Theorizing gender equality: perspectives on power and legitimacy

Abstract

This article develops new analytical tools for considering the dynamics of power in gender equality. This is done by focusing on a closely related concept, legitimacy, and utilizing it to shed light on the relations between gender equality and power. We develop a new concept to describe the “undecided” conceptual zone between what is considered “legitimate” and what is “illegitimate,” that we have named “a-legitimate”. The starting point is the idea that legitimacy is construed in a binary opposition with illegitimacy. Instead of being static, the struggles over definition of “legitimate” and “illegitimate” are an outcome of dynamic processes and fundamentally shaped by the “a-legitimate” that falls in-between.