Plenary Keynote - Feministisising policymaking in practice: How gender and politics scholarship inspires government policy, and vice versa.

Abstract

If a Ministry of Equality and Feminisms were created from scratch in the government of your country or region, would you accept leading it? Three years ago, when asked by the president of the Government of Catalonia, prominent politics and gender scholar Tània Verge answered ‘yes, I do’. She felt that in a context of rising anti-gender and anti-rights groups and an increasing presence of the extreme right in legislative and executive office across the globe, unapologetically intersectional feminist policies were imperative, and these were much more likely to be adopted and face less resistance when an explicitly feminist high-ranking portfolio has a seat at the cabinet table. By weaving together practical and academic experience, this plenary keynote aims to transcend the conventional boundaries between theory and practice, fostering a holistic understanding of gender and politics. More specifically, the keynote will focus on the extent to which insights from gender and politics scholarship, particularly from feminist institutionalism, have been useful for instituting feminist policies from this new portfolio. Simultaneously, Tània Verge will also touch upon the lessons that political practice has taught feminist academics, social movement activists and femocrats holding senior offices in the said ministry on the determinants and challenges of effective equalities – gender, LGBTIQ+, antiracism, migrations – mainstreaming. As such, these experiences can thus also inform academic research on regendering processes and feminist policymaking. About Tània: Tània Verge is Full Professor of Politics and Gender at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), where she led the Equality Unit between 2014 and 2021. Her research focuses on how political parties and parliaments are patterned through gender and on resistance to the adoption and implementation of equality policies. She has advised political parties and the Parliament of Catalonia on gender sensitizing initiatives and feminist redesign. Since May 2021, she is the Minister of Equality and Feminisms of the Government of Catalonia.