Gender and local participatory opportunity structure: The case of Bilbao, Spain

Abstract

The study of the participatory institutional design of the Bilbao municipality has allowed us to identify some of the elementsof the participatory opportunity structure that influence the current forms of participation and result in process that exclude women from citizenship practices. The main focus of this text centers on the analysis of the mechanisms ofassociative basis. This analysis indicates that local governments need to integrate the gender perspective not only in the municipal institutions themselves, but also in the practices and actors of democratic governance.