Shaping International Gender Policies within the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: Production, Circulation, and Institutionalization of State Norms into International Standards

This thesis examines the processes by which international gender-related public policies are formulated within the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), with a focus on the production, circulation, and institutionalization of state norms into international standards. Positioned within the field of inter- and transnational governance sociology, the research adopts a multi-sited, qualitative, and inductive approach, drawing upon participant observation, document analysis, and informal exchanges with diverse actors across local/national (Belgium/Europe) and international (UN) arenas. The theoretical framework integrates governance studies (Capano & Howlett, Hufty, Grindle), institutionalism, translation sociology (Latour), and gender/postcolonial theory (Falquet). Findings highlight how public gender norms are collectively shaped through polycentric, iterative feedback loops among state and non-state actors, formal and informal spaces, and varying institutional levels. Central to this dynamic is the use of a shared yet ambiguous UN lexicon, which enables compromises and the containment of disagreements through strategic convergence on language. Negotiations often occur behind the scenes, with formal sessions serving to legitimize agreements reached through informal interactions. The constant reinterpretation and adaptation of terms allows for the coexistence of divergent agendas, complicating the attribution of clear-cut effects to specific state interventions. Strikingly, these empirical observations contrast with much of the established literature, which frequently assumes a more linear, top-down, and coherent implementation of international gender norms. Instead, this study demonstrates that real-world policy-making is marked by translation, recommodification, and contestation at multiple stages. The clear gap between the discursive richness of institutional outputs and the often-limited practical impact on gender equality underscores the necessity of reassessing existing analytical models. This gap calls for greater attention to the complexity of actor configurations, linguistic negotiations, and power relations that mediate the transformation of norms from the national to the international level. Ultimately, the research offers a renewed perspective on transnational governance by foregrounding the productive frictions and ambiguities at the heart of international policy-making on gender.