Equality put to the test of managerialization: implementation and uses of a regional gender-equality policy (2010–2015)

Abstract

This article aims to better understand the mechanisms and concerned parties involved in the managerialization of public policies in favor of equality between women and men in France. In order to achieve that, it describes the implementation of an “equality plan” by a regional administration. It appears that this particular equality plan was shaped by diverse appropriations performed by the administrators who worked on it, as well as by a bureaucratic logic related to the guidelines for modernizing local and regional administrations. The recent expansion of professional-equality policies should be understood through the lens of this institutionalized tension. This evolution tends to depoliticize gender policies and to contribute to a managerial interpretation of equality.