Problem, policy, politics: when gender meets quality assurance in higher education

In Catalonia, including a ‘gender perspective in teaching’ in universities is not only mandatory in all fields of knowledge but is also a requirement for obtaining accreditation for bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Catalan quality-assurance agency (AQU) (AQU, 2019; Benito & Verge, 2020). This development stems from the 2015 Catalan Equality Act, a pioneering legislative measure that first connected ‘gender perspective’ to the discourse of higher education quality and to accreditation as a policy instrument (Lascoumes & Le Gales, 2007). Although it may seem counterintuitive, this was an explicit proposal by feminist policy entrepreneurs, who managed to introduce a policy instrument into the equality law to try to prevent the evaporation of such a gender equality policy mandate. While previous studies have delved into the process and the strategies pursued by feminist actors to link gender to accreditation (e.g., Benito & Verge, 2020; Verge, 2020, 2021a, 2021b), this article aims to add to the conversation by connecting this policy innovation to broader discursive-material conditions and dynamics (Ozga, 2021; Rizvi & Lingard, 2009). Specifically, the objective of the article is to critically examine the discursive and material conditions—the circumstances without which something cannot exist (Danermark et al., 2001)—that made this possible in the specific form it took and at the specific moment it was promoted. To do so, we draw on process tracing (Beach, 2017) and theoretical contributions from the Multiple Streams Framework (Kingdon, 1984). The article explores how gender became central in (higher) education agendas, how and why accreditation was seen by policy entrepreneurs as virtually the only available policy instrument of higher education governance, and the political factors that enabled the opening of a policy window, together with the active role of policy entrepreneurs throughout the process—all of them necessary conditions to make this policy innovation possible. Finally, we discuss some of the limitations and tensions of linking gender to quality assurance and accreditation, particularly in terms of quantification and depolitization of gender equality.