Analysing Failure, Understanding Success: A Research Strategy for Explaining Gender Equality Policy Adoption

Bergqvist, Christina; Bjarnegård, Elin; Zetterberg, Pär

doi:10.1080/08038740.2013.855661

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…For example, women's incomes across Europe are still below those of men, and policies for supporting unpaid care work have been developed modestly compared with labour-market activation policies. The resistance to the gender-mainstreaming process at different levels often is related to opposition from individuals and institutions to changes in gender norms and roles that are defined by specific cultural contexts, together with general relations between member countries and European institutions (Lombardo and Mergaert 2013;Bergqvist et al 2013;Verloo 2018).…”

Section: Gender Equality and Work-family Policies In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes

2018

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This study starts from the assumption that the context of opportunities for work-family balance affects individual attitudes toward gender roles, a main indicator of support for gender equality. Compared with extant research, the present study adopts a more articulated definition of “opportunity structure” that includes national income level and social norms on gender attitudes, measures of gender-mainstreaming policies implemented at the company level (flextime), and different work-family balance policies in support of the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model (e.g., parental-leave schemes and childcare provisions). The effects of these factors are estimated by performing a cross-sectional multilevel analysis for the year 2014. Gender-role attitudes and micro-level controls are taken from the Eurobarometer for all 28 European Union (EU) members, while macro-indicators stem from Eurostat, European Quality of Work Survey, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Our results show that both institutional and workplace arrangements supporting the dual-earner/dual-caregiver family model are associated with more egalitarian gender-role attitudes This is particularly true concerning availability of formal childcare for 0- to 3-year-olds among institutional factors, as well as work-schedule flexibility among workplace factors, probably as they enable a combination of care and paid work for both men and women.

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Section: Gender Equality and Work-family Policies In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes

2018

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“…Through a focus on representation, it is possible to explore the processes of claims making around unpaid care and domestic work to identify whose voices are included/excluded within such processes, and how effectively they channel their claims within the policy space (Cornwall, ). Indeed, the policy space as the terrain of social interaction among a multitude of policy actors is itself embedded in power relations, with specific positions being articulated in the process of negotiating diverse interests, legitimizing some as ‘authoritative’ and hence important to address through policy interventions (Beland, ; Bergqvist et al., ; Gaventa, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Agendas, Local Norms: Mobilizing around Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in Asia

Rao¹

2018

Development and Change

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This article explores the articulation and framing of unpaid care work and the mobilization around it at two spatial scales, the global and national. For the latter it focuses on three of the largest and most diverse countries in Asia — India, China and Indonesia. While the concept of unpaid care work has received considerable attention in international development discourse, it is rarely found in feminist mobilization and advocacy across these countries. The article asks why this issue remains largely excluded from women's political agendas. It also explores how it is framed when it is included. While most organizations recognize women's double burden and the importance of domestic labour, they do not consider ‘unpaid care work’ as a legitimate political issue around which to mobilize. Rather, it is framed, if at all, as part of other political agendas, such as the rights of the elderly (in China), the rights to social protection, especially childcare and maternity entitlements (in India), or the right to equal opportunities within marriage (in Indonesia). The study analyses the differences in framing, the conceptualization of gender equality embedded therein, and the implications for policy.

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“…Resistance would impede the effectiveness of interventions and create antagonists for the change project. However, to understand why so little progress has been made, it is interesting to examine how people experience change projects and to understand why people resist these interventions (Van den Brink, 2015;Bergqvist, Bjarnegård, & Zetterberg, 2013). As Connell (2005) puts it: '[our task] is to recognize the reasons for resistance to gender equality, to find answers to the arguments advanced by opponents, and to find better solutions to the underlying social concerns that find expression through resistance to gender equality ' (p. 1803).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Interventions in the Dutch Police Force: Resistance as a Tool for Change?

Brink¹

2017

Journal of Change Management

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Previous studies have documented strong resistance towards gender interventions. By contributing to theories on gender change, this paper increases our understanding of the reasons for this resistance and looks at how this resistance can be made productive in gendered interventions. Drawing on a case study in the Dutch Police force, the authors use case reconstructions of appointments to examine the introduction and reception of gender quota. They show how radical interventions such as quota can help to uncover the subtlety of gender inequality practices and make persistent and implicit stereotypes visible and discussable; they also show how radical interventions can trigger the reflexivity of actors. They conclude that the resistance against the interventions can be made productive because it allows for alternative construction of values. An analysis of resistance to gender interventions can contribute to diagnosing problems in the strategising and implementation of these interventions.

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Analysing Failure, Understanding Success: A Research Strategy for Explaining Gender Equality Policy Adoption

Cited by 22 publications

References 41 publications

Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes

Gender Equality in Europe and the Effect of Work-Family Balance Policies on Gender-Role Attitudes

Global Agendas, Local Norms: Mobilizing around Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in Asia

Gender Interventions in the Dutch Police Force: Resistance as a Tool for Change?

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