In person icon Gender Equality Policy Implementation Studies in Action: Ten Years Down the Road

Abstract

This proposed roundtable is a check-in on research that has taken the “turn towards implementation” in the study of gender policy first identified nearly ten years ago. A growing body of work has taken on the tough task of assessing and measuring how, when, and to what end contemporary states across the globe have adopted and put into action policies that strike down gender hierarchies and promote women’s rights through the complex and often contested controversial processes of implementation and evaluation. At the core of this analysis has been larger issues of empowerment and gender transformation. That is, if, how and to what extent do the demands and interests of the excluded, underprivileged and marginalized and the actors who speak for them become a part of concrete government action and implementation practice to achieve the transformation of deep-seated gender-based biases in society and politics. Thus, the study of gender equality policy implementation is a gateway into better understanding democratic performance, accountability and representation. Emerging research from a variety of different approaches suggests that the ability of states to pursue meaningful gender equality policies in action is a highly complex combination of factors specific to a given country, level of government and even policy sector. Contextual factors identified as being in play include, the overall level of democratization, the legacy of colonialism, global power imbalances, the design of state institutions, multi-level governance, the administrative capacity of state agencies, the mobilization of gender interests, the degree to which implementers, street level bureaucrats, and gatekeepers are open to challenges to the gendered status quo, and the activities of institutional mechanisms that promote gender equality. More recently, many scholars have drawn attention to the emergence of major roadblocks to effective implementation through the rise of anti-gender ideologies, de-democratization, neo-liberal down-sizing and the fallout from the COVD global pandemic. Thus, a part of this check-in is to better understand how these rising challenges are affecting on-going policy implementation efforts and the research agenda to study them. Given that the study of gender equality policy in action is necessarily multi-level, global, interdisciplinary and intersectional, the roundtable brings together the full range of emerging and more established scholars engaged with the gender policy implementation agenda from across the globe through a broad swathe of approaches that take into consideration crucial issues of our times; to name a few, intersectionality; hetero-normativity, neo colonialism, and de-democratization. Roundtable participants will treat the following questions: how has gender policy implementation been tackled in their research and theorizing? What are the methods and approaches that they use? Are there any gaps or silences that need to be addressed in research thus far? What are some of the major findings? What are the contemporary challenges to effective policy implementation and what are the next research steps to unmasking the “elusive recipe” for transformative and meaningful gender equality policy in action.