Assessing the Factors that Impact the Success of Gender Experts in Public Policy: The Search for Necessity

Abstract

When asked if there were any circumstances that she felt made her expertise more likely to be utilized or implemented, one gender expert stated, “I don’t think it is that simple … these ingredients get that recipe” (Gender Expert 2012). While the individual eventually did reveal several factors that she felt were most important, the initial response to this question from many respondents was that it was difficult to narrow down the conditions that lead to gender expert success. Many of the interview participants and survey respondents have worked on a variety of projects for several different organizations, and given this range of experience, narrowing the factors that contribute to success seemed an arduous task given the fact that these conditions may substantially differ depending on the case in question. The last two chapters presented valuable insights into the factors that could potentially impact the success of gender experts in public policy; however, the difficulty expressed by many respondents when attempting to narrow down these conditions contributes to the notion that scholars examining gender expertise need to use approaches that assume the “ingredients” for achieving a certain outcome are complex, and different “ingredients” may achieve the same result.