Of Pencils and Power: Gender Equality in the Case of the Philippines

The nexus between gender equality and institutional development has long been of central importance to feminist studies. This is particularly evident regarding the proliferation of gender machineries and gender mainstreaming across various policy spheres. Although most gender machineries started working under the UN gender normative framework, they significantly vary in their capacity and effectiveness to achieve gender equality. By applying historical institutionalism approaches in the case of the Philippines – a very interesting outlier in terms of gender equality in institutional development – the paper will present how path-dependent processes have shaped the current gender equality outcomes. Hence, it empirically examines not only the ways gender policies in the Philippines are translated into practice, but also the mechanisms at play behind high demands for gender equal strategies during historical critical junctures.