Articulating a Feminist Agenda Within the OECD: The Working Party on the Role of Women in the Economy

Gender equality has become an established part of the global agenda, spawning a rich body of literature on transnational women’s organising and the role played by international organisations, especially the United Nations. For the most part, however, the contribution of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD) has been ignored. Gender equality has, however, long been on the OECD’s agenda, largely because of the role played by the Working Party on the Role of women in the Economy (WP6). This paper focuses on the strategies WP6 employed and assesses its achievements. It argues that the existence of a separate working party made up largely of femocrats made it possible to avoid the translation of feminist ideas into terms that fit the OECD’s dominant discourse.