Regional Gender Regimes in Hard Times for Gender Equality

Does gender equality governance at the regional level offer a promising alternative against the background of a global backlash against gender equality? To what extent does regional gender governance offer a ‘safe haven’ of protection against the negative effects of globalization? These questions will be analysed by zooming in at the level between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’, where we distinguish different regional gender regimes. In fact, regional organizations such as the African Union, the Council of Europe, and UNASUR, selectively have adopted and ‘regionalized’, stretched and bent global gender equality standards. The paper first takes stock of gender equality governance by 24 regional organizations across the world. Based on this inventory, four different gender regimes are identified. Subsequently, these differences as regards the substance, relative strength, and institutional design of the gender regimes are explained by analyzing a set of constructivist and rationalist supply and demand factors such as the (lack of) access for non-state actors to regional policymaking, the strength of regional institutions and the strength or weakness of national welfare regimes. Finally the paper explores to what extent regional gender regimes constitute a promising opportunity and may offer protection against threats at the global level.