Auditing the Auditors: Evaluating the Impact of Parliamentary Gender Audit Committees on Law-Making

Despite decades of feminist legal scholarship advocating for gender-responsive law-making, the integration of women’s lived experiences into legislative processes remains inconsistent and under-researched. This paper examines the practice of parliamentary gender audit committees as a mechanism to embed gender equality into law-making. Drawing on my expertise as an international women’s rights lawyer and creator of the Gender Legislative Index (GLI), I present findings from a comparative study of four audit committees: Tasmania and the ACT in Australia, Canada’s Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and Spain’s Equality Commission in Congress. This research evaluates whether and how these committees influence legislative outcomes for women, including those marginalised by race, class, age and gender identity. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study combines GLI evaluations of bills before and after committee auditing with qualitative interviews with committee members and stakeholders. It interrogates how committees define ‘gender’, whether they apply an intersectional lens and the extent to which they incorporate women’s lived experiences through women’s voices—conceptualised here as ‘gendered citizenship’. Preliminary findings suggest that while some committees demonstrate potential to improve legislative outcomes, others risk performative engagement, offering the appearance of scrutiny without substantive change. The paper explores the conditions under which audit committees can meaningfully advance gender equality, including committee design, the scope of mandates and practices of ‘listening’ to those most affected by law. This research contributes by offering the first systematic assessment of the impact of gender audit committees on legislative outputs. It also challenges the notion of gender auditing as a mere technical exercise, positioning it instead as a transformative tool for embedding gender justice into law. The paper concludes with recommendations for designing effective audit bodies and proposes pathways for integrating intersectional gender analysis into legislative scrutiny across jurisdictions. By foregrounding comparative insights and practical implications, this paper aims to inform both academic debates and policy reform, offering a roadmap for harnessing law’s potential to improve the lives of diverse women globally through gender-responsive law-making. *If possible, preference to present on Monday 13th or Tuesday 14th June due to travel needs on Wednesday 15 June.