This dissertation sheds light on the role conservative governments play in promoting feminist policies despite an inherent tension between conservative principles and feminist claims. It is critical to focus on the process by which conservative governments adopt or reject feminist policies not only because we know little about the process, but also because conservative governments represent the least likely case. As such, we can learn more from the case of conservative governments than from the experience of leftist parties as it allows us to understand the influence of variables beyond an egalitarian ideology. Specifically, the dissertation will consider feminist policies addressing economic inequalities for women: father quotas in parental leave (a specific time period reserved exclusively for fathers) and corporate board quotas. This dissertation employs a comparative within case study of three cases in Germany with four additional preliminary case studies in United Kingdom and Japan utilizing process tracing, qualitative content analysis, and elite interviews. The dissertation finds that (a) feminist policy adoption under conservative governments is successful when coalition constraints facilitate the inclusion of the feminist policy on the policy agenda of the coalition government; and (b) when critical actors occupy veto player positions enabling the passage of the feminist policy into law.
","abstract_html":"<p>This dissertation sheds light on the role conservative governments play in promoting feminist policies despite an inherent tension between conservative principles and feminist claims. It is critical to focus on the process by which conservative governments adopt or reject feminist policies not only because we know little about the process, but also because conservative governments represent the least likely case. As such, we can learn more from the case of conservative governments than from the experience of leftist parties as it allows us to understand the influence of variables beyond an egalitarian ideology. Specifically, the dissertation will consider feminist policies addressing economic inequalities for women: father quotas in parental leave (a specific time period reserved exclusively for fathers) and corporate board quotas. This dissertation employs a comparative within case study of three cases in Germany with four additional preliminary case studies in United Kingdom and Japan utilizing process tracing, qualitative content analysis, and elite interviews. The dissertation finds that (a) feminist policy adoption under conservative governments is successful when coalition constraints facilitate the inclusion of the feminist policy on the policy agenda of the coalition government; and (b) when critical actors occupy veto player positions enabling the passage of the feminist policy into law.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Och, Malliga"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Martin Rhodes, Ph.D.","Devin Joshi","Erica Chenoweth","Mariano Torcal"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2016,"date_issued":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2016-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:30Z","subjects":["Comparative politics","Gender","Germany","Japan","United Kingdom","Women and politics","Political Science","Women's Studies"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
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