Transformations of State Feminism: Institutional Gender Knowledge in Croatia

The processes of transformation and the EU accession have in Croatia, in the field of gender equality, occurred without taking into account the existing gender knowledge created through the state socialist women's organisations (Blagojević 2004; Ghodsee 2004; Weiner 2009). Though Yugoslavia has developed elaborated policies and institutions for the improvement of women’s position, in Croatia the institutions were built anew on the Western feminist concepts. Nowadays, after more than 20 years of existence, these new institutions do not fully function, causing a compliance gap between the new legislative and the observed practice (Bego 2015; Chiva 2009; Irvine, Sutlović 2015; Špehar 2012). As the main cause of this, in the public discourse the socialist legacy is most commonly recognized. This research will examine the trajectories of institutionally produced gender knowledge (Cavaghan 2010; Ostendorf 2012) from the state socialist women’s organizations to the women’s policy agency, in 1980 – 2013 period in Yugoslavia and Croatia. Through the theoretical framework of feminist historical institutionalism (Waylen 2009, 2011; Mackay et al. 2010; Mackay 2011; Krook, Mackay 2011) and the usage of process tracing method, this research will identify causal mechanisms behind the transformation processes. Focusing on formal and informal actors within and outside institutions, through establishment of causal processes the research will disclose specific influences and circumstances of changes in gender knowledge over time. Besides opening questions of political construction of knowledge, knowledge transition and institutional functioning, the research will examine the efficacy of the EU equality agenda in the post-socialist context.