This book deals with feminist institutionalism through asking the key question: can gender equality be designed? It provides a critical analysis of the South African Commission for Gender Equality to assess its successes and failures over a more than 20-year period and provides insight into the design of structures of national gender machineries – how they are designed influences the outcomes for gender equality. The research in this collection sheds light on choices for institutional design of national gender machineries during democratic transitions, the co-optation of institutions, the silences and collusions of those selected to work in the institutions, and the resourcing of institutions and their impact on policy making for women's substantive equality. This book will have a broad appeal for scholars of feminist institutionalism.