Feminism and the Postmodern State: Gender Mainstreaming in European Rural Development

This article explores the role of the multilevel and decentered European state in reproducing masculine domination through its rural development policies. I look at the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the European Union’s LEADER program in two regions in Germany. I argue that the postmodern state’s role in reproducing masculine domination depends on gender compromises that have been institutionalized previously in local contexts. Challenges to these compromises through gender mainstreaming have been unsuccessful in the two cases under consideration in part because of bureaucratic values that emphasize objectivity and proceduralism.