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Understanding Policy Diffusion across Feminist Social Movements: TheCase of Gender Mainstreaming in Eastern Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2008

Katja M. Guenther
Katja M. Guenther
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Abstract

Gender mainstreaming emerged on the European policy scene in the mid-1990s as aninnovative and controversial policy tool for reducing gender inequalities. TheEuropean Union seeks to propagate the practice of gender mainstreaming bothwithin EU institutions and among member states. Feminist scholars and policyelites have discussed and debated gender mainstreaming widely but have yet toconsider how local feminist activists, who could play a central role indiffusing gender mainstreaming, understand, interpret, and respond to thisagenda. This article examines whether and why local feminist movements in twocities in eastern Germany adopt gender mainstreaming into their advocacyagendas. Consideration of the characteristics of the contexts in which localfeminist movements are embedded clarifies the conditions under which socialmovements rally around new policy paradigms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 587 - 613
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2008

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