Women's movements and state feminism

The main purposes of this study of the politics of political representation decisions are, first, to determine and explain variations in the success of women's movements in opening democratic processes to women's participation and concerns, and, second, to explore whether the state, as a result of effective WPA activities, has intervened to achieve such success. Let us now return to our original questions, the questions that framed this comparative study. Do women's policy agencies matter? And if so, why? Have WPAs made democracies more representative and democratic? Have WPAs advanced the demands of the women's movements in a way that has indeed improved representation in both descriptive and substantive terms?

In this chapter we combine the evidence from the eleven countries to answer our core research questions. We make a comparative analysis of the results of the country studies that have been presented in a more detailed and discursive manner in the individual chapters by applying the model presented in chapter 1. There are costs and benefits to this approach. Inevitably and regrettably our comparative analysis loses much of the wealth of detail and insight provided by the authors of the country chapters. But with comparison we gain the ability to detect trends in the capacity of women's policy agencies to help women's movements and women in general to participate in and influence decisions about policy on political representation.