Introduction: Gender, Equality and the State from ‘Socialism’ to ‘Democracy’?

Gender has long been recognised by sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and historians (amongst others) as a crucial structure influencing the organisation of societies and the positioning of women and men in relation to both public and private divisions of power and authority. The socially constructed and culturally defined understandings of femininity and masculinity upon which the gender order1 of any society is founded, affect the roles and responsibilities attributed to women and men, both in the private sphere of home and family and in the public domains of economic, political and social interaction, and, indeed, in intersections between the two. Dominant discourses and understandings of gender, propagated through media and cultural representations of women and men, public rhetoric and popular debate, prioritise equality and difference to varying degrees, both drawing on and feeding into state-led ideologies and policies. These in turn play an important role in determining the extent to which gender impacts upon the opportunities, rights, entitlements and duties of male and female citizens. Indeed, as Connell has pointed out, the state is ‘not just a regulatory agency, it is a creative force in the dynamic of gender’, one which ‘creates new categories and new historical possibilities’.2