Gender and Political Interests: Taking Institutions Seriously

Abstract

One of the most taken for-granted and yet widely disputed concepts in the analysis of political action is that of 'interests'. This paper argues, first, that in the traditional opposition between liberal and structural theories of politics, and the normative assessment of 'interests' each contains, there continues to be a characteristic tendency to treat 'interests' as though they are 'pre-given' phenomenon. The feminist political analysis which draws on these traditions remains prey to this tendency. Second, although more recent post-structuralist approaches to the study of gender, politics and policy analysis taken up by a number of feminist scholars are sensitive to the 'constructedness' of 'interests', accounts such as these require further development if we are to see 'interests' as more than simply discursive phenomenon. Third, I argue for an account of policy and political analysis in which the subject of gendered 'interests' is understood in terms of it being a particular 'problem of government' or 'governmentality'. This approach to the study of 'interests' seeks to examine both the institutional and the discursive processes through which the policies, institutions and practices of government problematise gendered 'interests'.