Bureaucratic representation and gender mainstreaming in international organizations: evidence from the World Bank

Heinzel, Mirko ORCID: 0000-0001-8801-8237, Weaver, Catherine and Jorgensen, Samantha (2024) Bureaucratic representation and gender mainstreaming in international organizations: evidence from the World Bank. American Political Science Review. ISSN 1537-5943

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Abstract

How does the representation of women in international organizations affect the implementation of gender mainstreaming policies? Many international organizations have adopted policies to prevent gender discrimination in their operations, but their implementation is often lackluster. We argue that these shortcomings appear due to a combination of institutional incentives and an underrepresentation of women in their staff. We test the argument in the case of the World Bank, drawing on highly disaggregated staffing data, an instrumental variable strategy, and an elite survey experiment. Our results show that most staff incorporate at least shallow gender mainstreaming in their projects. Deeper implementation of gender mainstreaming is more likely when women staff supervise projects, hold positions of authority, and are more represented as coworkers. These results contribute to understanding the disconnects between talk and action on mainstreaming policies and inform debates on representation in global governance.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-p...
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Authors
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Date Deposited:	21 Mar 2024 11:03
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2024 07:57
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122464

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