A Feminist Institutionalist Approach

Abstract

Having laid the foundations in Chapter 2, this chapter sets out what a feminist institutionalist approach means in theory and in practice. Feminist political science has taken a decidedly institutional turn, moving gradually from a focus on ‘women in politics’ to ‘gender and politics’. A gendered focus shifts the emphasis from ‘women in to the gendering of political institutions’, highlighting the ways in which political institutions reflect, structure and reinforce gendered patterns of power (Kenney, 1996, p. 455; original emphasis). Yet, while feminist research on political institutions has yielded rich insights, there is a growing recognition that innovative conceptual tools and methods are needed in order to explore and understand gendered modes of interaction and to expose the ways in which seemingly neutral institutional processes and practices are, in fact, gendered (Kenny, 2007, p. 91; see also Lovenduski, 1998; Mackay, 2004a).