From previous research we know that men and women have different political interests and engage in different policy areas. We do however still have limited knowledge about the mechanisms of gendered politics: How, in what way and when does gender matter for political decision-making in the daily work of political actors?
The field of feminist institutionalism highlights the importance of gendered norms and ideas for political actors and policy outcomes. This paper investigates how gendered frames of meanings held by women MP:s in the Swedish parliament affect their strategies and actions in a policy process about prostitution. Interviews with the MP:s reveal how their interpretation of the surrounding and the resistance against feminist policy influenced their choice of strategies and actual behavior in the policy process.
The contribution of the paper is to elaborate on how gendered frames of meaning may function as a mechanism on the micro level and thereby affect political decision-making in a gendered way.
