Roundtable: Gender and Change: Assessing Feminist Institutionalist Concepts and Methods over the long haul

Abstract

Institutional change is crucial to achieving gender equality. In this roundtable, four scholars who have contributed to developing feminist institutionalist (FI) approaches to gender and politics over the past two decades will engage with an early career scholar to debate how FI, and its concepts and methods, have changed over time, and how useful FI is for understanding barriers to and opportunities for institutional change to advance gender justice. The panellists will discuss key questions including: What do we know now that we didn’t know twenty years ago about gender and the possibilities for institutional change? What FI concepts have been useful for studying gender and change, and what gaps remain? What methods have been used to identify and track changes over time, what are their limitations, and what else is needed in the FI methodological tool kit? Roundtable participants will reflect on these questions drawing insights from their own research, including reflections from: Louise Chappell on an international institution, the International Criminal Court; Vivien Lowndes on street level bureaucrats in the UK during austerity; Fiona Mackay on change and continuity in the devolved Scottish parliament; Georgina Waylen on national level political institutions and change; and Cecilia Josefsson on resistance to gender quotas in Uruguay. Among the issues raised will be the significance of legacies, different forms of institutional change, institutional nestedness, and rule enforcement. The roundtable will also be forward-looking – exploring how gaps can be addressed, including the need for a fuller engagement with intersectionality and decolonial critiques; and how new and different methods can be used to even greater effect.

Title	Details
Roundtable Participant One: Louise Chappell	View Paper Details
Roundtable participant two: Cecilia Josefsson	View Paper Details
Roundtable participant three: Vivien Lowndes	View Paper Details
Roundtable participant five: Georgina Waylen	View Paper Details