Managing Sensitivities: LGBTIQ Rights, Gendered Language, and Administrative Neutrality in Finnish and German Parliaments

This paper investigates how parliamentary administrations in Finland and Germany navigate feminist and LGBTIQ+ equality claims in an increasingly polarized political climate. As feminist politics push for more inclusive institutions, parliaments, as cornerstones of democracies, are also workplaces and bureaucracies where equality norms are tested in practice. Drawing on empirical insights from both countries, this paper examines how parliamentary administrations manage sensitive issues such as gender-inclusive language and the rights of trans individuals in daily working life and in the face of rising resistance from radical right and populist parties. While feminist demands challenge exclusionary institutional norms, parliamentary administrations must balance competing pressures: appearing neutral towards parties, maintaining institutional functionality, and responding to equality claims. To escape these pressures, parliamentary administrations try to avoid direct conflict by relying on “proxies” (e.g., practices in other political institutions or guidelines by external actors) rather than introducing explicit rules. By analyzing these practices, the paper contributes to broader debates on feminist democratic innovations within institutions. It explores the limits and potentials of administrative neutrality as both a democratic safeguard and a barrier to intersectional inclusion, highlighting the tensions between feminist politics and institutional inertia in democratizing parliaments.