Since the turn of the millennium, studies have demonstrated a relationship between gender and corruption, finding that in countries where female political participation is higher, indicators of corruption are lower. This thesis approaches this debate in two ways, quantitatively and qualitatively. A multivariate regression analysis updates data for the year 2015 and incorporates underexplored institutional variables. Results show that the proportion of women in politics is positively and significantly correlated with reduced corruption, even when controlling for these institutional variables. The findings from this analysis are applied to a focused comparison of two countries, Rwanda and Haiti, which have very different female representation and corruption outcomes, despite the presence of a very similar institution, a 30 percent legislated gender quota. Using feminist institutionalism as a theoretical guide for the analysis, this thesis demonstrates that institutions such as democracy and auditing standards moderate the relationship between female representation and corruption outcomes. On that basis, it concludes that while increasing female participation in politics can modestly contribute to reducing corruption, linking female participation to strengthening democratic governance and institutionalizing accountability can further reduce corruption in some developing country contexts.

Haiti has long been characterized as a fragile state. Particularly since 2004, responses from the international community have focused on Haiti’s stabilization and reconstruction. Post-colonial critiques highlight the constraints imposed by these approaches, but fail to sufficiently explore forms of agency which, by resisting and redirecting external impositions, could promote political, social and economic transformation. The adoption of the National Policy for Equality between Women and Men in Haiti in 2014/15 seems to represent such potentially transformative agency. The primary aim of this research is to understand how national agency and international actors (sometimes neo-colonial) interacted, through particular institutions, to shape the adoption and initial implementation of the National Policy. The second aim is to draw on selected feminist theories (institutional and more critical) to explain these processes and assess the extent to which they represent the emergence of transformative alternatives in the Haitian context.

This thesis explores the capacity of a state feminist institution in a non-Western setting in implementing gender empowerment initiatives. This study adopts a cross-cutting approach using state feminism and a feminist institutional analytical lens especially the idea of formal and informal rules, to develop a dynamic analysis of the factors that shape the capacity of a state feminist institution in a post-colonial context. This research uses a holistic single case study to analyse the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Women, Family, and Community Development in Malaysia by examining four key determinants: 1) institutional structure, 2) resources, 3) relationship/network and 4) the WPA’s policies implementation (as shaped by the institutional structure, resources, and relationship) to assess the Ministry’s capacity. This research highlights the variance of capacity level of the Women’s Policy Agency in Malaysia has in the implementation of gender empowerment initiatives within its institutional environment. The WPA demonstrates competency in specific areas of gender empowerment programmes especially economic empowerment but is often constrained in their ability to navigate through a gendered state institution which is highly centralised and strongly hierarchical. Masculinised political culture and institutional socio-religious perspective on gender roles also play a part in weakening the Ministry’s capacity in pushing for gender empowerment initiatives that challenge the conservative outlook of gender roles in society. .This study explores the strengths and constraints of state feminism in Malaysia using feminist institutionalism analytical tools of formal and informal rules as the dynamic interaction between the formal and informal rules in a diverse, developing and semi-democratic context characterise the WPA’s capacity within its institutional setting. This thesis provides important insights on the conditions that shape the WPA’s capacity and alternative understanding of state feminism in a non-Western context, and thereby, provides guidance for gender policy advocates and future practices.

In 2014, the newly elected Swedish government declared itself as the first feminist government in the world. When CEDAW in 2016 released their review of the Swedish gender equality policy work, they criticized the lack of concrete results. In the recommendations they suggested that Sweden should adopt a national strategy in their work with violence against women. Being the first public feminist government, working with women issues such as violence against women, it is therefore of interest to study what kind of theoretical and practical policy work the Löfven administration has done during their first term. In this study, the purpose is to find out what the government has done in regard to stop the violence against women, by using the theoretical framework of feminist institutionalism and state feminism. In the result, that is gathered from government documents, it is shown that the Löfven administration has had a similar goal and policy work that the CEDAW recommended, but there is still questions in the area that is yet to be a part of that work. In conclusion, you can with safety say that women´s issues have taken a place in the political agenda, but not even the first county in the world governed by a feminist government is equal.

Development organisations are generally believed to be fairly gender equal workplaces, with gender related issues seen as something external or foreign to the organisation. However, all organisations exist within gendered structures, and should not be considered as gender neutral or separate. Building on the theory of feminist institutionalism, this paper aims to study how informal gender power structures are experienced by employees in a development organisation, namely the Folke Bernadotte Academy. To research this, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted to study the experiences and opinions of the respondents. A feminist institutionalist framework identified three areas of particular interest, “Tasks and assignments”, “Support norms” and “Interactions between employees”. After conducting interviews the information was analysed. The conclusions drawn are that FBAs employees describe experiences of some gender power structures. Most notably relating to parenting norms and logic of appropriateness. Seconded employees in general seemed to experience more gender power structures than internal employees. Additionally FBA and its employees seem to express the view that gender inequality is an external problem or that they are unaffected because their workforce is made up of a majority of women.

Previous research indicates that gender mainstreaming is difficult to apply. Obstacles such as lack of political will, cultural and institutional resistance, lack of understanding, clashing perspectives and priorities, as well as insufficient resources, are most often cited as the cause. This study, against the background that these obstacles are founded in institutional contexts, intends to use feminist institutionalism to analyze state authorities' ideas about gender mainstreaming through the analysis of values, descriptions, and prescriptions. The results show that analyzed authorities are consistent in their basic ideas and values, where the strategy is taken seriously and seen as important. The annual reports are prepared in an operational manner, which shows action and progress. The result indicates that there is a general lack of prescriptions.

The representation of women in parliament is a subject that has been up for debate since the beginning of the 20th century and the beginning of women’s suffrage. Gender quotas is a way to increase the representation of women in modern parliaments, even in the Swedish riksdag. This qualitative, comparative study shows that out of the eight Swedish parties of parliament, six is implementing gender quotas but in different ways and for different reasons. These reasons get brought into light in official party documents where the parties discuss their stance on gender equality politics and gender quotas. The parties’ opinion on gender quota is defined by three different kind of arguments: the argument of equal representation, the argument of resources and the argument of interest. The left-wing parties tend to use all three of the arguments, while the right-wing parties tend to be more sceptical of the use of gender quotas and therefore use two or less arguments. The parties’ stance on gender quotas are furthermore analysed from the perspective of the theory of feminist institutionalism. Parties who use all three of the arguments, or all the argument except the argument of resources, tend to have a feminist approach to their politics. These parties use gender quota as a way of reforming the parliament’s structure. Other parties who focus on justice and resource as arguments of gender quotas is often more conservative or focused on preserving the structure on which the riksdag is built upon.

In 2016 the Colombian Government signed an historic peace deal with the main guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) after decades of armed conflict. In the same year Canada pledged $57.4M in development funding to help Colombia recover in the post-peace deal era. Since 2016 the Peace and Stabilisation Operations Program (PSOPs) alone has invested $35.3M in the country. With the launch of Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) in 2017, many of these initiatives unfolded in a new policy context and were characterised by commitments to make gender equality a priority. This study looks at the intersection of Canadian aid, transitional justice, and gender in Colombia through a feminist-institutionalist lens. It aims to assess the impact of Canadian-funded projects from these areas along a spectrum that varies from 'gendered transitional justice' to 'transformative transitional justice'. The thesis concludes that the impact of Canadian assistance is found in the in-between area of 'gendered transitional justice' and 'transformative transitional justice', characterized by some progress away from the status quo of 'gendered transitional justice', but without hitting the transformative mark. Through a feminist institutionalist lens, we argue that it is the complex socio-political landscape of Colombia overlaying the agency of Canada's implementing partners, their Southern counterparts and the agency of the donor, and the sum of these interactions that both enable and limit the full transformative capacity of the intervention and situate its impact somewhere in the middle.

In 2017 an old law recirculated in Germany which illegalized doctors from informing about abortion other than verbally in person. According to previous research on feminist policy change, a removal (liberalization), of the law hinges on: the presence of an autonomous feminist organization, if civil society, norms and a political majority supports the removal. The more of these factors are present the higher the likelihood of liberalization. All these factors were present in the German case but the outcome of the debate and policy process that occurred, a preservation of the law after a one-year long struggle, was highly unexpected. This thesis aims to understand and explain the outcome focussing on the struggle between the confessional and secular government coalition members CDU/CSU and SPD, as the latter, as expected, supported the removal but then unexpectedly voted for preservation. The study is conducted as an abductive explanatory process tracing, concentrates on the factions within the SPD as well as the CDU/CSU throughout the different stages of the process. The main findings are that confessional parties can utilize formal and informal institutions in a parliamentary setting to avoid a substantial liberalization of abortion regulatory laws. The SPD was split on the issue where its leadership, who compromised to keep the government running, overrun the large faction within the party supporting revocation.

This thesis explores constructions of meaning, or frames, surrounding the policy of women’s hours in public debates and municipal settings, using newspaper articles and municipal documents as main empirical sources. Departing from the puzzle of how women’s hours are depicted as both gender equitable and gender inequitable in the debate, the thesis draws on previous research of how gender equality and multiculturalism relates to each other, potentially producing tensions in policymaking and discourse. Although Sweden has often been noted for its exceptionality in both dimensions, research suggests that multiculturalism has lost its favorable status in Sweden. To understand the impact framing may have on institutions, analysis is grounded feminist discursive institutionalism. The analysis is realized in two steps. First, the analysis identifies four frames, two supporting and two opposing, most prominently used to construct and depict women’s hours in public debate. Second, the analysis zooms in on the three municipalities Västerås, Haninge and Västervik, exploring the relationship between framing and outcomes. The thesis finds that the frames of women’s hours are often involved in culturalist language, depicting women’s hours as a Muslim policy, or, implicitly, depicting women’s hours as a gender equal policy by connecting it to other women than Muslim. In relation to institutional outcomes, the thesis finds that if the policy is constructed in a Muslim-culturalist language - that is, diagnosed as a Muslim practice - it leads to disapproval. If the policy is constructed as a gender equal policy beneficial to “all” women, it seems more accessible to keep. In line with previous research, the findings are suggestive of how the idea of multiculturalism as a problem seems to have become salient while gender equality remains a highly attractive master frame, contributing to how the policy of women’s hours is adopted only if successfully connected to other groups of women than Muslim.