This book deals with feminist institutionalism through asking the key question: can gender equality be designed? It provides a critical analysis of the South African Commission for Gender Equality to assess its successes and failures over a more than 20-year period and provides insight into the design of structures of national gender machineries – how they are designed influences the outcomes for gender equality. The research in this collection sheds light on choices for institutional design of national gender machineries during democratic transitions, the co-optation of institutions, the silences and collusions of those selected to work in the institutions, and the resourcing of institutions and their impact on policy making for women's substantive equality. This book will have a broad appeal for scholars of feminist institutionalism.

Amanda Gouws is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the NRF funded SARChI Chair in Gender Politics, Department of Political Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her specialization is South African Politics and Gender Politics. Her research focuses on women and citizenship, the National Gender Machinery and women’s representation, areas in which she has published widely. She is the editor of (Un)Thinking Citizenship: Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. Her edited book with Daiva Stasiulis, from Carleton University, Gender and Multiculturalism: North/South Perspectives appeared with Routledge Press in 2014. Edited volumes with Joy Watson, Nasty Women Talk Back appeared with Imbali Press in 2017, and with Olivia Ezeobi, COVID Diaries: Women’s Experience of the Pandemic, with Imbali Press, 2021. She was a Commissioner for the South African Commission for Gender Equality from 2012-2014. She received the Rector’s Award for Media Engagement and Thought Leadership in 2018 and 2019. She currently resides in Stellenbosch, South Africa.