Targeting change for women’s rights. An analysis of how the women’s rights movement in Kosovo has developed its strategies for gender equality in response to political realities

Abstract: In the newly founded state Kosovo, the women’s rights movement has become a strong voice on gender equality and contributes in important ways to strengthening women’s rights. At the same time, highly gendered political structures restrict the movement’s access to political influence. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how the political opportunities and challenges that the movement faces have shaped its strategies for promoting women’s rights. By using the theory of political opportunity structure and the perspective of feminist institutionalism, the thesis sets out to answer the question: “How have political opportunity structures in Kosovo affected the women’s rights movement’s strategies for promoting gender equality?”. A qualitative case study was carried out where 12 representatives of the women’s rights movement shared their experiences in semi-structured interviews. Findings indicate that while there are formal access points to political institutions and policymakers supportive of gender equality, informal patriarchal norms within the political system limit the transformative power of the movement. To overcome this challenge, the movement employs three different approaches; it engages with policymakers in institutional settings to increase gender awareness, it raises awareness among the population to hold policymakers accountable, and it advocates for international actors to put pressure on Kosovo’s elite.