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

Gender and Political Recruitment

“…Building on these insights, feminist institutionalist scholars highlight the ways in which gender equity entrepreneurs have been able to 're-gender' political institutions with varying degrees of success, opening up opportunities for further engagement (see for example Annesley, 2010;Beyeler and Annesley, 2011;Freidenvall and Krook, 2011;Grace, 2011). Yet, at the same time these accounts highlight constant possibilities for norm erosion, drift and reversal, documenting the particular difficulties of institutionalizing gender equality reforms and providing clear evidence of 'powerful, pervasive, and specific resistance to positive policies for women' (Halford, 1992, p. 160;original emphasis).…”

The gender logic and effects of instrument mixes: implementing eldercare policy in Canada

“…Feminist policy scholars have introduced gender as an analytical focus in implementation research, shedding light on how implementation and policy tools shape and are shaped by gender relations. While feminist researchers have generally focused their attention on issues related to the formulation of gender equality policy (see Grace, 2011;Mazur, 2016), there is growing interest in understanding how policies are carried out and their intended and unintended effects for gender equality (Verloo & Lombardo, 2007). For example, in their analysis of the role of policy instruments in gender policy implementation, Engeli and Mazur (2018) argue that instruments do more than prescribe policy action; they also determine how the action is implemented and who is responsible for implementing it.…”

4 Politics and Promise: A Feminist-Institutionalist Analysis of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women

“…Policy trajectories and path dependencies are of particular interest to groups within civil society who challenge state action or inaction. Organizational cultures, policy frames, formal and informal processes and norms of behavior pose a formidable challenge for women's groups who not only advocate reform, but also wish to contribute to a rewriting of history that counters accepted institutional practices and policy outcomes (Grace 2010). However, as Kathleen Thelen cautions, institutional change can take place even under perceived times of institutional stability or "inertia" (Thelen 1999;Thelen 2004;Streek and Thelen 2005).…”

“…That said, historical institutionalism, nor any of the varieties of new institutionalism, do not theoretically consider institutions to be gendered, nor does the school of thought empirically analyze institutions of government and the machinery of the bureaucracy as perpetuating gendered power relations. A significant feminist literature in the field of organizational analysis and feminist institutionalism has taken up this task, providing valuable insights into analyzing institutions through a critical feminist lens (Swiebel 1988;Acker 1990;Acker 1992;Goetz 1992;Grant and Tancred 1992;Vickers 1994;Kenney 1996;Staudt 1997;Stivers 2002;Kenny 2007;Waylen 2009;Grace 2010).…”

“…Some studies have found, however, that the policy discourse is not necessarily neutralmeaning is attached during the policy process by policy developers often through political direction. My own research in the area of federal child care policy development found that during the Social Security Review in 1994, the Liberal Party government defined and framed child care around promoting "healthy children" rather than about advancing women's equality as advocated by the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (Grace 2010). As well, in her study of violence against women, Andrea Levan recounts how federal public servants framed policy issues quite differently than grassroots women's groups and how the "bureaucratization of women's issues" left feminists:…”