Claire Annesley

The Core Executive: Gender, Power and Change:

The core executive is a central focus for the study of policy change especially in Westminster-style parliamentary democracies such as the UK. This venue is recognised as the locus of power and where attention should be given for identifying and assessing the process of policy change. It is surprising, then, that studies on womens substantive representation – showing whether and how women can make a difference to politics and policy – have not examined this institution, focusing instead on parliament or womens policy agencies. We plug this gap in scholarship in suggesting that the core executive should be the key venue for examining substantive representation of women. At the same time we present the case that the core executive is a gendered institution in terms of recruitment, resource allocation, relationships and rules. We argue that this gendered disposition shapes the opportunities and constraints available to feminist actors intent on altering the gender emphasis of public policy and illustrate this empirically through a case study of the actions and successes of two feminist ministers – Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt. As such this article makes a contribution to mainstream core executive research, gender and politics scholarship as well as the new and feminist institutionalist literatures.

Americanised and Europeanised: UK Social Policy Since 1997

A number of recent accounts of UK social policy under New Labour have emphasised the continuing Americanisation of the British welfare state. This article does not deny the influence of the US but rather seeks to balance it with an account of the growing Europeanisation of UK social policy. It argues that Americanisation and Europeanisation are distinct in terms of both content and process. Since these are not mutually exclusive, the UK is currently influenced by both. This situation is illustrated by looking at three social policy issues under New Labour: social exclusion, the New Deal and the treatment of lone parents.

Investigating the Economic Determinants of the UK Gender Equality Policy Agenda

Promoting certain kinds of gender equality—such as promoting and supporting female participation in paid work or male engagement with unpaid care work—is costly. Yet, there has been little examination in gender and policy research of the economic determinants of gendered policy change. In this article we investigate, using graphs and descriptive analysis derived from three data sets, whether the agenda-setting possibilities of feminist policy actors pushing for redistributive gender policy are constrained by economic conditions. Our hypotheses are that it is easier to get costly gender equality policies on the agenda, first, when the economy is growing and, second, when advocates utilise an economic case to frame their arguments. We find that gender equality policy agendas in the UK appear to follow periods of positive economic performance and that economic framing of gender equality policy is essential.

Ver.di and trade union revitalisation in Germany

Recent research on the fate of organised labour in western Europe has emphasised the capacity trade unions have to develop and implement revitalisation strategies as well as the fact that different trade union movements implement different strategies. In the case of Germany, trade unions have tended to defend existing mechanisms of social partnership and restructure the movement through mergers. This article argues that this approach has severe limitations given the diverse transformation of the German political economy. It presents research on the revitalisation strategies of Germanys new service sector trade union Ver.di established in 2001. The article argues that Ver.di has an awareness of the necessity of adopting new and comprehensive strategies for revitalisation, but that it is tending towards traditional strategies. This disadvantages those regions and sectors where institutions of industrial relations are not embedded.

The Profile of Gender Equality Issue Attention in Western Europe

This article investigates the factors which drive governments to pay attention to gender equality issues and place them upon executive agendas. In line with studies of the dynamics of issue attention, which demonstrate the importance of investigating variability in the attention policy makers give to issue demands across policy domains, this article argue that policy issues related to gender equality are multi dimensional and patterns in executive attention vary across the different types of gender issues. Multidimensionality of gender equality issues reflects different dynamics in agenda setting as different issues invoke contrasting constellations of political representation, institutional friction and veto points. To investigate this variation, this article proposes a two-fold distinction between Class based and Status based gender equality issues and assesses the validity of three sets of explanations for when gender issues succeed in reaching executive agendas: women in politics, party ideology and economic performance. Drawing on governmental attention datasets from the Comparative Agendas Project we conduct a systematic comparative quantitative analysis of the determinants of gender equality issue attention in five Western European countries. The main findings confirm that the mechanisms through which different types of gender equality issues gain executive attention differ according to the kind of the gender equality demand. Costly class based gender equality issues are more likely to receive executive attention when the economy is performing well, when there is a strong presence of Social Democrats and when there is a high proportion of female MPs. In contrast, economic performance, party politics and women’s parliamentary presence do not seems to exert any impact on status based issues. Instead, critical actors in the government seem to be the strongest driver for attention over this second type of gender equality issue. This study contributes a gendered dimension to the policy agendas scholarship, adding theoretical and empirical depth to the understanding of how non-core issues secure their place on full governmental agendas. By focusing on how to secure governmental attention for gender equality issues, we make a major contribution to understanding the initial genesis of gender equality policies.

Engendering politics and policy: the legacy of New Labour

This article analyses the capacity of a single political party ? New Labour in the UK ? to engender politics and policy. It draws on Kingdon?s (1984) policy streams approach to demonstrate how with the election of New Labour in 1997 a window of opportunity emerged for gender changes in political representation, governance and policy terms. It argues that the commitment to engendering politics was an important step towards engendering policy, but that policy promoting gender equality does not automatically follow from more gender-balanced political representation. Despite some successes, gendered policy change is constrained by: the way gendered policy problems are framed; the slow pace of change in institutions of politics and governance; and the limits posed by policy solutions that had to fit with the dominant liberal market economic approach.

Rules of ministerial recruitment

Women’s recruitment to ministerial office is improving, but our understanding of what determines women’s access to cabinet remains underdeveloped. Comparative studies explain women’s ministerial presence through correlations with country-level socio-economic or political factors. This research uses a feminist institutionalist approach to explain gendered access to cabinets. It uses original data from interviews with former ministers and special advisors to map the rules in use of ministerial recruitment. It demonstrates that that women’s access to ministerial office is facilitated and constrained by three complexes of predominantly informal rules which structure: who is eligible to be chosen (the eligibility pool); how to qualify (specialist or generalist principles); and who selects ministers (the prime minister or the party). By examining the rules of ministerial recruitment in two Westminster democracies, Australia and the UK, the research demonstrates the differences that exist, even in most similar cases, at system level, at party levels, and over time. By identifying the specific complexes of rules which shape women’s access it is possible to identify the rule changes which have been effective in improving women’s ministerial opportunities and suggest future reform strategies which would be most effective in the specific context.

Policy Advocacy in Hard Times: The Impact of Economic Performance on Gendering Executive Attention

Securing executive attention for new policy demands is notoriously difficult as governmental agendas are crowded by established or ‘core’ policy issues. This article investigates whether it is harder for new and costly policy issues to reach the government agenda when the economy is performing badly. It examines whether, and the extent to which, costly gender equality issues regarding women’s access to the labour market, equal treatment at work and care activities, are more likely to achieve executive attention when the economy is performing well. Using the Comparative Policy Agendas database, a systematic, quantitative analysis is conducted of when and why policies promoting sex equality in the division of labour reach executive agendas. The findings confirm that advocacy for costly gender equality measures is easier to make in times of economic growth. It is also found that female representation in parliament strengthens advocacy for executive attention and reduces friction on policy agenda change.

Gendering Politics and Policy

From an academic and policy perspective, it is increasingly deemed undemocratic if women are not adequately represented in political institutions: gender equality is a key marker of a healthy and functioning democracy. Likewise, there is a growing expectation that women?s presence in sites of decision making is required to make an impact on the gendered dimensions of public policy and deliver gender equality outcomes. The title of this themed section ? Gendering Politics and Policy ? refers, on the one hand, to the growing number and variety of mechanisms in place to improve the gender balance in institutions of political representation, decision making and policy making. On the other hand, it refers to the capacity of re-gendered political institutions and actors therein to deliver more gender-equal policy outcomes in a range of policy domains.

What do women symbolize? Symbolic representation and cabinet appointments

ABSTRACT Women’s presence in cabinets around the world has expanded considerably in the past two decades. All male cabinets are all but unthinkable in most democracies today. Yet existing studies of cabinet formation pay little systematic attention to the representative dimensions of cabinets. We argue that the concept of symbolic representation is useful for analyzing ministerial recruitment because cabinets are not mere collections of individuals with political skills or policy expertise. Cabinets are sites of representation, and ministers are often chosen in light of informal rules about which groups must be represented in cabinet. The concept of symbolic representation draws attention to both the symbol maker (in this case, the chief executive who selects ministers) and the multiple audiences to whom the symbol is directed. As such, the concept is well suited to reveal how gender plays out in cabinet formation, particularly when symbolic representation is contested by audiences.