Contested gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament: political groups and committees as gatekeepers

2022/08/01 by Anna Elomäki, Petra Ahrens · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #European Union Policy and Governance #Gender Politics and Representation

paper · pdf · doi:10.1332/251510822x16547712638806

openalex publication_date 2022/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

This article analyses the implementation of gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament and aims at deciphering the role of its committees and political groups in advancing or hindering the integration of gender perspectives. The article engages with feminist institutionalism and micro-political approaches, and is based on interview and documentary data. It examines how formal and informal institutions and micro-political strategies within committees and political groups affect the abilities of this representative European Union institution to ensure a gender perspective is present in European Union policies. We suggest that although the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (the gender-focused parliamentary body) oversees gender mainstreaming, committees and political groups, as the core actors of European Parliament policymaking, are the gatekeepers that determine the outcomes. Our findings advance understandings of the limits of gender mainstreaming in European Union policymaking and shed light on the specific challenges of gender mainstreaming and broader gender equality change in parliaments.

Citations

• Strategies of right populists in opposing gender equality in a polarized European Parliament
• ‘It’s a total no-no’: The strategic silence about gender in the European Parliament’s economic governance policies

Cited by

• Feminist voices, partisan networks: gender and political communication by MEPs on social media
• Where Are the Women Farmers? The Gendered Effects of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy 2023–2027

Discussions

• 👏👏👏Well done Anna Elomäki & @petrahrens.bsky.social‬ ‘Contested gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament: political groups and committees as gatekeepers’ was one of our most cited papers of [bsky, 3 points, 1 comments]

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