Analysing Failure, Understanding Success: A Research Strategy for Explaining Gender Equality Policy Adoption

Abstract

One of the major challenges within feminist research is to understand the conditions under which gender equality policies are adopted. This article addresses the issue from a methodological point of view: it suggests that previous research on gender equality policy adoption has mostly focused on “successful” cases, and it presents a research strategy for systematically analysing opposition and “failed” attempts at gender equality policy adoption, that is, reform attempts that have not become laws or regulations. A closer analysis of failure is important for understanding success: we cannot be sure that the factors identified as conducive to gender equality reform are really missing in unsuccessful reform attempts unless we pay explicit attention to such attempts. The research strategy suggests three issues that should be addressed: (1) specify and select “unsuccessful” cases, (2) focus explicitly on resistance to the reform proposal, and (3) conduct a dynamic analysis of the strategies of proponents and opponents. We illustrate the research strategy by making use of a failed attempt at reform in the Swedish labour market: the individualization of the parental leave system.

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