Gendering Federalism—Federalizing Gender

Attempts to restructure German federalism in the aftermath of unification, under the auspices of increasing Länder autonomy, might have ambivalent effects on gender policies and women’s policy agencies. This article addresses how federalism affects gender equality politics, focusing on three contested issues: the turn from a strongly cooperative to a more competitive federalism; a weakening of the “steering capacity” of national level politics vis-à-vis the Länder through recent reforms; and the lack of “throughput” of EU policies to the state and regional levels.