Gender and Institutional Analysis

The paper examines different schools of New Institutionalism, in order to assess their capacity to incorporate a feminist analysis of gender. In reflecting on the assumptions of institutional traditions and the concept of gender, it identifies areas for fruitful merging and applies these to comparative, empirical case studies in Ghana, West-Africa. The paper is structured as follows: First, I delineate three schools of New Institutionalism, namely the historical, rational choice and sociological, to discuss their assumptions and analytical interests. Building on the insights from sociological institutionalism, I interrogate the classical school of institutional economics and its positions, scrutinised for the purpose of seeing whether it can accommodate gender analysis. I will show that both share the concept of social constructivism and the assumptions of institutional change. Second, the paper introduces aspects of feminist analysis and looks for linkages with institutional economics. Gender refers to the social construction of identity, assigning different roles, rights and opportunities to persons based on their sex. A closer look at feminist constructivism reveals the analytical similarities of classical institutional economics and feminist economics. Third, I suggest