Work

Gender inequality by design: does successful implementation of childcare policy deliver gender-just outcomes?

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: ABSTRACT The intractability of complex forms of gender inequality and the normalisation of gender equality policies on public policy agendas continue to challenge feminist research and activism concerned with gender-just outcomes. Through integrative multi-level analysis of policy design-implementation-outcomes building on the feminist policy implementation framework, this article illuminates how dominant discursive framing supports divergent policy approaches by different actors within state-institutional sites. Based on a decade of childcare policy implementation in Poland, the analysis shows that a shared family well-being frame is deployed by political actors to design and implement contrasting models for childcare. These have profound implications for the attainment of gender-just outcomes by sometimes challenging, but more frequently, reconstituting gender hierarchies. The policy design-implementation-outcome lens highlights the centrality of gender throughout the policy process and thus helps account for the persistence of inequalities through their construction and re-construction. It also suggests that, politically, the policy effort can be deployed towards alternative processes and policies, and thus towards the attainment of gender-just outcomes.

Source: Policy and Society

DOI: 10.1080/14494035.2019.1617513

Author: Ania Plomien

Institution: London School of Economics and Political Science

Language: English

Topic: Gender Politics and Representation

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Reduced inequalities, Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,634