Suchergebnisse

When do social movements support policies that do not benefit them directly? Which factors help build stronger feminist alliances? To answer these questions, this article traces the coalition behind the emergence of the third sex in Germany. This legal recognition cracks open the categorical male–female pair and sheds light on a path-breaking feminist alliance among women's, trans and intersex groups. Case-study methodology and interviews provide insights into the weakening power of categorical pairs, add nuance to the concept of opportunity hoarding and provide important organisational, social and discursive lessons about when and how groups cooperate productively.

For decades conservative welfare states have reformed reluctantly. To understand recent family policy reforms in Germany we must add institutions and economics to any account of politics. This article focuses on the grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD formed after the 2005 Bundestag election. Two opposed assumptions pertain to grand coalitions: one holds that a coalition of parties with different ideologies will act according to the lowest common denominator resulting in policy inertia. The opposite holds that grand coalitions enable policy change because constraints are removed by the supermajority. This article develops five conditions for successful reform, arguing that traditional family policies directed at the protection of motherhood are shifting towards reconciliation policies that emphasize labor market activation and increased birth rates. The shift indicates 1) that even conservative states have the potential for bounded reform; and, 2) that agency—particularly partisan and coalitional interests—needs to be considered more seriously.

The article discusses different approaches of equal employment policy and investigates the implementation of such policies in the USA and in Germany. The conceptual differences of the applied policies point to dissimilar concepts of »equality« in Germany and in the USA.