Capturing Dynamics of Changing Gender Inequality: Regimes, Institutions and Indices

The explanatory role of gender has been challenged theoretically by the question of whether macro or meso frameworks are more appropriate to capture structure and change, but more recently also by empirical evidence about the intersection of class and gender in shaping social inequalities. Hence, there is a need of better theorizing class – gender relations in welfare and gender regime approaches alike. We argue that understanding intersectionality and its impact on inequalities requires a clearer theoretical framing of empirical research and adapting theory to insights gained from empirical research. We propose that neo-institutionalist approaches are better equipped as they can grasp both long-term and short-term changes at the meso level of policies, organizations and collective actors. However, findings from neo-institutionalist research on welfare and gender regimes generate a puzzling picture, indicating different directions of changes in inequalities for different sets of policies and outcomes by sub-groups, be it in the fields of employment, family policies, taxation or political representation. These contradictions in outcomes for inequalities also make it difficult to identify a single logic and clear impact of change within and across countries or regions. Attempts to provide a more coherent account at least on the descriptive level include indices such as the GEM or the GEI. We will engage in discussing the scope of these and other attempts for understanding current dynamics of gender inequality and their potential contribution for improving theorization of gender and class on the meso and macro level.