For women with women? Participatory gender equality policies in the Local Council of Barcelona

Abstract

Gender equality policies have traditionally adopted a technocratic approach, giving limited room for the practices and discourses of the feminist and women's movement. This has been detrimental for the quality and transformative capacity of these same policies. This article addresses the case of the Local Council of Barcelona in order to explore a pioneer experience to reverse this tendency. In particular, it introduces the main conclusions of a detailed diagnosis that analyses the approach for institutional participation, based on the existence of women's councils at the local and the district level. Thanks to a documentary analysis, interviews with key actors, as well as a questionnaire and a focus group directed to the organisations taking part in these structures, the study unveils the limits and challenges for developing gender equality policies with a participatory perspective; it also shows the transformative measures that could give impulse to such approach. All in all, this article presents new empirical material regarding the complex intersections between the institution and the movement, while shedding light on new practices with potential to be transferred elsewhere in Spain.