Reimagining Governance: Insights from Activism and Feminist Institutionalism

This paper forms part of my doctoral project titled, “Feminist Approaches to Organising: A Study of Women and Girls in the North East of England” and examines the relationship between public administration, gendered power dynamics and feminist democratic innovation. Traditional public administration models are often presented as neutral; however, feminist scholars have critiqued the gendered assumptions underpinning these modes of organising which are often rooted in hierarchy and control. It is argued that these models reflect masculine ideals of leadership, performance and efficiency, which diminish alternative perspectives and reinforce gendered power relations. Against this backdrop, this paper uses a feminist lens to evaluate the intersection between traditional public administration and feminist theory, including institutional feminism and feminist critiques of organisational hierarchy. My PhD project is situated within the North East of England and analyses political regional context to understand the gendered impacts of devolution, austerity and the rise of anti-DEI narratives visible in UK mainstream politics. When combined, these dynamics create an environment in which feminist actors, both within institutions (often dubbed ‘femocrats’) and externally (community activists, organisers and feminist non-government organisations) face increasing hostility in their efforts to expose gendered inequalities or promote gender-inclusive changes to policy. Expanding beyond a UK context, the paper draws on global empirical case studies to examine how feminist actors have operated as agents of democratic innovation, including examples the ‘Feminist Municipal Movement’ within Europe. These case studies use methods of feminist democratic innovation including feminist budgeting, gendered policy planning, and the redesign of local administrative processes, offering a vital comparative lens for evaluating how feminist counterpublics might be reproduced and operationalised in differing regional contexts. By bringing feminist activism in the frame of democratic innovation, this paper argues that feminist actors operate not only as pressure groups but also as designers of inclusive infrastructures and co-creative policies. Historically, scholarship on democratic innovation has focused on institutional network building, including participatory budgeting and citizens assemblies, while less attention has been paid to how feminist actors can challenge institutional norms to build a more inclusive organisational culture from within. By using case studies, this paper aligns with the workshop objectives to provide insights about what it means for democratic innovations to be feminist, particularly with the ambition to stay resilient against anti-DEI backlash, rising austerity and care deficits.