Changing State Feminism

Abstract

The second wave of feminism challenged the state in post-industrial democracies with its demands; in response, states set up women’s policy agencies to improve women’s status. Studies from the 1980s and 1990s have shown that ‘state feminism’ exists: many agencies are important in realizing women’s movements’ demands in policy-making and in gaining access for women to decision-making arenas. The starting point for this book is the restructuring of the political context, where state feminism is situated, over the last decade. As a result, both ‘the state’ and ‘feminism’ have changed in significant ways. On the one hand, there have been major developments, such as globalization, regionalization, welfare state restructuring, privatization and the rise of multilevel governance. On the other hand, state feminists have to deal with new gender equality policies that include a focus on diversity and gender mainstreaming. Both developments demand rethinking state feminism and new empirical research and comparative analysis on the topic.