Introduction: gender experts and gender expertise

Abstract

The rise of gender expertise and gender experts as a new profession is a significant and highly controversial phenomenon of contemporary feminist politics. This introductory article provides a contextualisation of this phenomenon, a short review of the literature and a theoretical specification of gender expertise, drawing on insights from the professionalisation and expertise literature. We highlight the importance of studying the politics of gender expertise and interrogate the type of knowledge that it constitutes and its relationship to policy and politics (including feminism). The special issue as a whole shows the varieties and complexities of gender expertise, what it makes possible and what it forecloses, and the disruptions it produces. The contributions adopt different approaches to show: how gender expertise is rent with tensions and divisions; how it is constrained within institutions, networks and policies; and how it produces multiple and sometimes unintended outcomes with powerful political effects.

It’s Not All ‘Bout the Money: (Un)doing the Gendered Economy

“…Thus, to talk of payment in relation to working on gender issues was described as problematic only when it was experienced as compromising the interviewees' inner convictions or values. However, these representations of the market also meant the consultants regularly felt questioned by activists, gender scholars, and even themselves for having "sold out" (see also Kunz & Prügl, 2019). Many consultants carefully stressed that economic gain was not their goal.…”

“…In the introduction to a special issue of the European Journal of Politics and Gender on "gender experts", Kunz and Prügl (2019) demonstrate how gender expertise is rife with tension and division. Gender experts have been characterized as the Trojan Horses of the feminist movement, people who have "battled patriarchal structures from the inside, learned the master's tools in the hope of dismantling the master's house, faced co-optation into state agendas, but also achieved small victories against considerable odds" (Kunz & Prügl, 2019, p. 5).…”

Gender Equality Policy and Universities: Feminist Strategic Alliances to Re-gender the Curriculum

“…Gender experts' key goal was to enshrine gender equality in the existing quality assurance framework. Effort was made to explain that mainstreaming gender into teaching is not a managerial solution, and that quality assurance guidelines could not become a checklist leading to a "gender washing" of the new policy (for a review of tensions on the work of gender experts, see Kunz and Elisabeth 2019).…”

Commodifying feminism: Economic choice and agency in the context of lifestyle influencers and gender consultants

“…The last decade has witnessed substantial growth in the gender consultancy field, especially in Sweden. In part, this growth can be seen as a result of the spread of feminism, and in part in response to the implementation of neoliberal forms of management where issues of gender equality have been outsourced to a private market (Kantola & Squires, 2012; Kunz & Prügl, 2019; Olivius & Rönnblom, 2019). The gender consultants who were interviewed for this study reported that they accepted different assignments of varying budgets and lengths.…”