Tildesley, RebeccaLombardo, EmanuelaVerge Mestre, Tània2023-05-172023-05-172022Tildesley R, Lombardo E, Verge T. Power struggles in the implementation of gender equality policies: the politics of resistance and counter-resistance in universities. Polit Gend. 2022;18(4):879-910. DOI: 10.1017/s1743923x210001671743-923Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/56852This article develops an analytical framework to study the power struggles between status quo and gender equality actors underpinning the implementation of gender equality policies. While resistance to gender equality policies in different institutions has received considerable scholarly attention, examining this struggle in light of a multifaceted concept of power that encompasses both domination and individual and collective empowerment, we argue, offers a more accurate account of the possibilities of a feminist politics of implementation. Our analytical framework also accounts for the factors that enable resistance by dominant actors and counter-resistance by gender equality actors and the informal rules that are being upheld or challenged, respectively. Applying our framework to the study of Spanish universities, we identify both the forms and types of resistance that hinder gender reform efforts in higher education institutions and the counter-action strategies that seek to drive implementation forward and achieve institutional change.application/pdfeng© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution,and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create aderivative work.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743923x21000167gender equality policyimplementationpowerresistancescounter-resistancesuniversitiesfeminist policy studiesfeminist institutionalisminfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess