Unequal Opportunities to Advance Equality? Gender and Racial/Ethnic Civil Society in Comparative Context

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are key to advancing equality, particularly in their ability to influence and scrutinize government policy.

However, we know very little of a) the comparative influence of CSOs representing gender and/or racial/ethnic equality on elected representatives, and b) how this varies across Western democracies with varying equalities architectures (mechanisms for ensuring equalities in policy and spending).

This is important because improvements in gender equality have not been made to the same extent for racial inequality, and the siloing of these policy areas perpetuates the intersectional marginalisation of groups such as ethnic minority women.

Meanwhile, cutting edge feminist scholarship on representation has begun to advocate for increased focus on the institutional mechanisms by which elected representatives are persuaded to engage with and respond to CSOs representing equalities interests. There has however been no empirical work addressing this cross-nationally and from an intersectional perspective.

This project therefore fills a key knowledge gap which will not only enhance the strategies of CSOs representing marginalised groups, but will also contribute to the design of more equitable equalities architectures which are better equipped to tackle inequalities beyond gender, as well as intersectional inequalities.

Our comparative approach and innovative dissemination strategy fosters cross-country and policy sector learning.