Are Gender Equality Institutions the Policy Allies of the Feminist Movement? A Contingent ‘Yes’ in the Spanish Central State

This article studies the extent to which gender equality institutions are the policy allies of the feminist movement in Spain. A policy ally of the feminist movement is defined as one that adopts the demands of the movement and includes them in the policy process. This article analyses the role played by the Women’s Institute (WI) between 1983 and 2003 in 12 policy debates, in a third of which the WI was an ally of the movement. Two circumstances are identified as necessary for the WI to act as an ally of the feminist movement, whilst other are not strictly necessary but have facilitated the WI acting as a policy ally of the movement