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9 Framing and Gendering Birgit Sauer t he concept of framing is an essential component of the state feminism framework examined in the first part of this book, but it is not the central focus of the analysis. the aim of this chapter is to use information collected about the 130 policy debates from the rngs study to explore propositions about framing as an important strategy for political actors and, in doing so, contribute to the accumulation of knowledge about movements, framing, and policy in political science. there are several strands of interest. in the last decade, the struggle over definitions and meanings of public policy moved to the center of the study of democracies (gamson and Meyer 1996). political ideas are not given; to the contrary, they are contested. therefore, society-based groups and state actors align themselves with definitions of policy issues that might reflect their positions and aims. political scientists have found that discourses, ideas, and frames are important sources of power. the struggle over their meaning (i.e., discursive politics) has increasingly become the focus of political analysis. this chapter considers different approaches to frame analysis and discursive policy analysis found in the fields of social and women’s movement research (Zald 1996; Whittier 2002; kenney 2003; Beckwith 2005; schoen and rein 1994; snow and Benford 1992; kingdon 1995), discursive institutionalism (schmidt 2008), discursive policy analysis (Fischer 2003; hajer and Wagenaar 2003), and feminist policy research (Bacchi 1999, 2005; Ferree et al. 2002; squires 2005; verloo and Lombardo 2007; Lombardo, Meier, and verloo 2009a). Frames are “organized ideas” that provide at least some “coherence to a designated set of elements” (Ferree et al. 2002: 105). Framing organizes perceptions of social and political problems and gives meaning to specific situations and issues. in the studies of social movements, frames are seen as modes of defining problems and as structures of organized meanings (snow and Benford 1992; gamson 1988). Framing refers to the way in which actors define policy issues in terms of problems (diagnosis) and policy goals (prognosis) (Benford and snow 2000; Zald 1996). 194 / Unpacking State Feminism analysts agree that there is an important connection between the definition or framing of a policy problem and, eventually, policy outcomes (schattschneider 1960; kingdon 1995; cobb and elder 1983; schneider and ingram 1993; Muller 1990). Frames shape agenda-setting processes as well as decision making, and might also influence policy implementation. the opportunity to shape the overall idea of a policy gives power to collective actors from outside state institutions. they can, thus, insert their ideas into the policy process and realize their interests by changing the policy discourse and the underlying ideas in a specific policy environment in which the policy decisions are prepared. such a change in framing constitutes one form of process change because it brings ideas and interests of new groups into the policy discourse and changes substantive representation. Moreover, outside actors are at the same time “constructed” as participants by the specific framing of an issue. in other words, a specific framing of an issue might mobilize collective action and allow these actors, and not others, to participate in a policy debate. thus, since framing might open the door to power for women’s movements, it becomes a political strategy to gain substantive and descriptive representation. Frames produce political action (Benford and snow 2000: 631) and compose part of the cultural or discursive opportunity structure (Burstein 1999; Ferree et al. 2002). the cross-issue, cross-time, and cross-country analyses of this chapter seek to contribute to the fast-growing political science literature on framing by giving detailed empirical evidence on how women’s movements and policies, as well as civil society and state, are connected through framing. as described more fully in chapter 2, the research plan of the rngs project discerns general frames, issue frames, and microframes. a general frame refers to wide-range definitions, that is, to a “universe of political discourse” (Jenson 1989), or what Bob Jessop (1994) calls the “state project,” for instance, the “welfare state.” gender equality might be such a wide general frame of the women’s movement (Lombardo, Meier, and verloo 2009a). the issue frame is the meaning of a specific policy area, used by actors in this specific policy subsystem in a specific policy debate, such as employment, health, or environment policy. typical issue frames in abortion debates, for example, are health frames; in prostitution debates, we find crime frames. such frames can be welcoming...

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