Gender, power and Public Administration. On the (im) possibility of a pro-equality change. A revision of the literature on gender change

Abstract

After decades of gender policies implementation, major questions remain about its actual impact and its ability to make more inclusive the policymaking process. This article aims at providing theoretical and analytical tools to understand this problem as a contribution to current debates on the effectiveness of the mainstreaming of gender. In particular, the article discuss how power shapes public institutions and how gender change can be promoted, on the basis of a revision and systematization of gender and policy and gender and organizations scholarship. The need to thoroughly explore the gender dimension of institutions is underlined, pointing at the analysis of organizational cultures and practices in all its sectoral, governmental and territorial variability. A further examination of the local conditions and dynamics founded in different institutional settings is needed to define more effective change strategies. This would means to develop more empirical and comparative analysis on the differences between institutions, the characteristics of change processes and the opposition that they trigger.