and evolution, as well as taking issue with deterministic explanations that rely on constant causes, she argues that the reasons that institutions persist may be different to those that were responsible for their creation. In her version of HI, unforeseen collisions and interactions resulting in unintended consequences often mean that outcomes are not always what might be predicted through strong path dependence. But at the same time the importance of developmental pathways mean that institutions are not always replaced or redesigned. Indeed, institutions are often reconfigured and evolve as a result of endogenous factors. Second, HI analysis highlights the importance of political agency and strategy in the context of institutional structures. Mahoney and Thelen (2010), for example, have developed a framework to explain patterns of institutional change that focuses on the context, different change agents and their strategies, and the different forms of institutional change that can emerge. They isolate two key elements of the context: (1) strength of veto possibilities for defenders of the status quo, and (2) levels of discretion in the enforcement of the rules. The context will affect the strategies of different change agents and the likelihood of success. ‘Insurrectionaries’ outside of institutions will aim for the displacement (rapid or gradual) of old institutions by new ones where there are strong veto possibilities and low levels of discretion. ‘Subversives’ will work within institutions and are often associated with layering, adding new institutions and rules alongside existing ones, in similar contexts of high veto possibilities and low levels of discretion. ‘Opportunists’ and ‘symbionts’ will take advantage of high levels of discretion and any opportunities that arise, often resulting in institutional drift or conversion where no new institutions are created but existing ones have a different impact. Mahoney and Thelen (2010) believe that the success of change agents typically also depends on the coalitions that they are able to forge or that can emerge. This builds on Thelen’s earlier work (2003: 213), in which she argues that there is a need for more structure in HI analyses at the ‘front end’, showing how structures limit actor’s choices at ‘choice points’ or critical junctures, and more agency at the ‘back end’ of arguments, emphasizing the ways in which institutions operate not just as constraints, but also as strategic resources for actors. Actors therefore play a key role in HI analysis. HI examines actors within institutions (such as bureaucracies, governments, and political parties) and outside of them (such as interest groups and civil

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society organizations). Actors are seen as strategic, seeking to realize certain complex, contingent, and constantly changing goals, and they do so in contexts that will favour certain strategies over others (Hay and Wincott 1998: 954). Therefore, change through contestation is often significant and political struggles are inevitably mediated by the institutional context in which they take place. Bringing together the analysis of actors and institutions to understand the ways that institutions can shape not only actor’s strategies and their outcomes, but also their goals, is therefore a key part of HI (Thelen and Steinmo 1992). Despite the claims of critics that power is missing from their analyses, HIs argue that their understanding of interests does accommodate notions of inequality of power and resources between actors. Institutions have distributional effects, as they reflect, reproduce, and magnify particular patterns of power, and political arrangements and policy feedbacks actively facilitate the empowerment of certain groups, and these factors will impact on actor’s goals and strategies (Thelen 1999: 394). Finally, HIs emphasize the importance of the overarching context. Because of their emphasis on complex causal patterns, they often take a macro-sweep and, even in single case studies, put them in a wider context. Like much of comparative politics, HIs now have to think carefully about how to deal with the ‘international’ component in their frameworks and explain how it plays out differently in different contexts. But their overall approach means that they are already in a good position to understand and demonstrate that, because in national contexts distinct mechanisms of reproduction sustain different institutions, common international trends can have divergent domestic consequences. Additionally, sequencing and timing can play a central role in ensuring that factors play out differently across distinct contexts. Towards a feminist HI What can be taken from this approach to inform FHI research strategies? Following Thelen (1999, 2003), I argue for a middle notion of path dependence that, while recognizing the importance of critical junctures, does not accord too great a determining role to factors such as self-reinforcing, positive-feedback mechanism, or increasing returns that make it difficult to deviate from once certain paths are adopted (Pierson 2000a). According to Thelen (2003), approaches that overemphasize the reinforcement of particular trajectories are in danger of over-determinism and of obscuring on-going political contestation. HI

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approaches can be useful in explaining how particular institutions and regimes arise, how they are gendered, and why it is often so difficult to change them. However, they also need to explain how and why institutions can or cannot be renegotiated in different contexts, focusing both on the formal and informal variants and the ways in which institutions have gendered norms and logics (Chappell 2006). Using Mahoney and Thelen’s (2010) framework, we need to consider the capacity of defenders of the gender status quo to veto change and the levels of discretion available in rule implementation. When thinking about the role of actors and their coalitions trying to achieve change, therefore, we also need to consider their strategies. For example, are gender change agents more likely to be ‘insurrectionaries’ or ‘subversives’? Will they have to try to achieve change through displacement or layering as opposed to drift or conversion? We also need to think about how FHIs should answer ‘big questions’. How big and bounded should their analyses be? Comparative work is inevitably at the centre of much HI. Compared with mainstream comparative politics scholars, many FPSs have, until recently, seemed reluctant to undertake systematic comparative analyses of more than two cases. Part of this reluctance may be attributed to the lack of work examining how gendered comparative analysis can be undertaken, as well as a reluctance to use some of the methods associated with medium- and large-n studies. One consequence, however, is that some analytical problems – for example, regarding the treatment of institutions, and structure, and agency outlined above – remain unchallenged in the absence of a rigorous body of scholarship engaging in systematic and contextualized comparison over a range of cases. Yet, in common with much HI work, it is likely that small-n studies will predominate in FHI work because tracing complex causal patterns over time does not easily lend itself to large-scale quantitative studies.6 Because of their emphasis on solving real-world puzzles, HIs are sometimes accused of selecting on the dependent variable – namely, choosing their cases because of a particular outcome – making the case for feminist comparative work that uses more than one case even more compelling. It is hard to assess how much feminist work already exists that could be located within an HI framework, either explicitly or implicitly. The literature on gender in comparative politics is a relatively new field of research. To date, single case studies seem to predominate. For example, a number of single case studies examine transitions to democracy in the developing world (Alvarez 1989; Franceschet 2005; Friedman

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2000; Hassim 2006). Fewer single-authored studies look at more than one country and many of these focus on the developed world (Bashevkin 1998; Chappell 2002a; Kittilson 2006; Weldon 2002). There are a small number of multi-authored studies, like those emanating from the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS) project, but little of this work explicitly locates itself within an HI framework. Further, some comparative work could not be categorized as HI because it downplays historical factors and path dependent analyses, often using large-scale quantitative, as well as qualitative analysis (Lovenduski 2005a; RNGS 2005; Stetson 2001).7 There are even fewer works that either explicitly identify themselves as HI or have been identified as such by others. Htun (2003) locates her comparative study within macro-historical analysis. In a study that rather unusually tends to prioritize institutions over actors, Htun uses three contrasting cases (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) to solve the puzzle of why some Latin American military regimes (such as Brazil) liberalized gender regimes and laws, while others (Chile in particular) did not. Two other works identified as using a CHA akin to HI are Charrad’s (2001) analysis of the relationship between state formation and women’s rights in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in the colonial and post-colonial periods, and O’Connor et al.’s (1999) study of how the different social programmes in Australia, Canada, Britain, and the United States are gendered (Skocpol 2003; Tripp 2007). Without a large body of FHI work, there are few guidelines on how to proceed. The remainder of this chapter will outline how an HI/CHA approach can be used to understand substantively important gender outcomes and institutional continuity and change in transitions to democracy (Waylen 2007).8 An FHI approach to transitions to democracy The analysis begins with a real-world puzzle and an important question for FPS: why do the outcomes of some transitions to democracy seem more positive than others, in terms of improvements in women’s descriptive and substantive representation? Descriptive representation denotes the presence of elected women in parliaments and assemblies in numerical terms, while substantive representation refers to the expression of women’s interests in policy making, both by women in elected bodies, and perhaps more significantly within other institutional mechanisms and structures (Mackay 2004: 101). In many instances, transitions to democracy have been seen as failing women, as their outcomes do not live up to the expectations that had been generated. Yet, little

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comparative research addresses the question of why this was the case – and moreover, under what circumstances transitions to democracy might result in positive outcomes for women. A particularly intriguing puzzle is why some of the most active women’s movements during the period of transition were unable to translate the importance of their activism during that earlier period into greater gains in the immediate post-transition period. The Chilean case is often cited as an example of this phenomenon. To unravel this puzzle of how positive outcomes can come about – and, therefore, help answer the ‘big question’ of how gendered institutional change can take place in transitions to democracy – I undertook a systematic and contextualized small-n comparison of eight transitions. The cases included transitions from state socialism (Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia) and authoritarianism (South Africa, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador) to some loosely defined form of ‘democracy’. All the transitions took place around or prior to the ‘third wave’, namely before 1995 (Huntington 1991). The n was large enough to have more cases than variables. Further, gender outcomes varied considerably, whether defined in terms of substantive or descriptive representation. For example, in 2006 levels of women’s legislative representation ranged from around 9 per cent to 36 per cent, with Hungary and Brazil at the low end of the spectrum and South Africa and Argentina at the other end. Similarly, although WPAs were widely established, their effectiveness varied considerably and gender policy outcomes also differed tremendously. For instance, policies against domestic violence were widely adopted, but in only one case were abortion laws liberalized and in two cases they became more restrictive. It is necessary to do several things in order to explain these gender outcomes and better understand how institutional change is gendered within an HI framework. First, attention to processes over time is important in order to identify the causal sequences and developmental pathways that led to these varying outcomes. The time frame of the study spanned 20–30 years and included the previous non-democratic regime, the transition itself, as well as 10 or more post-transition years. The analysis of the non-democratic regimes ranged over their differences in gender policies and women’s organizing, both within and between state socialist and authoritarian regimes. At the collapse of state socialism, women had access to a wide range of rights granted from above, particularly socio-economic ones such as access to education, healthcare, and employment, on paper at least. In comparison, under authoritarian

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regimes women had access to a much more restricted range of rights, excluding abortion, and in some cases divorce. Their societies were also characterized by widespread inequality and poor provision of welfare services. As a consequence, the non-democratic regimes left very different institutional legacies in terms of women’s rights at the beginning of transitions from state socialism and authoritarianism. Second, transitions to democracy, particularly the actual transition – defined as the period between the collapse of non-democratic rule and the founding election – are identified as a form of critical juncture. The forms that the transitions took varied considerably, including crisis and non-crisis transitions, quick and slow transitions, and pacted and non-pacted transitions. Some, namely in Chile, Brazil, and South Africa were negotiated and drawn out, whereas others, such as took place in Argentina and Czechoslovakia, were quick crisis transitions. How open or constrained the transition was also differed. For example, the Chilean transition was very constrained by the influence of the out-going Pinochet regime, leading to the imposition of ‘binding ties’. But in keeping with looser versions of HI, structural constraints, even in the most open transitions, still weighed heavily on actors affecting their strategies, goals, and outcomes, and institutional legacies remained. In some cases, for example, in some pacted transitions, constraints were more determining than in others. From the analysis it appears that in pacted transitions, both the speed and the nature of the negotiations affected the openness of the transition to gender claims. An FHI analysis needs to examine the nature of these constraints that help to determine actors’ goals and strategies. Finally, an FHI analysis would explore the post-transition period and examine to what extent outcomes emerge as a result of path dependent processes set in train at the point of transition, as well as how far they are also a result of on-going contestation and more gradual institutional change. Actors must play a key part in any analysis searching for causal mechanisms and the determinants of institutional change, not only in the transition period, but also in the post-transition period. I considered different levels of women’s organizing at the point of transition in each of the case study countries. There were notable contrasts between state socialist and some authoritarian regimes. In Chile, South Africa, and Brazil, levels of organizing were high and included feminists that had played an important part in the broader opposition movements and were therefore able, to varying degrees, to gender claims recognized by opposition movements (Alvarez 1990; Baldez

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2001; Franceschet 2005; Hassim 2006). In Argentina and El Salvador, there was some significant women’s organizing but not much of it was defined as feminist (Luciak 2001). Under state socialist regimes in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, there was very little activity by women organizing as women and they had little impact on opposition movements that were often dominated by discourses of liberal individualism, Catholicism, or right-wing nationalism (Gal and Kligman 2000; Jaquette and Wolchik 1998). At the same time, however, we must consider how structural constraints affect actors. Organized women are frequently the key to articulating gender issues. While women’s organizing during all stages of transition seems a necessary condition for positive outcomes, on its own it is not sufficient to achieve change in the short term. The nature of that organizing is important, particularly in terms of how far movements are cohesive and interact with the state and the conventional political arena. More is needed to get issues onto the agenda of the transition during the critical juncture and ultimately translated into improvements in women’s citizenship post-transition. The comparative analysis of these eight cases allows us to identify a number of causal mechanisms that are important for an HI-informed analysis. Several factors help to determine whether certain gender issues, once articulated, make it on to the agenda of the transition during the critical juncture. First, organized women have to prioritize the issue and organize explicitly around it. Second, key women, particularly feminists, are often central. They are present not just within organized women’s movements but also as ‘subversives’ within legislatures, political parties, governments, and bureaucracies in the posttransition period. Additionally, these key women often form a range of alliances – both insider and outsider ones – with other important actors. This is not to say that these alliances can be made easily and are always unproblematic, but simply that they can play a potentially important role at all stages of democratization if the wider political context is conducive. This happened to varying degrees in Chile, Brazil, and South Africa, but did not take place in East Central Europe. For example, sympathetic allies in the ANC government, such as the Health Minister, were important in facilitating the success of women’s alliances’ campaigns to extend reproductive rights in South Africa (Albertyn et al. 1999). This contrasted with the Chilean case where the Christian Democrats, with close ties to the Roman Catholic Church, dominated the government coalition for the first decade (Franceschet 2003; Haas 2004).

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Furthermore, gender issues appear more likely to get on to the agenda of the transition if they are strategically framed in ways that resonate in that political climate. In South Africa, feminists could insert gender into a broader discourse of rights, whereas in the Latin American cases women’s issues were positioned as part of the opposition to dictatorship and state violence and the struggle for democracy. Some issues, such as electoral gender quotas and domestic violence, were easier to frame in ways that tapped into broad discourses of citizenship and human rights, and there was less opportunity to do this in Eastern Europe, whether the opposition was dominated by the Catholic Church or liberal individualism. Goals, for example changes in reproductive rights, as well as strategies were also shaped by the varying structural constraints in different contexts. The ability of key women, whether from women’s movements or other institutions, to achieve their goals depends on the openness of both the transitions and institutions. Pacted and relatively drawn out transitions with negotiation processes that are relatively open, transparent, and accountable, although often more constrained, are also more likely to be accessible to women actors. But powerful participants in negotiations, particularly within the opposition, also have to be open to gender concerns and feminists have to be already present or have access to those arenas. Therefore, political parties also play a key role. For example, in South Africa some key actors such as the African National Congress (ANC, an ‘insurgent’, left-leaning, ex-liberation movement turned political party), were influenced by feminists active inside and outside of it to accept the legitimacy of a number of gender claims. An alliance of organized women could then intervene strategically into the negotiations, as well as the drafting of the new constitution, to get some gender claims included within them (Hassim 2003). The nature of the actual transition therefore had a considerable impact on the activities of women actors. Using a relatively loose notion of path dependence that allows for unpredictable outcomes and on-going contestation, we can examine other causal mechanisms. More specifically, we see that in order to maintain gender issues on the policy agenda and get positive outcomes, including institutional change, in the post-transition period, several other conditions must be fulfilled. The subsequent policy environment needs to be sufficiently open.9 It is helpful if some important building blocks are already in place. Newly created institutions, such as gender-friendly constitutions that emerged from the transition, can form one such block. In two cases, namely Brazil and South Africa, new

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constitutions that contained gender equality measures came out of the transition processes as they had feminists participating actively in the constitution-writing processes (Pitanguy 2002). However, in both cases the constitutions did not entirely displace all other institutions, but had to exist alongside them. At the other end of the spectrum, a right to life clause was inserted into the new constitution in Poland (Waylen 2007). A government in power that is sympathetic to gender issues with feminists in key positions in the party hierarchy, executive, and legislature, as well as institutions such as an effective women’s policy agency is also critical. In South Africa, the ANC, a party that was relatively open to gender claims, took power (Goetz and Hassim 2003). In contrast, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), which was more open to gender issues that other El Salvadorean parties, failed to win electoral office, and therefore opportunities for positive gender outcomes were limited (Luciak 2005). Some evidence shows that, in different contexts, activist women will strategically target those arenas – electoral, bureaucratic, or constitutional/legal – most accessible to them, thereby affecting not only their goals, but also the outcomes they can achieve. At one end of the spectrum, key women were present in all three arenas in South Africa and institutional change occurred in all three. In Brazil, many women, particularly in the immediate post-transition period, eschewed attempting to achieve change in the fraught electoral arena, preferring the bureaucratic and constitutional/legal arenas where new institutions were created. In Chile, in contrast, both the electoral and constitutional arenas were relatively closed to women in the immediate post-transition period, and a limited presence in the bureaucratic arena, in the form of the newly created WPA, was not enough to effect significant change in the immediate aftermath of the restricted Chilean transition. Although there is not sufficient evidence to speculate whether one arena is more important in achieving certain gender outcomes, a presence in only one institutional arena appears to make effecting significant change rather difficult to realize. There is significant institutional continuity in the post-transition period and much of the gendered institutional change that did occur, such as the establishment of WPAs and gender quotas, resulted from ongoing contestation, in which women were fighting for incorporation, and primarily took the form of institutional layering. But the effectiveness of the WPAs established in the aftermath of transitions has varied considerably. Those set up as the result of feminist pressure and with the active involvement of feminists such as in Brazil, Chile, and

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South Africa had the greatest potential effectiveness (Albertyn 1995; Franceschet 2003; Macaulay 2006). Others have been marginal, often positioned as units within other ministries with unclear and overlapping briefs, set up primarily because of international pressure, particularly EU accession in East Central Europe (Eberhardt 2005; Jezerska 2002). Only a few were created to stand alone with any power and autonomy. Some, such as the Women’s National Commission under President Menem in Argentina, have also been subject to the vagaries of changes of government within what are often less-institutionalized polities (Waylen 2000). The roles that can be played by the WPA therefore depend on feminists within and outside the agency, its relationship with the government/ruling party, and its commitment to the ‘gender agenda’ to ensure that any new rules are enforced. The case studies confirm that it is unrealistic to expect too much from WPAs, as they often have fraught relationships with women’s organizations outside the state, are under-resourced, face bureaucratic resistance, and a lack of commitment from government. The introduction of quotas to increase women’s representation constitutes another example of a partial renegotiation of some elements of electoral institutions leaving others in place. The high levels of descriptive representation evident in South Africa and Argentina were the result of effective quotas – national ones in Argentina and ANC Party quotas in South Africa – that ‘fast tracked’ increases in women’s representation, but without fundamentally altering other institutions (Goetz and Hassim 2003). In contrast, in Brazil where women’s representation is less than 10 per cent, poorly designed quotas were a dismal failure. In Eastern Europe, until recently, there has been considerable antipathy towards quotas because of their association with state socialism (Galligan and Sloat 2003). If we explore further why there is such variation in gender policy outcomes, we see that change was easier to achieve in some gender policy areas than others. It depended, for example, on the level of contestation surrounding the issue area, and the degree of involvement and influence of potential veto players such as the Roman Catholic Church. In the most contested area of abortion, there were no supportive international norms for activists to refer to, but instead an increasing international backlash on reproductive rights. In addition, the Church was often a powerful actor on the issue. For example, in Chile and Poland its association with the opposition to non-democratic rule gave it considerable influence (Baldez 2001). As a result, restrictions were introduced in Poland and El Salvador, and only in South Africa was abortion legalized

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after an effective strategic alliance between insiders and outsiders capitalized on the new institutions such as the constitution and ANC statements (Hipsher 2001). In the relatively less controversial area of domestic violence, more progressive measures were introduced in South Africa and many of the Latin American cases, facilitated by a relatively favourable international climate and the activities of national, regional, and international women’s networks (Macaulay 2000; Meintjes 2003). Post-transition gender policy outcomes then depended on how the issue was framed, the openness of the policy environment, the presence of international norms, the cohesiveness of women’s movements, and the priority given to the issue by a range of different actors. Only in some contexts and around certain issues were new institutions created that had the capacity to effect change.

Conclusions Using the analytical tools provided by HI, I have attempted to unravel a real-world puzzle and explain how and why the gender outcomes of transitions to democracy played out differently in different contexts. The study of transitions reinforces the argument that the institutional arena and the roles of key actors within that arena have to be at the centre of any FHI analysis. Women’s movements, however cohesive or engaged in the political process, on their own are not enough to achieve positive gender outcomes. Other institutional actors must come to the fore. Yet, the institutional arena is also not homogeneous: different parts offer varying opportunities to actors organizing for change from both inside and outside. For instance, the constitutional arena is not open in all contexts but it can be exploited, for example, if the opportunity to draft a new constitution occurs within a favourable context. The electoral arena is often a difficult one for women actors, but again, under certain circumstances can yield dividends. For example, if political parties open to gender equality concerns are in powerful positions, key feminist actors within them can have some influence. Further, under the right conditions, new institutions in the bureaucratic arena like WPAs can contribute to certain positive outcomes for women. More research is needed, however, to better understand how changes in different gender policy areas can be achieved in different contexts; which arenas are likely to be fruitful for feminist actors in different contexts; when national, regional, and international norms can be used; and when counter-movements and veto players can be effectively challenged.

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As all the variables that we have explored in this chapter are present and absent to differing degrees in particular contexts, gender outcomes – including relatively high levels of institutional continuity as well as some institutional change – also vary. It is therefore not enough to look either at just key actors or institutions to understand the complex causal mechanisms that contribute to institutional change and positive gender outcomes. The range of factors – such as the degree of continuity from the previous regime, differing levels and types of contestation at different points, and the extent of institutional layering that emerged as important – must all be explored and will provide fruitful avenues for future research. It is also important to think about the implications of this analysis of transitions to democracy for the development of an FHI. This chapter has argued that an HI approach combined with feminist ideas and concerns can help answer important questions by combining the analysis of actors, particularly key actors in insider and outsider alliances, with their institutional contexts in ways that are mindful of institutional legacies, as well as institutional change and the importance of ideas and framing. Sensitively used, an HI framework and tools, such as critical junctures and path dependence, can contribute to the development of FPS by improving our understanding of institutions and institutional change, but also how they are gendered.

Notes 1. This piece is a more detailed elaboration and development of some of the themes explored in my short contribution on historical institutionalism to the ‘Critical Perspectives on Feminist Institutionalism’ in Politics and Gender, 2009, 5: 2, 246–253. 2. I use the terms feminist political science, feminist comparative politics, and feminist institutionalism partly because this volume is an exploration of a feminist institutionalism and partly because it is possible to identify a feminist political science and a feminist comparative politics. They are informed by a normative concern to understand the ways in which processes are gendered with a view to challenging and lessening gender inequality. 3. Katznelson (1997: 85) positions HI somewhat differently, arguing that HI is a scaled-down version of the macro-historical analysis exemplified in the 1960s by Barrington Moore, displaying shorter time horizons, contracted regime questions, and a narrowed range of outcomes. 4. Pierson (2004) has argued, however, that HI has often been better at the ‘institutional’ part of the analysis than the ‘historical’ part. 5. The term ‘mechanism’, following Elster, is used deliberately to get away from the rigidity and determinism of some causal analysis.

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6. There are some mixed-method studies currently underway that combine large-n quantitative with smaller scale, more in-depth qualitative analysis, for example, Mala Htun and Laurel Weldon’s National Science Foundationfunded study exploring why some states adopt gender equality policies. 7. For example, while some of the most recent work from the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS), such as the final capstone book, does refer to neo-institutional – including HI – analysis, the main body of this research programme does not use an HI approach or identify itself as doing so. 8. This exposition builds on data and analysis developed in my book Engendering Transitions (2007) but is informed by more recent developments in HI such as Mahoney and Thelen (2010) to push the analysis somewhat further. 9. For a full discussion of what this means, see Waylen (2007).

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10 Nested Newness and Institutional Innovation: Expanding Gender Justice in the International Criminal Court Louise Chappell

The year 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the tenth anniversary of the creation of the Rome Statute which provides the legal foundation of the Court. The Statute is groundbreaking in its codification of international criminal law in general and the recognition of the crimes committed against women in times of war and conflict in particular. By criminalizing acts of rape, sexual slavery, and enforced pregnancy amongst others, it constitutes the most advanced articulation ever of gender-based violence under international law. The Statute also embeds a gender equality mandate into the structures and processes of the Court to ensure that women and their rights are considered by the judicial, prosecutorial, and administrative arms of the Court. The creation of the Court offers a rare opportunity to monitor the development of an institution from its genesis, an opportunity that can potentially yield important insights about the evolution of formal institutions. This chapter examines the extent to which, in the early days of its operation, the ICC has been able to realize the full potential of the gender reforming aspects of the Rome Statute. It measures the initial actions of the ICC in four critical areas: (1) the application of the gender-based crimes available under the Rome Statute; (2) the willingness of the Court and the Assembly of States parties to take procedural and structural gender aspects seriously; (3) the actions by State parties to implement the gender justice provisions of the Statute at the domestic level; and (4) the ability of the Court to create new conceptions of 163

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‘women’. In testing how and to what extent the ICC provides a fresh approach to advancing gender justice, this chapter asks whether the ICC should be conceptualized as a ‘new’ institution, offering a different path for gender justice seekers, or an extension or reinvention of existing international judicial forms. It explores whether the Court is free from the embedded norms and practices of other similar international bodies, or if it reflects similar characteristics, and as such operates to frustrate the advancement of gender justice. More broadly, the chapter considers what relationship exists between ‘old’ and ‘new’ institutions and what prospects there are for new institutions to achieve their intended outcomes, particularly when it comes to advancing gender equality goals.

Institutional origins, environment, and evolution Historical and feminist institutionalist (FI) approaches offer three insights into the development of the ICC and its capacity to operate as a reform venue. First, no matter how innovative the ICC appears, it still carries legacies from the past which may influence its operation. Second, the ICC is embedded within a gendered institutional environment including the existing international relations and international law systems. Third, to the extent that they can bring about change, gender reformers should have the greatest chance of influencing the ICC’s development in its initial stages of operation. It seems obvious to state that the ICC is a new institution. Nothing like it has previously existed and it is underpinned by a unique set of binding rules that have not been codified before. But as historical institutionalists (HI) assert, even ‘new’ institutions are products of past practices (Goodin 1996). Riker refers to these as institutional ‘hangovers’ and notes that these legacies need not be ‘internally consistent or fit perfectly with the goals of the reformers’ (1995: 121). This insight about past legacies informing institutional design – and consequently, the lack of fit between intention and outcomes – is central to understanding institutional origins. If new institutions do not emerge fully formed, then through what mechanisms do they come into being? Until recently, HI has relied heavily on concepts of ‘punctuated equilibrium’ or ‘critical junctures’ that suggests that change, as well as ongoing institution building, occurs most commonly from outside factors and in an abrupt and discontinuous way. By contrast, in recent years scholars have demonstrated how new institutional forms can emerge from the evolution of extant institutions involving a combination of

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internal and external forces (Pierson 2004; Streeck and Thelen 2005; Thelen 2004). For instance, Thelen suggests that there are ongoing power struggles from both within and outside institutions over their form and function. She argues: When institutions are founded they are not universally embraced or straightforwardly ‘adapted to’ but rather continue to be the object of ongoing conflict, as actors struggle over the form that these institutions should take and the functions they should perform. (2004, 32) In this view, ongoing political contestation is a key driver of institutional change and even small shifts in institutional political alliances can lead to significant developments, including the creation of new institutional forms. The question for feminists, who seek to use formal institutions to advance gender equity goals, is to what extent have past gender norms and practices been carried forward in their design and operation? This is often not obvious, as gender is regularly embedded and hidden within institutions; it is part of the ‘logic of appropriateness’ of an institution (see Chappell 2006) and is enforced through subtle and sometimes unconscious practices. However, using feminist analysis, scholars have succeeded in identifying institutional gender norms in bureaucracies, federal systems, parliaments, and constitutions (Chappell 2002a; Irving 2008; Mackay 2004). They have also demonstrated how, through certain strategies – such as the introduction of quotas (Krook 2009), gender mainstreaming (True 2008), and the establishment of women’s policy agencies (Teghtsoonian 2005) – these norms can be challenged. After all, as Connell reminds us, gender is a social construction, and it ‘has no existence outside the practices through which people and groups conduct [their] relations’ (2002, 55). Once identified, institutional gender relations and norms can be altered, setting up new possibilities for pursuing change through institutional settings (Mackay 2008: 130). In her work on the Scottish Parliament, Mackay provides an excellent example of the importance of institutional legacies in ‘new’ institutions and the difference this makes to gender equity activists. While she argues feminist engagement with this institution has contributed to a more ‘feminized’ politics in Scotland, there have been many aspects of ‘politics as usual’ in the operation of the Parliament including ‘gendered party political cultures and traditional patterns of gender relations’, which are a hangover from Westminster (Mackay 2004: 113; Mackay 2006). Mackay’s

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concept of ‘nested newness’ alerts us to the ways in which ‘old’ gender practices, norms, and expectations often underpin new institutions in ways which can blunt their reformist potential. As she explains: New formal institutions ... are neither blank states nor free-floating. Rather they are indelibly marked by past institutional legacies and by initial and ongoing interactions with already existing institutions (formal structures and rules, informal practices, norms, and ideas) within which they are ‘nested’ ... In most cases institutional innovation comprises bounded changes within an existing system. (Mackay 2009, 22) In line with other HI accounts, then, nested newness suggests that institutions are the carriers of many interests – including those from the past – which can conflict with, and even contradict the goals of their designers. This proves important when analysing constraint on reform agendas. It is also important to note that once institutions are created, they tend toward ‘path dependency’ and a ‘status quo bias’ (Pierson 2004: 42), which limits what can be achieved, and when. As Pierson notes, the earliest decisions are often the most important, because ‘early stages in a sequence can place particular aspects of political systems onto distinct tracks which are then reinforced through time’ (2004: 45). Early decisions are seen as much more important because of the openness or ‘permissiveness’ of the early stages in a sequence (Pierson 2004: 51). Once chosen, the path is reinforced by such things as large set-up costs, strong learning and co- ordination effects, and normative processes (see Thelen 2004: 27), so that even large events later on in the sequence may not be consequential (Pierson 2004: 45). Mackay has given thought to path dependency specifically in relation to gender-based reforms. She is interested, in particular, in the interaction between formal and informal institutions, rules, and norms and demonstrates how easily existing informal repertoires that follow old paths can be reincorporated into new formal institutions ‘leaving power relationships intact’. Using the case of the Scottish Parliament, Mackay highlights how the ‘old’ norms of Westminster have been remembered, despite the intention of the new Parliament to move away from them, while ‘new’ gender-sensitive reforms are easily forgotten and require gender equity actors to maintain vigilance to ensure they are enforced (2009: 20). This example, Mackay suggests, demonstrates that there may not be one, but multiple paths of institutional development, and further

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reinforces the point about the divergence that can occur between institutional design and evolution.

The ICC: Innovative and resilient features of International Criminal Law These theoretical tools provide insight into how far gender justice actors have been able to take advantage of this ‘permissive’ stage of the ICC’s development to advance efforts to better protect women’s rights in times of war and conflict. This section examines the extent to which institutional legacies and the broader environment in which the ICC operates are gendered in ways which interfere with the reform agenda. The ICC, which came into operation in 2002, is the first permanent treaty-based, international criminal law body and it has a mandate more expansive than that of preceding ad hoc international criminal law tribunals. Although the global reach of the ICC is limited in some significant respects, especially given the unwillingness of states such as the USA, China, and Israel to become state parties, it extends further than any previous international court including the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It has jurisdiction over crimes committed within the territory of a ratifying state or by a national of a ratifying state, or in the case of a UN Security Council referral, a non-national in a nonsignatory state. While the current categories of crimes over which the ICC has jurisdiction (genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity)1 are not in themselves new, the Rome Statute extends these in various ways. Most importantly for this discussion are innovations in the articulation of the gender aspects of these crimes. The drafters of the Rome Statute were influenced both by the jurisprudence of the ad hoc tribunals – which had recognized rape as a form of genocide in the Rwandan Akayesu case and as constituting a war crime (see Mackinnon 2006) – as well as the strong advocacy of gender justice proponents at the preparatory committees for the Statute and at the Rome Conference. The Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice (WCGJ), who were the core advocates in these venues, had six clearly defined goals: the Statute should incorporate the full range of core crimes against women and recognize them as among the gravest violations; there should be an explicit direction to prevent all forms of discrimination in the application of the law; the Court should have the structural capacity – in terms of personnel and resources – to effectively address the gendered dimensions of prosecuting such crimes; the Court should integrate the concerns of victims;

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civil society should have access to the Court; and the independence, integrity, and credibility of the Court as an institution of universal justice should be ensured (Facio 2004: 324). Largely as a result of these intense lobbying efforts, the Statute came to codify, for the first time, a range of gender-based crimes as crimes against humanity and war crimes, and thus as constituting grave breaches of international law. Included under the category of war crimes are: Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity. (Article 7 (h))2 The codification of the offences of sexual slavery and forced pregnancy as an element of war crimes and crimes against humanity3 represents a transformation in the way international law represents and understands women’s experience in situations of armed conflict. Women’s rights activists also advocated successfully (for details see Chappell 2008a; Chappell 2008b) to have the term ‘gender’ defined for the first time in an international treaty and to have it included it in Article 7 (h) as a ground for persecution, alongside political, racial, religious, and other such categories.4 Further, Article 21, prohibiting discrimination based on gender in the application and interpretation of the Statute, reflected an attempt to integrate gender concerns more broadly within the operations of the ICC. The influence of gender advocates was also apparent in the structural and procedural elements of the Court. Specifically, the Statute includes provisions for fair representation of male and female judges (Article 36 8(a) (iii)), including appointments based on ‘legal expertise in violence against women or children’ (Article 36 (8) (b)); directs Prosecutors to investigate and prosecute crimes in a gender-sensitive way, ‘paying particular attention to sexual violence’ (Article 54 (1) (b)); and encapsulates protective measures including a reparations fund (Articles 71 and 79) and the use of in camera evidence to shield victims from confronting their aggressors in Court (Article 68). These features of the Rome Statute suggest that the gender justice advocates were successful in helping to create a groundbreaking institution with the potential to provide a new path for the recognition of women’s rights and prosecution of gender-based crimes. However, as institutionalist theory reminds us, there is never a single institutional designer, but often multiple players often with different, if not conflicting, agendas. This is certainly the case with the Rome Statute, which

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contains elements that act as a counter-balance to its novel gender norm-breaking attributes. Most important is the resilience of state sovereignty, found in the Statute’s ‘complementarity’ principle. This concept delegates primary responsibility for addressing breaches of the Rome Statute to national courts, reserving the ICC as a court of last resort. As outlined in Articles 17–19, the ICC can only intervene to prosecute an alleged criminal when a state has demonstrated its inability or unwillingness to carry out its own investigation. Given that state parties will be, in the majority of cases, the arena through which crimes under the Rome Statute will be prosecuted, the Court relies on the political will of state parties to enact legislation to bring domestic law in line with all aspects of the Statute, including those related to gender-based crimes. Although sovereignty is embedded as a core norm of the Statute, it is important to note that it has been modified in an important respect. For the first time under international law, the Rome Statute provides for individuals, not disembodied states who are the traditional subjects of international law, to be tried for actions that breach international criminal law. This includes ending immunity of heads of state from prosecution in situations where they are responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Thus, the Rome Statute raises the prospect of the ICC intervening, at least when states are unable or unwilling to take action, to bring to justice individuals who contravene established and emerging human rights norms. Given the extent of state sanctioned (and/or inaction on) sexual violence internationally, this is potentially an important step forward for advancing gender justice. The resilience of state sovereignty as the underlying norm of international relations has the potential to influence the application of the Rome Statute, including its gender aspects, in one of two ways. On the most optimistic reading, it will open an avenue for transforming criminal law across all state parties. National implementing legislation can act as a mechanism for diffusing new international criminal norms, including in the area of gender justice, to the domestic level. Further extension of such norms may also occur through the application of the jurisprudence of the Court in state-level judicial systems. Indeed, for some commentators (see Warbrick and McGoldrick 2001: 428) the potential for norm diffusion is the most important aspect of the Statute. The more pessimistic interpretation, and one which is supported by some research on the (non) implementation and enforcement of UN and EU human rights treaties (see Bayefsky 1996; Bhabha 1998; HafnerBurton 2008) is that state parties will either ignore their obligations under the Statute, and either fail to enact implementing legislation

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and ICC jurisprudence domestically, or dilute the resulting legislation, thereby undermining its effect. The following discussion assesses the extent to which the Statute and the Court have operated in their first five years of operation to expand or restrain the capacity for achieving gender justice. It measures its capacity in three ways: (1) the application by the prosecution and, to a lesser extent the judiciary, of the gender justice provisions in the first cases to come before the Court; (2) in the willingness of the Court and the Assembly of States parties to take other procedural and structural gender aspects seriously; and (3) the actions by State parties to implement the gender justice provisions of the Statute at the domestic level. It also considers what influence the Court has had on developing new understandings of women at the international level.

A new path for prosecuting gender-based crimes? The first test of the Court’s treatment of gender issues relates to the role and decisions taken by the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) in selecting and pursuing the first cases to come before the ICC, and the application of the Statute by Judges in the cases to come before them. It is too early to assess adequately the actions of the bench, as at the time of writing in November 2009, the Court has not handed down a sentence. The emphasis here, therefore, will be on prosecutorial developments with only a brief discussion of the judicial element. By the end of the ICC’s fifth year in operation, the OTP had opened four investigations relating to conflict situations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda, Central African Republic (CAR), and Sudan (Darfur). A common feature in all four situations is that ‘genderbased violence is practised, accepted and considered “necessary” for carrying out the political and military agenda of the ... rebels, militia and national armed forces’ (WIGJ 2008a: 2). Sexual crime in the DRC has been described as occurring in epidemic proportions (Goetze 2008). Indeed, between 2006–2007, the All-Party Parliamentary group on the African Great Lakes, the APPG, reported that 38,000 people received treatment for sexual violence in UN medical centres alone (Goetze 2008: 4), so it was with particular interest that those seeking gender justice through the ICC watched the first case to come before the Court, that of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo. The Lubanga case is important, as it was the first test of the willingness of the Prosecutor, Luis Ocampo, to take seriously issues of genderbased violence in his investigations. When arrested, Lubanga was the

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president of a militia group, the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), operating in the Ituri region of the DRC. The UPC is widely recognized for being responsible for widespread acts of murder, torture, rape, and sexual enslavement. Prior to the arrest of Lubanga in 2006, Ocampo himself had stated that large-scale patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence were a feature of the conflict in which Lubanga’s militia was involved (Ocampo 2004). However, in bringing charges against Lubanga, the Prosecutor failed to address crimes of sexualised violence, instead levying three war-crimes charges all dealing with children: (1) enlisting children under the age of 15; (2) conscripting children under the age of 15; and (3) using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities (Coalition for the ICC (CICC) 2008). The decision not to pursue gender-based crimes was condemned as a serious omission (WIGJ 2008a; Human Rights Watch 2006), especially because these crimes were so well documented. The WIGJ had itself collected evidence to show that ‘rape and other crimes of sexual violence have been a defining characteristic of the conflict in Ituri and that the UPC, among other groups has committed these crimes’ (WIGJ 2008a: 22). According to former OTP staff, the work of ICC investigators had initially included crimes of sexual violence and evidence had been gathered on crimes including rape and enslavement. Yet, ‘one day, without explanation, prosecutors told the team to drop a year and a half of investigative work and focus solely on the use of child soldiers’.5 The ‘Prosecutorial Strategy’ (OTP 2006) developed by the OTP helps to explain this change in emphasis, one based on expedient trials. As the strategy document explains, this approach: ... means that the Office selects a limited number of incidents and as few witnesses as possible are called to testify. This allows the Office to carry out short investigations and propose expeditious trials while aiming to represent the entire range of criminality. In principle, incidents will be selected to provide a sample that is reflective of the gravest incidents and the main types of victimization. Sometimes there are conflicting interests which force the Office to focus on only one part of the criminality in a particular conflict. In attempting to achieve an expedient trial – an objective at which it failed spectacularly – the OTP put aside one significant feature of the criminality of the Lubanga case: sexual violence. In doing so, the decisions of the prosecution were interpreted by gender justice advocates as a sign that crimes of sexual violence continued to be considered a crime

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of lesser gravity. It also reinforced the view that the prosecution continues to hold the false perception that evidence for such crimes are more difficult to prosecute because of the nature of the evidence. As gender justice advocates have long argued, if the methods of evidence gathering were more sensitive to the nature of these crimes, then it would be perceived as no more difficult to prosecute as any other crime (see Gazurek and Saris 2002). As Mackinnon has argued: At times it may be harder to determine if someone was raped than if that person was killed but rape often leaves distinctive marks psychological as well as physical. Identifying the rapist is not essentially more difficult – and may, at times, be easier – than the murderer who may leave no witnesses. (2006) Emphasizing the precedent-setting nature of the Lubanga case, the key gender justice lobby at the ICC, the WIGJ, argued unsuccessfully for the OTP to use its powers under Section 61 of the Statute6 to amend charges against the accused to include those of sexual violence (WIGJ 2008b; WIGJ 2008c). However, on both the count of the seriousness of the crime and its ability to be prosecuted, the OTP was seen as upholding the status quo, and impeding advancement of international criminal law. Despite the Prosecution’s goal to have expeditious trials, it is evident from the Lubanga case that international criminal law moves extremely slowly, a situation which is exacerbated by the untested judicial arena where important issues of law and procedure need to be resolved on a case by case basis. With long trial delays (the Lubanga trial officially started two years after his arrest) and limited resources at the disposal of the ICC to protect witnesses, those willing to come forward to testify against military leaders in ongoing conflict situations put themselves as risk of further abuse. It has been well documented that women and children are particularly vulnerable in such situations, because [i]n almost all societies, a woman, man or child coming forward with allegations of rape, sexual violence or sexual humiliation has a great deal to lose and is likely to face extraordinary pressures and ostracism from the closest members of her/his family and the society at large. (Gazurek and Saris 2002) Finally, by refusing to include charges of sexual violence, the victims of such crimes are disqualified from taking up the novel victim testimony

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provisions of the Statute and are unable to apply for reparations or redress through the ICC’s Victim Fund. Taken on its own, the Lubanga case suggests that under the ICC little has changed in terms of the prosecution of gender-based crimes. From this perspective, despite all the effort to put in place legal sanctions against crimes commonly experienced by women in conflict situations, the Court continues to uphold gender norms which treat women’s rights as less significant than other rights, and crimes of sexual violence as less grave than those of others. It would seem, that as with the gender reforms at the domestic level, such as in the Scottish Parliament, they can also be easily ‘forgotten’ at the international level and old paths quickly reinstated. However, since the start of the Lubanga case, the OTP has demonstrated some sensitivity to the widespread criticism of its lack of attention to sexual violence. In subsequent cases, Ocampo and the OTP have been careful to expand their focus to include gender-based crimes. Ugandan militia leader Joseph Kony has been charged with sexual enslavement, rape, and ordering rape. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo from the DRC are both accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, sexual slavery, rape, inhumane acts, and recruiting child soldiers. Jean-Pierre Bemba from the CAR is also charged with rape and torture. In the Darfur investigation, two high-profile leaders have been charged with gender-based crimes and perhaps most importantly, the Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for ‘conducting genocide in Darfur, in part through a campaign of rape’ (Glassborow 2008: 13). The indictment of high-profile political leaders including Bemba and al-Bashir indicate a willingness of the ICC to challenge existing norms of state sovereignty. More importantly, these norms are being contested to pursue cases that are dominated by gender-based charges. According to Le Fraper du Hellen from the ICC Prosecution Office there was ‘an initial hesitancy to initiate a case that featured more sexual violence charges than killings’ (Glassborow 2008: 13). However, in 2007 the Prosecutor announced the intention of his office to investigate rape as a priority in the Bemba case, though advocates continued to argue for expansion of the charges to include acts of rape as torture or mutilation, and sexual slavery (WIGJ 2008a: 24; WIGJ 2009). The Bemba case is currently being heard and Al-Bashir is yet to be arrested, but the resolution of these cases and further investigations will be a crucial test of whether the ICC is a path-breaking institution for extending women’s rights. The evaluation rests on whether state sovereignty norms

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can be mediated in order to expand international justice, and whether the weight of modern international criminal law can apply a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the nature of crimes perpetrated against women in times of war and conflict.

A new form of international organization? The Rome Statute includes provisions for ensuring that gender representation and sensitivity to gender-based concerns are integrated or ‘mainstreamed’ into the organization and operation of the Court. It appears that in its first five years, as with the application of gender-based crimes, the Court has a mixed record for implementing these provisions. The extensive lobbying effort of gender justice groups at the Rome Conference to ensure that the Statute provided for a fair representation of female and male judges and the inclusion on the bench of judges with legal expertise on violence against women seems to have been very effective. As of the last election in 2008–2009, 55 per cent, or ten of the 18-member bench, were women. Achieving a degree of nominal gender equality is in itself an achievement, given that the 15-member International Court of Justice has only ever had one permanent female judge, the current President Rosalyn Higgins, while many of the state parties to the ICC themselves have very poor records of female judicial representation. Drawing on research from political science, it is clear that increasing numbers of women does not necessarily lead to the substantive representation of women’s interests (see Mackay 2008). Evidence from legal studies on gender and judging suggest that it is the commitment of men and women to a feminist politics, rather than the mere presence of women that makes the difference (Hunter 2008; Kenney 2008). If this is the case, the insistence in the Statute that some judges, both male and female, have expertise in sexual violence makes it more likely that the ICC jurisprudence will be more sensitive to gender justice issues. Ensuring that the Assembly of State Parties, which is responsible for electing judges, remains aware of the views of the judges on gender issues is a responsibility that has been taken on by the WIGJ and other key NGOs. At each election, Women’s Initiatives has put together a dossier on all the judges, including information about their experience in addressing gender equality issues including any publications or related rulings (see WIGJ 2008d). At each election the Coalition for the ICC (CICC) hosts judicial candidate panels at which state parties and interested NGOs can sound out candidates on all issues. Having witnessed

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the panel at the seventh session in 2008, it is apparent that gender is certainly at the forefront of delegates’ minds in questioning the prospective judges and, even though not every candidate appeared to comprehend fully the nature of the provisions, most made an effort to draw attention to their own expertise in the area. This may be a case of judicial candidates paying lip-service to concepts of gender justice, but it may also represent something more profound: institutionalization of gender equality concerns within the judicial organ of the Court. Gender equality concerns also appear to be progressing, albeit slowly, in other areas of the Court. The appointment of women to professional positions is increasing, with women now holding the senior posts of Registrar and Deputy Prosecutor. Of the 261 professional posts across the Court, there is a 4 per cent gap between the appointment of men and women (WIGJ 2008e: 14), though there are clear deficiencies in the Office of the Prosecutor as well as in non-Western representation. That the Bureau of the Assembly of State Parties has created a committee to oversee the geographic and gender aspects of staff recruitment, and has developed a range of strategies in an effort to attract more female staff, is a positive sign that the ICC is taking these issues seriously. As with the appointment of judges, it is not only the number of women that is important to mainstreaming gender concerns, but the inclusion of professionals with gender expertise in the different organs of the Court. The Statute provides for the appointment of professionals with gender expertise by the Registrar to the Victims and Witnesses Unit (VWU), and by the Prosecutor as advisers on sexual and gender violence. None of these key positions have been filled to date (WIGJ 2008e: 18). Budgetary constraints have been used by Court Officials to explain the failure to make these appointments (see WIGJ 2008e: 106). While it is the case that the Court must operate on a stringent budget, and one which is highly politicized because of the control over financial matters by the Assembly of State Parties, this justification is rather weak. Budgets are a function of priorities. By not filling these positions,7 the Court sends a clear statement about its lack of prioritization of these areas. The appointment of women and men to the bench who have gender expertise is a groundbreaking development and the percentage of women in senior professional positions is unprecedented in the history of international institutions. Nevertheless, as this discussion has shown, familiar gaps in women’s representation and the representation of gender issues remain. The new features of the Court’s structures and processes are off-set to some extent by some age-old practices including

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using budgetary arguments to defend against the development of gender equality positions and the requirement of women’s rights activists to maintain constant pressure on the institution to ensure it fulfils its gender mandate.

Creating new institutions for gender justice at the national level? The third test of whether the ICC is a ‘new’ institution is measured by the extent to which the provisions of the Rome Statute are being implemented at the national level to achieve complementarity. As noted, it is expected that when states ratify the ICC they will take steps to adopt legislation and other measures at the national level to bring municipal law into alignment with international law. To comply fully with the Statute, states must introduce two forms of legislation: one in which the states agree to cooperate with the Court, and one which adjusts national criminal law to reflect international standards set out under the Rome Statute. The Statute has no provision to enforce states to adopt implementation laws, thus relying on the political will of nation states and their concern about their international human rights reputation to ensure compliance. To date, the ICC has only achieved moderate success in having states adopt implementing legislation. With 110 state parties to the Statute as of November 2009, only 50 per cent have any form of implementing legislation, but according to the International Bar Association (IBA), only 20 per cent of this legislation fully adopts all aspects of the Statute (IBA 2008). According to David Donat-Cattin of the NGO Parliamentarians for Global Action, two main political hurdles exist: the difficulty of placing ICC implementing legislation on domestic political agendas due to its competition with other political priorities, an issue exacerbated by the global financial crisis, and the lack of support for the Court from major powers including the USA (2008). The question of removing immunity for heads of state is also a stumbling block both to the ratification and implementation of the Statute, particularly after the Court has shown its willingness to enforce this provision. The Assembly of State Parties is well aware of the problem of the gap between ratification and implementation – certainly not a unique problem with international treaties (see Hafner-Burton and Tsutsui 2005) – and recently adopted a plan of action for achieving full implementation. The plan requires state parties to proactively promote universality (for example, by encouraging further ratification) and full implementation

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through bilateral and regional relationships (ICC 2008: 2). Joining in this effort are key NGOs such as the CICC, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the International Bar Association who maintain databases on implementing legislation and provide resources to assist states in drafting legislation. The disparity between ratification and implementation significantly reduces the transformative effect of the Rome Statute as far as women are concerned. Aside from the few cases that will be heard by the ICC, justice for gender-based crimes will be the responsibility of the states where they reside. So long as states who are parties to the ICC have no implementing legislation, women will be denied access to justice. But it is not only in those states without legislation where women are left unprotected. Indeed, a troubling pattern is starting to emerge whereby Rome Statue gender provisions are significantly diluted and/or only partially implemented in complementary legislation. For example, the Australian legislation includes a narrower definition of rape than that in the Statute, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, and any other form of sexual violence are omitted from war crimes. Several other states have also reduced the gender provisions of either or both crimes against humanity or war crimes (for example, Estonia and Brazil). However, it is also important to note that a number of states have taken the opportunity to include gender as a category under the definition of genocide which advances the crime further than provided in the Statute (for instance Australia, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Finland, and Portugal). Adopting new definitions of crimes based on the Rome Statute is important to the advancement of gender justice at the national level. It is equally significant, given the nature of crimes committed against women in conflict situations, that national-level criminal justice systems provide for the level of witness protection provided for under the Statute, including careful evidence-gathering procedures which protect confidentiality; provision for in camera evidence and, if necessary, witness protection programmes. Such programmes are heavily resource intensive and there is a concern that, especially in conflict situations in less- developed states, there will be scant access to such services, leaving female witnesses exposed to reprisals. Another implementation challenge, especially in common-law countries will be how to include the involvement of victims in trials under the Statute. While opening up greater access for all victims of violence in conflict situations, victim access is a foreign concept in many countries and could present challenges to, and resistance from those upholding existing legal norms.

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Complementarity is a double-edged sword as far as expanding women’s rights is concerned. Nested in a system that is structured by state sovereignty, the Rome Statute and International Criminal Court provide states with the capacity to develop and expand their treatment of gender-based crimes through the reform of national law. The inclusion of gender under the crime of genocide in a number of countries appears to reflect this expansion. At the same time, it gives states the capacity to fragment new international legal norms and to work against the diffusion of new women’s rights norms to the national level.

New conceptions of women? A final question about the ‘newness’ of the Court that needs to be asked is to what extent it opens up different conceptions of women under international law. A number of feminist critiques, including Charlesworth and Chinkin (2000: 334), have noted that despite the advances of the Rome Statute, international criminal law continues to emphasize women’s sexual and reproductive identities. The emphasis on sexual violence, including acts of forced pregnancy, keeps women in the role of ‘other’ – identified only through their relationship with men and children. Feminist legal scholar Mertus (2004) raises additional concerns about over-reliance on an international adversarial litigation system for advancing the interests of survivors of rape in times of conflict. The slow pace of change, and the risk to women waiting for cases to be heard, compound rather than expand their rights. In this role, women continue to be cast as passive victims rather than survivors or agents of change. To some extent, the first five years of the operation of the Court reflect these concerns. Rather than advancing a new frame through which women and gender concerns can be understood, the existing view of women, especially African women, as victims, rather than as active subjects, has been reinforced through legal and administrative discourses within the ICC. Yet alternative scripts are also emerging. For instance, in October 2008 the Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice held the Justice for Women Forum, a meeting of 155 women’s rights and peace activists from the four states where the ICC is currently undertaking investigations. The forum enabled women to analyse the current conflicts, assess strategies for calling to account those who have committed violent crimes, and develop sustainable peace solutions. Skills development and exchange was also a feature of the forum. This event built on others supported by international NGOs in collaboration with those at

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the regional level to promote women’s rights through the expansion of the jurisdiction of the ICC. This includes the development of the Beni Declaration calling on the ICC to extend the charges against Lubanga (see WIGJ 2008a: 17) and the Nairobi Declaration on Women’s and Girls Right to a Remedy and Reparation (Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations 2008). Women’s leadership is also being advanced through the appointment to senior positions at the Court. Women hold the positions of Registrar (Silvana Arbia) and Deputy Prosecutor (Fatou Bensouda). In 2008, 10 of 17 nominees for judicial vacancies are women, with 6 of the 10 female candidates coming from Africa.

Conclusion A key proposition of HI is that institutional outcomes cannot be ‘read off’ their design. Institutions always have more than one designer, often with conflicting goals, they are profoundly influenced by the past, and are nested within institutional environments which interact with and constrain institutional capacity and development. The notion of path dependency suggests that it is in their initial stages that new institutions are most open to responding to reform agendas, but once settled on a path – though not necessarily the one imagined by their designers – they are very difficult to turn back. FI makes an important contribution to this literature by pointing out that institutions have an embedded and often hidden gender dimension – expressed through norms, rules, and structures – which can be carried forward through institutional legacies and through their interaction with surrounding institutions. As a result, it is unlikely that even ‘new’ institutions will offer an entirely ‘clean slate’ for actors advancing gender equality. Equality seekers and gender change agents need to keep their expectations in check; as Mackay argues, institutional innovations, at least as far as gender is concerned, are often no more than ‘bounded change within an existing system’ (2009: 22). Moreover, any change must be constantly monitored and vigilantly enforced or else quickly forgotten. In some respects the ICC does break with the past, and gender justice advocates are having some success in ensuring that the Court develops sensitivity to gender issues while it is in its establishment phase. The growing recognition by the OTP of the need to take seriously crimes of sexual violence in prosecutorial action; the push to ensure women are represented across the major organs of the Court, including on the bench; and the willingness of some states to not just adopt, but to expand certain equality aspects of the Statute are all significant

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achievements. At the same time, legacies such as the treatment by international criminal law of crimes against women as less grave and less indictable than others still hangs over the Court. The ‘nestedness’ of the ICC in a international relations system, where sovereignty remains the primary organizing norm and where women are considered victims and the objects of law, continue to pose significant challenges for enhancing gender justice. The ICC is in its early stages of development and has yet to build a body of jurisprudence. It is still highly ‘pliable’ and has the capacity to make a difference to the unequal gender aspects of international criminal law. But this will not happen by itself. The strength of historical legacies and contemporary countervailing pressures will only be contained through the ongoing pressure of external activists and the willingness of sympathetic ‘insiders’ to pursue a gender agenda.

Notes 1. The crime of aggression is also included as a category of crime under the Statute, but the Court will not exercise jurisdiction over this crime until a definition is agreed by the Assembly of State Parties. Negotiation over the definition is currently underway and expected to be adopted at the 10-year review conference of the ICC in 2010. 2. Similar crimes are enumerated under the category of crimes against humanity (see Article 8 (b) (xxii)). 3. Features of the Balkan conflict and recognized by the ICTY as war crimes. 4. Gender-based crimes were not included under Article 6 on Genocide, with some of the more optimistic gender justice advocates reasoning that it was unnecessary having already been established as an element of that category of crime at the ad hoc tribunals. 5. Kay Glassborow, ‘ICC Investigative Strategy Under Fire’ in ‘Special Report: Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo’. Institute for War and Peace Reporting: The Netherlands. October 2008: 9. Available at www. iwpr.net 6. Section 61(9) of the Rome Statute states: ‘After the charges are confirmed and before the trial has begun, the Prosecutor may, with the permission of the Pre-Trial Chamber and after notice to the accused, amend the charges. If the Prosecutor seeks to add additional charges or to substitute more serious charges, a hearing under this article to confirm those charges must be held’. 7. Though the Prosecutor announced the appointment of well-known US legal scholar, Catherine Mackinnon, as a Special Gender Adviser (ICC 2008) in 2007, this is no replacement for a full-time position based permanently at the Court.

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11 Conclusion: Towards a Feminist Institutionalism? Fiona Mackay

Institutions – the formal and informal ‘rules of the game’ – profoundly shape political life. Political institutions are also inescapably gendered. In this groundbreaking collection we have set out what feminist institutionalism (FI) – a new approach that centres on these twin insights – might mean in conceptual terms and in practice. The goal has been to explore the potential for, and limits of, a synthesis of neoinstitutionalism (NI) and feminist political science (FPS) in order to develop core theoretical concepts to help us to answer some of the big questions and real-world puzzles about gendered power inequalities in public and political life, mechanisms of continuity, and the promise and limits of gendered change. The purpose of this chapter is two-fold: it draws together key themes relevant across the diverse contexts and approaches covered by the contributions in the collection to consider why feminist political science needs NI and, conversely, why NI needs feminist political science; and it raises questions and issues to inform a future research agenda. The chapter will reinforce the findings of the preceding chapters to show that a synthesized approach such as FI adds value to political analyses.

One feminist institutionalism or many? The pluralism evident in this collection is a feature and strength of feminist scholarship more broadly. Whilst there are a variety of definitions and operationalizations of concepts such as ‘institution’, ‘gender’, and ‘power’, the gendered character of institutions and the gendering effects of institutions are foundational tenets of a feminist institutionalism. This collection builds upon FPS insights, that not only do apparently gender-neutral political institutions have differential effects on women 181

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and men, but that institutions also have gendered effects through more complicated mechanisms ‘by which political power is constructed and functions in gendered terms’ (Beckwith 2005: 134). The intuition that there are complex linkages between institutions that are both proximate and distant, contemporary and historical, which shape gendered patterns of advantage and disadvantage (Burns 2005:139) is central to the FI project. In short, gendered institutions are crucial for understanding power inequalities in public and political life. In efforts to date to synthesize feminist gender analysis with neoinstitutional theory, it is argued that there is scope for mutual benefit (Annesley and Gains, forthcoming; Chappell, 2006; Kantola 2006; Kenny 2007; Lovenduski 1998, 2005b; Mackay 2004; Mackay and Meier 2003; Mackay and Waylen 2009; Weldon 2002). In a similar vein, all contributors agree there is merit in a closer engagement between NI and FPS. However, there is no detailed consensus in response to the question, what is Feminist Institutionalism? One approach is to propose feminist variants of the different NI schools and to set out what might be key characteristics, concepts, and strategies (Lovenduski in foreword to this volume; see also various contributions in Mackay and Waylen 2009). Whilst some chapters have taken this approach, particularly Georgina Waylen, who specifies a feminist adoption and operationalization of a historical institutionalist (HI) approach, most have combined elements from at least two NI variants (most commonly HI supplemented by sociological institutionalism (SI) or discursive institutionalism (DI)), or have drawn upon parallel literatures on gender and organizations, and feminist discourse analysis. This is because FI (like FPS) is predominantly social constructionist in its approach to the analysis of institutions and actors, and to the broader social context in which these are constituted. The complex, gendered, socially-embedded, and relational agent of FPS requires models which incorporate norms and ideas, culture, affective processes, and multiple forms of rationality. Other contributors take a more pluralist approach yet, by borrowing and adapting tools from all the schools of NI (Beyeler and Annesley; Vickers, both in this volume), echoing the more general trend towards methodological rapprochement (see for example Schmidt 2006). Michelle Beyeler and Claire Annesley counter common feminist scepticism about the utility of rational choice approaches to argue there are both intellectual and strategic reasons for an ecumenical approach; an approach that does not discount any of the new institutionalisms. Drawing upon the lessons of gendered welfare state scholarship, Beyeler and Annesley suggest that by being open to, and engaging with NI as a

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whole, FI will be able to emulate the influence and impact that feminist social science scholars have had upon the wider welfare state field (see also Sainsbury 2008).

Gendered institutions and the gendering effects of institutions This section draws together key themes relevant across the diverse contexts and approaches covered by the contributions in the collection to explore the added value of an FI approach which combines, adapts, and transforms elements of NI and FPS in developing insights about gendered institutions, the gendering effects of institutions, and complex dynamics of institutional continuity and change. Whether ‘just borrowing’ or adapting tools, or seeking a deeper synthesis, the added value of FI, as demonstrated in the preceding chapters and elsewhere, is in the combination of diverse conceptual frameworks and toolkits in developing deeper analyses. Formal and informal institutions In both explicit and implicit ways, NI and FPS have conferred equal status on formal and informal institutions. The central insight of FI is that formal and informal institutions are gendered. FI analyses how formal and informal institutions interact – in complementary or contradictory ways – to shape political outcomes. Institutional configurations and their effects may be gender neutral or gender biased; these are empirical questions to be explored through detailed research. For example, Susan Franceschet (in this volume) develops an institutionalist and gendered comparative analysis of the interaction of formal and informal institutions, which structure the legislative process in ways that influence the actions of female legislators, and either facilitate or obstruct favourable policy outcomes for women. Her work exposes the formal and informal institutions that structure the legislative environment and influence legislator behaviour and policy outcomes, ranging from formal electoral rules, to informal norms such as combative or consensual political styles. These interactions impact upon all politicians, male and female, and on outcomes. However, they also have gendered effects in that they impact differently upon women and men, because they are embedded within wider gendered structures and gender norms. Particular configurations of institutions may encourage or discourage the articulation of perspectives that advance women’s rights or the development of women’s policy. There may also

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be gendered costs and benefits for particular behaviour. For example, women legislators who break informal conventions may pay a higher price than men because they contravene gendered norms as well as general conventions. The question about which embodied actors may break rules (formal and informal) is a question also raised in Meryl Kenny’s work on the institutions of political recruitment and candidate selection, which demonstrates that officials condone rule-breaking by male candidates to the detriment of female candidates (in this volume; see also Kenny 2009). The understanding that institutions consist of formal rules and informal norms, and second, that institutions are complex systems that may work in permissive or obstructive ways are particularly pertinent when examining processes of institutional reform and innovation. Informal rules and norms can serve a number of purposes: they may emerge to complement and reinforce formal institutions; or they may ‘plug the gaps’ when formal institutional solutions are not available; conversely, they may provide alternative norms and practices in situations where formal rule changes are unlikely or unwelcome (Helmke and Levitsky 2004). These insights are particularly relevant to FI with its central concerns around institutional reform and change. Informal ‘rules-in-use’ play out in different scenarios during periods of reform and transition. On the one hand, they may reinforce change when there is good fit and tight coupling between the old informal and the new formal. On the other hand, informal rules-in-use may serve as a primary site of resistance ‘existing in parallel – or even in direct contradiction – to formal rules’ (Leach and Lowndes 2007: 186). Informal rules can serve to modify newness (rules, structure, and roles) and reincorporate into old ways and old paths ‘leaving power relationships intact’ (Leach and Lowndes 2007: 186). Diverse cases such as recruitment reforms in postdevolution Scotland (Kenny in this volume; see also Kenny 2009); gender quota debates in Sweden and France (Freidenvall and Krook in this volume; see also Krook 2009); and the creation of the new International Criminal Court (Chappell in this volume) all provide ample evidence of the way in which ‘old rules’ embodied in gender norms and legacies may work to frustrate or dilute new institutions promoting gender equality. Informal mechanisms of resistance include ‘forgetting’ new institutions (Mackay 2009) and ‘remembering’ old rules and norms (Leach and Lowndes 2007), including the reassertion of traditional gender relations and norms; strategies of partial or non-compliance, the reluctance of key actors fully to utilize new powers, for example,

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judicial interpretations that uphold ‘gender norms that treat women’s rights as less significant than other rights’ (Chappell in this volume: 173); and the emergence of informalization through various practices such as informally sanctioned rule-breaking, lack of rule enforcement, and adoption of alternative conventions (Kenny in this volume). These mechanisms are not confined to new or young institutions. For example, Jill Vickers argues that courts often allow national governments in federal systems to ‘stretch’ jurisdictions over issues relating to the economy and security (in this volume: 143). Whilst the weight of empirical evidence points towards old, informal rules as a key mechanism of resistance to gendered change, it is nonetheless possible to theorize instances in which institutions may be regendered (in a positive direction) through developments in, or the mobilization of, informal rules and norms (Beyeler and Annesley in this volume). It is important not to underplay the importance of formal institutions, in the form of state architecture, in understanding the opportunities and challenges structures faced by feminists seeking policy change. In particular, the formal division of powers and policy terrains, and how variations in form affect the political opportunity structure within which women’s movements stake claims, the consequent impact on women’s status as citizens, and on strategies for feminist engagement with the state. Such issues have been of enduring interest to feminist scholars studying federal systems through single case studies (Grace in this volume; see also Grace 2006; Vickers 1994) or comparatively (Vickers in this volume; see also Chappell 2002a; Haussman et al. 2010; Vickers 2010). It is clear that informal institutions and their interplay with formal institutions are crucial for understanding wider processes of continuity and change and for variable outcomes. The complex interplay between formal and informal also points to the complex dynamics of institutional continuity and change and the need to put a central emphasis on political contestation and shifting coalitions. FI perspectives on continuity and change Institutional continuity and change, and the contingent, and often unanticipated, consequences of institutional reform and redesign are of interest to NI scholars and feminist political scientists alike. It is accepted that better explanations of change are needed, and there is growing agreement that additional concepts are required that take into account agency and that refine understandings of both exogenous and

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endogenously generated change, and their interconnections. This raises the question as to whether FI can help in this theory-building process. This is emerging as an area where FI has engaged fruitfully with recent developments in NI, particularly the dynamic conceptions of institutional change pioneered by HI Kathleen Thelen and her collaborators. As noted in the Introduction, models that draw a sharp analytical distinction between institutional creation (often viewed as resulting from external shock and dramatic rupture) and institutional reproduction (through endogenous processes of path dependency and institutional lock in), whilst still widely used, are coming under increasing challenge. Newer and more dynamic models developed by Kathleen Thelen and her colleagues emphasize ‘bounded innovation’ and characterize the boundaries between institutional reproduction and institutional creation or institutional change as blurred. Employing a loose notion of path dependency, it is argued that periods of institutional reproduction overlap with moments of institutional creation in partial and often unpredictable ways, and with unanticipated outcomes. As such, institutional actors experience a combination of ‘lock in’ and ‘innovation’, where already existing institutional structures to some extent ‘lock’ actors onto certain paths. However, this does not preclude action and still leaves scope for innovation. Institutions are not just a constraint but also may act as strategic resources (see for example Thelen 2003, 2004). These models emphasize the importance of ongoing political contestation and the daily ‘enactment’ of institutions as key drivers of institutional change (Streeck and Thelen 2005; Mahoney and Thelen 2010). Apparently small shifts in institutional power dynamics such as political alliances, and the cumulative effects of seemingly inconsequential decisions may add up to significant developments over time, including the creation of new institutional forms through the change mechanisms such as ‘layering’ (where new institutional elements are added to older elements, eventually supplanting them), ‘conversion’ (where old institutional arrangements are co-opted and reinterpreted for new purposes), ‘displacement’ (the wholesale removal of old institutional elements and their replacement with new elements) and ‘drift’ (where old institutional arrangements are actively neglected and/or co-opted) (Streeck and Thelen 2005; Schickler 2001(on layering); for a reformulation specifically around rules see Mahoney and Thelen 2010). Such models are seen to hold great promise for many of the authors in this collection for fruitful adaptation and synthesis. They accord with the ‘messiness’ and empirical complexity of real-world scenarios.

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As such, they may enable greater understanding of variable and partial success of new institutions created to challenge existing gender norms and gendered power asymmetries such as the introduction of quotas (Freidenvall and Krook in this volume; Krook 2009; Squires 2007), gender mainstreaming (Rai 2002; Squires 2007; True 2008), the establishment of women’s policy agencies (Outshoorn and Kantola 2007; Squires 2007; Teghtsoonian 2005), and the integration of gender concerns in the design of new institutions (Chappell, Kenny, Waylen, all in this volume; see also Mackay 2006, 2009). That is not to underplay the power of path-shaping continuities and the ongoing importance of legacies, including gendered legacies. These nuanced models still retain the insight that decisions made early in the life of an institution have particular significance because of the openness or ‘permissiveness’ of the opening stages in a sequence. Once chosen, paths are shaped and reinforced by factors such as large set-up costs, strong learning and coordination effects, and normative processes (Chappell in this volume). Thinking about democratic transitions and their gendered effects, Waylen (in this volume) asks to what extent outcomes emerge as a result of path dependent processes set in train at the point of transition, and to what extent they are a result of ongoing contestation and more gradual institutional change. Hana Hašková and Steven Saxonberg provide a compelling account of how path dependency can be understood as both powerful drag and incremental change. Instead of a radical break with the past, they argue that post-communist family policies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are more influenced by decisions made during the communist period (and indeed the pre-communist ‘bourgeois’ regime) than decisions made in the post-communist era. Critical junctures were not exogenous shocks like regime change, but instead apparently mundane decisions and events that shaped, and continue to shape, future policies and gender relations, and also attitudes toward gender roles in a feedback effect. Institutional development is characterized as a more incremental process whereby a sequence of decisions is made, each highly conditioned by the previous decision: not a clear trajectory, but instead a series of small adjustments. As such, they argue against an overly deterministic notion of path dependency, but rather change understood as sequenced problem solving, in which cognitive and normative resources on which decision makers draw upon, including gendered norms, are influenced by previous decisions. Other contributors use these theoretical tools to gain insight into how far feminist reformers have been able to take advantage of ‘permissive’

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stages in the life of new institutions to advance gender equality (Chappell, Kenny, Waylen, in this volume). Louise Chappell examines the extent to which, in the early days of its operation, the International Criminal Court has been able to realize its reformist potential to better protect women’s rights in times of war and conflict. The creation of a new international institution such as the ICC offers ‘a rare opportunity to monitor the development of an institution from its genesis, an opportunity that can potentially yield important insights about the evolution of formal institutions’ (Chappell in this volume: 163). However, studies of restructuring processes and new institutions suggest the extent to which new institutions are shaped by past legacies and ongoing interactions with other institutions, and the importance of ongoing contestation. In this respect, the concept of ‘nested newness’ alerts us to the ways in which ‘ “old” gender practices, norms, and expectations often underpin new institutions in ways which can blunt their reformist potential’ (Chappell in this volume: 166; see also Mackay 2009). It is apparent that multiple conceptions of change are needed which take into account different sorts of institutions, and how they interact and interlock with other institutions in dense institutional environments, different degrees and types of path dependency, and change trajectories. In this respect, FI offers critical insights about the gendered dimensions of continuity and change, which are often ignored in mainstream analyses. Dynamics of institutional power relations, resistance, reproduction, continuity, and change need to be filtered through a gendered lens (Mackay 2004: 113; see also Chappell 2006; Kenny 2007; Mackay and Meier 2003). Drawing on evidence from the Scottish case, Kenny demonstrates that the ‘gendering and regendering of the institutions of political recruitment are active processes’ enacted through ‘embodied institutional actors, as well as through institutional rules, regulations, norms, and standing operating procedures’. She concurs with other FI scholars who argue not only that gender norms and gender relations may be particularly ‘sticky’ institutional legacies working to limit change, but also that gender operating at the symbolic level (as a signifier of power) and through the daily practicing of gender may be a ‘primary mechanism through which institutional reform and innovation can be resisted’ (Kenny in this volume: 40; see also Mackay 2009). Conversely, this also raises the question as to whether variations in gender practice and gender regimes in different institutional settings may provide a powerful explanation for wider patterns of institutional variance and differences in outcomes (Lovenduski 1998, and in this volume; see also Chappell 2002a, and in this volume; Connell

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2006; Mackay 2009; Sainsbury 2008). Changes in gender relations or the wider gender order (the overall societal gender formations) may provide an important source of externally generated change; conversely, local variations in institutional gender regimes, or contradictions and tensions within gender regimes or related institutions may trigger internally generated change. The concept of gender regimes, developed by the Australian sociologist Raewyn Connell (1987, 1990, 2002), is widely referenced within FPS as part of a repertoire of gendered frameworks (see for example Lovenduski, Chappell, Waylen, Vickers, in this volume). Connell takes forward the insight that institutions, including political institutions, create and reproduce gendered patterns of work, power, human relations, and symbolism. Gender regimes, developed in organizational analysis, provide a framework of interconnecting institutions that comprise the overall pattern of gender arrangements in a formal environment, such as a legislature, a state bureaucracy, or a political party. A gender regime involves four dimensions: a gender division of labour; gendered relations of power (including the way in which control, authority, or force are organized along gendered dimensions); gendered patterning of emotions and emotional labour; and gendered culture and symbolism (including cultural scripts about gender difference, prevailing gender norms, and so on) (Connell 2002, 53–58; Connell 2006). Each dimension is the sum of previous and ongoing gender contestations. Newer, more dynamic models of change highlight the ‘gaps’ and ‘soft spots’ that exist between the rules and their interpretation, between enactment and enforcement, as analytical spaces within which institutions are contested in ongoing processes. Gender regimes and other analyses of gendered institutions used in FPS provide FI with a headstart on NI. Models of gender regimes demonstrate how local variation in gender patterns may create ambiguities and contradictions that open up spaces for contestation and change, as well as providing rich resources for resistance. Whereas theorizing that institutional change is generated ‘as a result of the normal, everyday implementation and enactment of an institution’ (Streeck and Thelen 2005:11; emphasis added) is considered ‘groundbreaking’ in NI terms, this is arguably a ‘commonplace observation in feminist scholarship, which highlights the complex interplay between the meso- and micro- level in which institutions are continually enacted through everyday gender practice and power’ (Kenny and Mackay 2009, 277). Nonetheless, whilst concepts such as gender regimes are highly influential, examples of systematic application in FPS are rarer (but see for example Abrar et al. 1998) and it will

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be a key task of FI to systematically apply and develop gender regimes as part of wider theory-building processes. Agency, strategy, and ideas A key issue in feminist political science, as well as social science more generally, is the relative roles played by structure and agency in political life. The chapters provide differing views. On the one hand, some authors have criticized as a weakness what is seen as an over-emphasis on women’s agency in much FPS, particularly the reliance on grassroots women’s movements as ‘motors of change’ (Waylen in this volume); and accounts of female actors which attach an unrealistic degree of voluntarism or autonomy to women legislators or Women’s Policy Agency officials (Franceschet in this volume; see also Mackay 2008). FPS encounters difficulties in accounting for diverse outcomes across different states and at different times. This is particularly the case where relatively well-organized women’s movements have achieved few gains compared with situations where there have been positive outcomes but no apparent mobilization of women. On the other hand, authors caution against overly structural accounts that underplay the role of women as agents who strategize in response to changing political opportunity structures, and who are active in processes of political contestation and strategic framing (Freidenvall and Krook, Grace, Vickers, in this volume). For example, Beyeler and Annesley point out a gap in the literature on the capacity of women as political agents to shape and reform the programmes and policies of the contemporary welfare state. To make sense of contemporary welfare reforms, particularly in the UK, there is a need to take account of the strategic role and agency of women, particularly feminist ministers (see also Annesley 2007, 2010). Similarly, Joan Grace (in this volume) argues that women are not only subjects of the welfare state, but also agents in the political process in contests over the reforms of child-care policy in Canada in the 1990s. A synthetic FI approach provides a way forward by theorizing the agency of female actors as bounded. Women demonstrate agency as institutional and extra-institutional actors working in, through, and against state and political institutions to effect social and political change, but they exercise their agency within institutional, cultural, and discursive constraints. There is a need to take into account multiple forms of rationality (around interests, norms, and cognition) and complex forms of agency and structure. In a similar vein to Hay and Wincott (1998: 955), FI is developing frameworks for understanding a

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dynamic relationship between ‘institutional architects, institutionalized subjects and institutional environment’ where agency is understood to involve strategic, creative, and intuitive action, as well as calculating self-interest. Both NI and FPS emphasize the importance of strategic agency in processes of institutional change, highlighting the ways in which strategic actors initiate change within a context of opportunities and constraints. While NI highlights the role of institutional ‘entrepreneurs’ (Schickler 2001), FPS similarly emphasizes the importance of insider and outsider strategic actors – or, to use Louise Chappell’s (2006) term ‘gender equity entrepreneurs’ – as sources of institutional innovation and political and policy change (see for example Bashevkin 1998; Chappell 2002a; Katzenstein 1998). Institutional reforms are not the product of a single designer, but are better conceptualized as ‘common carriers’ for multiple interests, sometimes cross-cutting. Entrepreneurs are often needed to construct and frame reform proposals in order to mobilize coalitions of different interests to work together (see Schickler 2001). Feminist empirical work across a range of fields provides rich examples of strategic mobilizations and strategic framing by organized women to stake their claim in processes of change. According to Vickers (in this volume), when complex institutional networks are restructured, some aspects of path dependence may be dislodged, opening up new paths, especially if structural change is supported by ideational and discursive shifts. This points to the importance of the coincidence of structural and ideational or discursive shifts. Ideas and discourses are thus a potential source of institutional change – a way of re-gendering politics, for example, through legislated gender quotas in ways that legitimate both women’s presence and their actions (Franceschet, Freidenvall and Krook, in this volume). Feminists have long argued that ‘definition’ is a central mechanism of power (Frye 1983, Fraser 1989). This insight has provoked an enduring interest in the complex interplay of discursive struggles over the interpretation and representation of needs, political problems, and identities. Early work by Jenson on the ‘universe of political discourse’ (1986, 1989) and Fraser’s recasting of interpretive contests around women’s welfare needs as political conflict (1989 see discussion in Kulawik 2009) have developed into a distinctive field of feminist critical policy analysis (Bacchi 1999, 2005; Lombardo et al. 2009; Verloo 2007). Feminist activists and gender equality advocates have harnessed insights about politics as the contest over ideas and meaning by

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framing feminist demands within dominant institutional and political discourses. Lenita Freidenvall and Mona Lena Krook (in this volume) provide powerful examples of strategic framing, demonstrating how activists used prevailing conceptions of fairness in the form of ‘equal turns’ in Sweden and parité in France, to circumvent opposition to the adoption of gender candidate quotas. The comparison of Sweden and France considers how institutional contexts shape discourses and how discourses alter some, but not all, parts of the broader institutional environment. Similarly, Grace (in this volume) attends to both the framing effects and the institutional effects of welfare structuring contests in contexts of divided policy domains. Clearly there is common cause with discursive institutionalism (DI), which explains changes in institutions as the result of changes in ideas and contests over the communication and adoption of ideas through discourse (Schmidt 2008). Changes in ideas about gender relations may then be theorized to operate as potential mechanisms to change institutions. However, as noted earlier, FI draws from alternative sources including feminist discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis, both of which problematize to a much greater degree than DI the extent to which actors can strategically manipulate ideas and discourse, and the extent to which they are constrained ‘within’ discourse (Freidenvall and Krook in this volume). Power operates through discourse to fix certain constructions of gender relations as dominant and to marginalize or exclude counter-discourses, therefore constraining and bounding the agency of female actors, including feminists.

Whither feminist institutionalism? Towards a research agenda Feminist institutionalism is still a work in progress and cannot be said to offer all the answers. However, added value and additional analytical leverage is promised by a systematic combination of FPS and NI. Covering a number of key interests in feminist and institutionalist research, this collection provides an opportunity to explore the contours and assess the added value of a synthesized approach. The chapters in this collection set out important conceptual and empirical blueprints for a feminist institutionalism (or institutionalisms) in the making; an approach with considerable potential to enhance our understanding and analyses of institutional dynamics, gender power, and the patterning of gendered inequalities in political and public life.

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Any research agenda must start with basics1: to revisit old typologies and develop frameworks, particularly gender regimes. Mapping the formal structures and informal rules and norms of institutions is the first step in constructing an institutional analysis; mapping the institutional configurations and interconnections, including interlocking gender regimes, is another crucial component of a systematic FI analysis. In order to realize its potential, FI needs to work to ‘gender’ NI concepts, in a manner akin to Amy Mazur’s innovative project with her colleagues (see Goertz and Mazur 2008). Informal institutions provide a fruitful avenue for future research and theory building. This would build upon work by FI scholars such as Chappell, whose gendered ‘logic of appropriateness’ has provided an illuminating tool to analyse the gendering effects of informal institutions (Chappell 2002a, 2006); and scholarship in the field which draws attention to the specific ways in which the locus of power may shift from formal to informal mechanisms, or ‘take flight’ to different institutional arenas in maledominated political spaces, to counteract women’s increased access and presence in formal decision-making sites (Hawkesworth 2005: 150; Connell 2002, 2006; Hawkesworth 2003; Holli et al. 2006; Kathlene 1995; Puwar 2004b). Excavating informal institutions such as rules, norms, and practices will enable FI scholars to analyse how they interact with formal institutions such as conventions, and with what gendered outcomes. The purpose of such work is not only to discover and map the informal institutions at play through detailed case studies, but also to develop ways in which the informal rules-in-use can be identified and operationalized in comparative and historical research. In this respect, interlocking gender regimes must play an important part in being able to specify the informal gendered rules-in-use, and the work they do. The combined insights of NI and FPS point to the need for FI to develop a flexible multi-method approach. The attraction of (certain variants of institutionalism) for feminist political science is their mutual interest in problem-driven, real-world puzzles. Such concerns give rise to research strategies that emphasize temporality, relationality, and contextuality in political developments (Kulawik 2009: see also Franceschet in this volume; Kenny and Mackay 2009; Krook 2009; Waylen 2009 and in this volume). For example, as Kulawik notes, a relational conception of gender means that gender remains a relevant analytical category, even in those situations and institutional contexts in which ‘women’s agency is deemed an irrelevant factor’ or women are not present (Kulawik 2009: 263).

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In turn, soft concepts of causality which examine the configuration of constellations of elements over time appear well equipped to deal with the empirical complexities of gendered institutions and political processes across time and space; complexities which oftentimes seem to confound approaches using standard variable analysis. Similarly, the ideational turn in NI, for example discursive institutionalism, complements developments in FPS that recognize the dynamic role of ideas and practices of gender in institutional processes of continuity and change. Both NI and FPS seek to identify and theorize social and political mechanisms that explain outcomes in particular contexts. Mechanisms are understood as processes that link cause and effect: explaining how certain patterns and relations exist and why they result in specific outcomes. The goal is not to generate broadly generalizable theories, but instead to identify mechanisms that have explanatory purchase across different settings (Campbell 2005; Pierson 2004). The search for common causal mechanisms (of power, of continuity, of change) is an important next stage of the FI project. In so doing, the gendered dimensions and gendering effects of NI mechanisms will be brought to light. Multiple conceptions of institutional creation, reproduction, and change are needed. HI and FPS scholarship each provides important insights, but further work is needed to synthesize analyses. Further thought is needed about the possible ways in which gender and institutional configurations may work in different directions to promote or foreclose change. We need to be able to explain why some change is easily achieved and easily revised, whilst other change is hard to achieve, but once done so appears to be ‘locked in’ (Vickers in this volume). As such, there is a need to identify permissive and causal mechanisms of reproduction and change, and their gendered dimensions, including change agents. Whilst embedding institutional innovation is always difficult, the combination of ‘newness’ and ‘gender’ can seem to make institutionalizing reforms even harder. Although change in both directions is possible, feminist scholarship in this volume and elsewhere has documented what appear to be ‘particular difficulties of institutionalizing and maintaining gender equality reforms, highlighting the constant possibility for norm erosion, drift, and reversal’ (Kenny in this volume: 38). We also need to consider what the aim is of FI in terms of scope and focus. Are we interested in wider questions of political science, or just in using NI to address specific substantive areas? In other words, are we

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interested in ‘gendering’ wider debates and exposing and analysing the gendered dimensions of general processes of continuity and change; or is our main concern in explaining/understanding particular areas of interest in FPS? As Waylen argues, an overly narrow focus, for example, on policy initiatives around gender equality, can limit analysis of the broader question of how and with what effect state and political institutions are gendered. This narrow emphasis has compromised the ability, not just of some of the literature on gender and transitions, but also of some of the gender and politics research, to answer big questions or resolve the structure/agency debate that has preoccupied so many other social scientists. (Waylen in this volume: 149) This suggests the need for a dual focus on both feminist guided change (gender equity reforms) and on the gendering of wider political processes. What is the explanatory power of gender in more generalized processes? Exposing the gendered dimensions to institutions and processes takes us so far, but there needs to be more theoretical and empirical work to explain how and why. There are strong intuitions that gender is implicated in wider reform and restructuring processes at macro-, meso-, and micro-levels; in this respect gender may ‘carry’ processes of reproduction and change. To address these challenges, FI needs to develop new explanatory frameworks. Final words The central contention of this chapter, and this volume, is that there is enormous potential for these two approaches to mutually inform one another. NI offers new tools and frameworks that will enable feminists to better capture multiple dynamics of continuity and change through concepts like informal institutions, critical junctures, path dependency, feedback mechanisms, and institutional conversion, layering, drift, and erosion. Feminist research, in turn, can help NI scholars to better theorize the gendered nature of formal institutions, the operation and importance of informal institutions, the relations of power within and across institutions, and the sources and variable outcomes of attempted institutional change. A dialogue across approaches can thus offer important new insights for understanding complex relationships of structure and agency, thereby producing improved knowledge of political life. We leave the last word to Joni

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Lovenduski, whose classic article ‘Gendering Political Research’, was the starting point for this endeavour (Lovenduski 1998). She states in the Foreword to this volume: Good feminist social science is simply good social science, it is no more or less than good practice. It should concomitantly be impossible to imagine a good social science that ignores gender.

Notes This chapter is the product of countless conversations with my FIIN collaborators. In particular, some of the ideas have been rehearsed in Kenny and Mackay 2009. My thanks to Meryl Kenny, also, for comments on earlier drafts of this essay. 1. This section is informed by discussions at a FIIN roundtable Feminism and Institutionalism: Promising Synthesis or Another Case of ‘Master’s Tools’?, held as part of the First European Conference on Politics and Gender in Belfast (21–23 January 2008). See www.femfiin.com/news/ecpg-hosts-fiin-roundtable%2Cbelfast-2009

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Index abortion, 72, 77n6, 77n20, 78n22, 139, 154, 159–60 accommodation, 100, 101, 110 Act on Unified Education, 121 actors articulation of positions by, 5, 42–3 behaviour of, 82–3, 99 external constraints on, 82 HI analysis and, 150–1 interaction between institutions and, 13, 82, 97 role of, in institutional change, 155–6 African National Congress (ANC), 157, 158 agency, 7, 10, 13, 18, 80–1, 91–4, 190–2 al-Bashir, Omar, 173 appointed offices, 137–8 Argentina, 16 formal rules and organization in, 69–71 gendered norms in, 71–3 gender quotas in, 68, 73–4, 159 informal institutions in, 71–3 substantive representation in, 68–75 transition to democracy in, 155, 156, 159 asymmetrical federations, 138, 140 asymmetries, 134, 137 Australia federalism in, 132 femocrat networks in, 3, 141 leftist alignment strategies in, 138 Austro-Hungarian Empire, 119, 120 authoritarian regimes, 154–5 behavioural norms, see norms Bemba, Jean-Pierre, 173 bounded innovation model, 13, 186 Brazil, 155–9 bureaucracy, 3, 11, 66, 97, 143, 189 bureaucratic neutrality, 6, 66, 99

Canada, 16–17 alignment with nationalist governments in, 140 child-care policy, 99, 101–6 constitutional and legal strategies in, 139–40 social policy in, 102–11 Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA), 106–11 territorial accommodation in, 101 welfare state in, 98, 101–2 Canada Assistance Plan (CAP), 104 Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), 104, 106 Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women (CACSW), 104, 105 Canadian federalism, 95–7 feminist institutionalism and, 98–111 historical institutionalism and, 97–8 practice of, 100–1 principles of, 99–101 social policy and, 102–9 Canadian politics, 95–7 candidate selection, 14–15 branch and union nominations, 29 canvassing and campaigning, 30–1 centralization of, 34–5 decentralization of, 34–7 declaration of interest and application process, 28–9 elections, 32–4 final hustings, 31–2 gender quotas and, 43–7 informalization trend in, 37–9 local vs. outsider issues in, 36–7 in post-devolution Scotland, 21–41 shortlisting, 29–30 care/caring tasks, 93–4 care regimes, 86 causality, 24, 64, 67–8, 117, 149, 151

225

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226 Index Central Europe, 159 change, 49 see also institutional change constitutional, 65–6, 134, 138–40 child-care facilities, 89, 90 child-care policy, 99, 101, 102–6, 107–8, 111, 112 in Canada, 95 in Czech and Slovak Republics, 115, 119–27 maternity leave, 91–2, 115, 122–5 parental leave, 91–2, 112, 113, 116, 124–6 two-tier model of, 119–20, 122 children’s health care, 121–2 Chile, 16, 155 formal rules and organization in, 69–71 gendered norms in, 71–3 informal institutions in, 71–3 substantive representation in, 68–75 transition to democracy in, 156, 158 commodification, 86 common-law federations, 144 communist regimes, 113–14 family policies in, 120–4 gender relations in, 115–16 comparative historical analysis (CHA), 147–9, 152–3 complex causality, 67–8 complex systems, 81 conflict avoidance, 71–3, 75 consensus-seeking, 71–3, 75 Constituency Labour Party (CLP), 28–34, 36, 38 constitutional change, 65–6, 134, 138–40 constitutional decentralization, 130, 145n3 constitutional reform, 2, 136 contextualized research methods, 67–8 contribution-based social protection systems, 85 conversion, 9, 13, 18, 150, 152, 186 cooperative federalism, 141–2, 146n17

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crimes against humanity, 168, 169 critical junctures, 17, 117–18, 119–27, 149, 164–5 critical mass strategies, 136, 137–8 cultural diversity, 137 cultural values, 118 Czechoslovakia, 155, 156 Czech Republic, 17 critical junctures in, 119–27 gender relations in, 115–17 post-communist family policy in, 112–28 Darfur, 173 day care, 89, 90, 112, 120–1 see also child-care policy decentralization, 2 of candidate selection, 34–7 constitutional, 130, 145n3 women’s politics and, 134–5, 142–4 decision-making, 82–3 decommodification, 84 defamilializing policies, 112 democracy, 2, 5, 18 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), gender-based crimes in, 170–4 democratic transitions, 147, 187 feminist historical institutionalist approach to, 152–61 gender research on, 148–9 HI framework and, 149–53 discourse, 10, 43, 48–9, 105, 111, 191–2 discursive institutionalism (DI), 8, 10, 13, 43, 47–50, 82, 192 discursive strategies, for gender quota reform, 51–6 displacement, 150, 152, 186 domestic violence, 67, 160 drift, 150, 152, 186 Early Childhood Development Agreement (ECD), 108, 110 Eastern Europe, 159 electoral gender quotas, see gender quotas electoral system, 46

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Index El Salvador, 156, 158, 159 entrepreneurs, 191 equity discourse, 111 executive federalism, 100 exogenous shocks, 117 extended maternity leave, 122–5 external constraints, 82 familialism, 85 family policies, 16–17, 112–28 fathers care work by, 88, 120 parental leave for, 92, 124 Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), 139 federalism, 16–19 alignment with leftist governments in, 138 in Canada, 95–111 compared with unitary states, 136–45 concept of, 95–6 cooperative, 141–2, 146n17 critical mass/quota strategies and, 137–8 federalism/federations alignment with nationalist governments in, 140 asymmetrical, 138, 140 characteristics of, 130 common-law, 144 constitutional and legal strategies in, 138–40 executive, 100 federalism advantage, 129–30, 135–6, 137, 144 feminist institutionalist approach to, 130–3 gender and, 129–46 historical institutionalism and, 97–8 interstate, 100 open, 109 Roman-law, 144 symmetrical, 137, 141–2 women’s politics and, 133–45 federalized institutions, 137 female candidates, gender quotas and, 42–57

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female employment, 89–90, 112, 115, 116, 120 female representatives see also candidate selection; gender quotas in federalist systems, 137–8 research on, 58–61 femininity, 6 Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN), 20n1 feminist analysis, HI framework and, 149–53 feminist comparative politics, 147–9, 152–3 feminist discursive institutionalism, 49–50, 51–6 feminist historical institutionalism, 151–61 feminist institutionalism (FI), 1, 13–14, 19, 21, 93, 181–96 Canadian federalism and, 96–111 continuity and change and, 185–90 federalism and, 130–3 gendered institutions and, 183–92 new institutionalism and, 81 outline of, 80–3 pluralism of, 181–3 political recruitment and, 24–40 post-communist family policy and, 112–28 research agenda for, 192–5 welfare regime literature and, 83–7 welfare state research and, 87–93 feminist political science (FPS), 1, 21, 76, 95–6 historical institutionalism and, 147–9 institutional turn in, 1, 2–8 key features of, 4 new institutionalism and, 81, 181–3 unitary-state bias in, 130 femocrat networks, 3, 136, 141–2 formal institutions, 4, 7, 11–12, 48, 58, 165, 183–5 formal rules, 68, 69–71, 81–2 framing effects, 66

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228 Index France, gender quotas in, 15, 54–6, 192 Fröbel, Friedrich, 119 game theory, 9 gender concept of, 4, 50 federalism and, 129–46 historical institutionalism and, 61–8 institutions and, 6–8, 62, 99, 182–92 political recruitment and, 24–40 social relationships and, 99 understanding of, 3 welfare state and, 83–7, 98 gender-based crimes, 170–4 gender-based reforms, path dependency and, 166–7 gender contract, 115–16 gendered institutionalist (GI) framework complex causality and, 67–8 gendered power asymmetries and, 65–6 ideas and gendered norms, 66–7 problematization of preference formation, 63–5 to substantive representation, 62–8, 75–6 gendered institutions, 8, 15–16, 58–76, 99, 183–92 gendered logic of appropriateness, 83, 165, 193 gendered norms, 5–6, 66–7, 71–3, 99, 131, 152, 184–5 gendered outcomes, 73, 82, 91, 193 gendered power relations, 3, 4, 6–7, 98, 115 asymmetries, 1, 65–6 institutional policy and, 127 gender equality, 2, 80, 83, 86, 89, 112, 175 gender equity entrepreneurs, 191 gender inequality, 2–3, 80–1, 148 gender issues, 65–6 democratic transitions and, 156–60 International Criminal Court and, 174–6

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gender justice, 19, 163–80 gender mainstreaming, 187 gender norms, 131, 152, 184–5 gender quotas, 15, 42–57, 137–8, 187 in Argentina, 68, 73–4, 159 campaigns for, 44–5 candidate selection and, 43–7 democratic transitions and, 159 discursive institutionalism and, 47–50 effects of, 56–7, 74–5 in France, 54–6, 192 implementation of, 45–7 institutional change and, 56–7 reform of, 51–6 in South Africa, 159 substantive representation and, 73–5 in Sweden, 51–3, 192 gender regimes, 131–2, 144, 189–90 gender relations, 2, 3, 6, 16, 24, 40, 49, 73, 79, 82, 91, 112 changes in, 188–9 in Czech and Slovak Republics, 115–17 dynamic structuring of, 3 Germany cooperative federalism, 141–2, 146n17 Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), 139 female representation in, 145n11 femocrat networks in, 141–2 welfare state reform in, 87–9 government, relations between regional and national, 133 health care, 121–2 historical institutionalism (HI), 8, 9, 15–16, 21, 82, 95, 97–8, 150, 179 critical junctures in, 17, 117–18, 164–5 federalism and, 131 feminist, 151–61 feminist analysis and, 149–53 feminist political science and, 147–9 gender and, 61–8 informal institutions and, 61–2 path dependency in, 117–18 Hungary, 156

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Index ideas, 10, 66–7, 73–5, 191–2 identity, construction of, 49 Imperial School Act, 120 informal institutions, 4–5, 7, 11–12, 48, 58, 61–2, 71–3, 75, 183–5 informal rules, 11, 37, 62, 81, 184–5, 193 institutional change, 2, 10, 12–13, 49, 131–2 discursive institutionalism approach to, 43 feminist institutionalist approach to, 131–3 FI perspectives on, 185–90 gender quotas and, 56–7, 74–5 HI analysis and, 149–51 role of actors in, 155–6 through informal structures, 82 transitions to democracy and, 154–61 institutional configurations, 50 institutional continuity, 185–90 institutional conversion, 9, 13, 18, 150, 152, 186 institutional creation, 13, 49, 65, 186 institutional entrepreneurs, 191 institutional layering, see layering institutional legacies, 165–6 institutional refinement, 12–13 institutional reproduction, 12–13, 40, 49, 98, 151, 186, 188, 194 institutions actors and, 82 definition of, 11, 61 displacement of, 150, 152, 186 evolution of, 149–50 federalized, 137 formal, 4, 7, 11–12, 48, 58, 165, 183–5 as gendered, 6–8, 15–16, 58–76, 99, 183–92 gendered power relations and, 127 gender quota reform and, 51–6 historical institutionalist approach to, 98 informal, 4–5, 7, 11–12, 48, 58, 61–2, 183–5 new, 164–5, 179, 187, 188 new institutionalism and, 81–3

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political, 3, 6, 12, 45–7, 74, 82–3, 131–2, 181 role of, in policy making, 117–18 insurrectionaries, 150, 152 International Criminal Court (ICC), 19, 163–80, 188 features of, 167–70 gender issues and, 174–6 as ‘new’ institution, 174–80 organization and operation of, 174–6 origins, environment, and evolution of, 164–7 prosecution of gender-based crimes by, 170–4 interstate federalism, 100 Katanga, Germain, 173 kindergartens, 119–21, 125 Kony, Joseph, 173 Latin America, 63 layering, 9, 18, 118, 186 leftist alignment strategies, 136, 138 legacies, 187 legal strategies, 138–40 legislative committees, 65 legislative institutions, in Argentina and Chile, 68–75 legislative outcomes, 59–60 legislative specializations, 65–6 logic of appropriateness, 83, 165, 193 Lubanga case, 170–4 male-breadwinner ideology, 79–80, 84–7, 113 marketization, 2 masculinity, 6 maternity leave, 91–2, 115, 122–4, 125 men, discrimination against, 45 mental maps, 118 mothers/motherhood, 86, 88, 90, 92–4, 112–15, 120–4, 127 multi-level femocrat strategies, 141–2 multi-level governance, 16–17 Muñoz, Adriana, 72 National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC), 102–3, 105

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230 Index National Child Benefit (NCB), 107, 108 National Children’s Agenda, 107 National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC), 108 nationalist governments/parties, alignment with, 136, 140 National Women’s Service (SERNAM), 70, 75, 77n13, 77n18 neo-liberalism, 105, 110–11 nested newness, 19, 166, 188 neutrality, 6, 66, 99 new institutionalism (NI), 1, 8–13, 21, 47 features of, 48 feminist political science and, 25, 81, 181–3 new institutions, 164–5, 179, 187, 188 Ngudjolo, Mathieu, 173 normative institutions, 46–7 norms, 5–6, 66–7, 71–3, 99, 131, 152, 184–5 nurseries, 121–6 Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), 170, 171, 173 old boys networks, 62 open federalism, 109 organizational institutionalism, 8–10 parental leave, 91–2, 112, 113, 116, 124, 125–6 parité, 54–6 parliamentary committees, 63–4, 65 paternity leave, 92, 124 path dependency, 12, 97, 98, 113–14, 117–18, 125, 126, 138, 143, 149, 151–2, 157–8, 166–7, 187 patriarchy, 2–3 Poland, 156, 158, 159 policy gate-keepers, 69–70, 75 policy issues, hierarchy of, 65 policymaking, 15–16 political activism, 190 political agenda, feminization of, 60 political discourse, 191–2 political institutions, 3, 6, 12, 181 decision-making process and, 82–3 gender regimes, 131–2

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quota implementation and, 45–7 re-gendering of, 74 political opportunity structure (POS), 131 political practices, 5 political recruitment, 14–15, 188 feminist institutionalist model of, 24–40 gender and, 22–4 in post-devolution Scotland, 21–41 substantive representation, 58–78 supply and demand model of, 21–4 political representation, 14–15 in communist regimes, 116 in France, 54–6 gender quotas and, 42–57 in Sweden, 51–3 politics, definition of, 4 positional power, 10 post-communist family policy, 112–28 power, 50 asymmetries, 65–6 discourse as medium of, 10 positional, 10 of regional governments, 130 power relations gendered, 98, 115, 127 in institutions, 131–2 restructuring of, 144 Prague Spring, 116 preference formation, problematization of, 63–5 preventive healthcare, 121 proportional representation (PR), 53 Quebec, 99–100 quota debates, discourses on, 44–5 quota implementation, 45–7 quota laws, 73–4 rational choice institutionalism (RCI), 8–9, 20n4, 82, 83, 132–3, 149 regime change, 5 regional governments power of, 130 relations between national government and, 133 regionalization, 2

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Index 231 research, contextualized, 67–8 Research Network on Gender Politics and the State (RNGS), 7 Roman Catholic Church, 159 Roman-law federations, 144 Rome Statute, 19, 163–4, 167–70, 174, 176–8 rule-breaking, 5, 37, 184–185 rules complex systems of, 81 formal, 68–71, 81–2 informal, 11, 37, 62, 81, 184–5, 193 Scotland, candidate selection in post-devolution, 21–41 Scottish Labour Party, 26, 27, 32–3, 34 Scottish Liberal Democrats, 26 Scottish National Party (SNP), 26 Scottish Parliament, 14–15, 25–7, 40, 165–6, 188 Security, Opportunities and Fairness (report), 105–6 self-censorship, 72 SERNAM (National Women’s Service), 70, 75, 77n13, 77n18 sex, vs. gender, 50 sexual violence, 168, 170–4 Slovak Republic, 17 critical junctures in, 119–27 gender relations in, 115–17 post-communist family policy in, 112–28 socialism, 154 social liberalism, 101–2 social policy, in Canada, 95, 99, 102–11 social relationships, 99 Social Security Review (SSR), 96, 102–6, 109–11 Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA), 96, 106–11 sociological institutionalism (SI), 8–10, 83, 118, 132 South Africa, 155, 156, 157–8, 159–60 spatial minorities, 134, 136, 138, 145n5 state-family relations, 16 state feminism, 141 state institutions, 3

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state sovereignty, 169, 173–4 Status of Women Canada (SWC), 104, 105 status quo bias, 166 strategic agency, 191 substantive representation, 58–78 in Argentina and Chile, 68–75 gendered institutionalist approach to, 62–8, 75–6 measures of, 60 as process vs. outcome, 60–1, 76n3 quota laws and, 73–5 research on, 58–61 thick conceptions of, 67 subversives, 150, 152 supply and demand model, of political recruitment, 21, 22–4 Sweden, 15, 51–3, 116, 192 Switzerland, 89–91 symmetrical federations, 137, 141–2 systems effects, 133 territorial accommodation, 101 territorial saliency, 137 Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (Esping-Andersen), 84–6 Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC), 171 unitary-state bias, 130 unitary states, federations compared with, 136–45 United Kingdom, welfare reform in, 91–3 United States, 132–3 varannan damernas, 51–3 violence against women, 67, 160, 170–4 Volkskindergarten model, 119 war crimes, 168, 169 welfare regimes, 16, 79 analysis of, 84–7 literature on, 83–7 women’s agency and, 190 welfare state, 79–94 analysis, 84 Canadian, 98, 101–2

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232 Index welfare state – continued feminist institutionalist approach to, 80, 87–93 gender and, 79–80, 83–7, 98 in Germany, 87–9 reforms, 87–93 research, 87–93 role of women in formation of, 91 in Switzerland, 89–91 in United Kingdom, 91–3 women’s agency and, 91–3 women agency of, 7, 10, 13, 18, 80–1, 91–4, 190–1 appointment of, to ICC, 174–6 conceptions of, under international law, 178–9 crimes against, 163–4 decentralization and, 134–5 empowerment of, 17–18 legislative representation of, 154

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organization of, 156 substantive representation of, 58–78 under-representation of, 2, 23 violence against, 67 in work force, 89–90, 112, 115, 116, 120 Women’s Caucus for Gender Justice (WCGJ), 167 women’s interests, 76n1 women’s issues, 65–6 women’s policy agendas (WPAs), 105, 110–11, 143, 148, 154, 158–9, 165, 187 women’s politics, 130 decentralization and, 142–4 federalism and, 130–1, 132, 133–45 women’s rights issues, 70–1 women’s suffrage, 132–3 world polity school, 10

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