Gendered polarizations in times of crisis: political struggles and challenges in the European Parliament

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) has been seen as the most gender equal actor of the EU institutions: it has strengthened law proposals, raised new gender equality issues on the agenda, and held the other institutions accountable for the promotion of gender equality. The aim of this panel is to look at the workings of the EP, specifically from the point of view of its political groups. There is surprisingly little qualitative research into the practices and policy-making of the political groups and the norms which govern this work. The ways in which gender and other differences, such as race and ethnicity, age, class, sexuality, shape these policies and practices is an even more understudied field – an acute shortcoming addressed by the papers presented in this panel. What is more, there are big differences between the EP political groups’ views on gender equality issues, and the groups construct gender in different ways in relation to different fields. Gender has also increasingly become a battlefield between the political groups as well as within them, as calls to men’s and women’s traditional roles in society, opposition to sexual and reproductive rights, and views of gender equality as a dangerous ‘gender ideology’ have been gaining ground in the EP due to conservatism, nationalism, and populism. This panel studies party political dynamics and gendered power struggles in the policy-making and practices of the European Parliament in these turbulent times. We welcome papers from a broad range of topics related to gender politics and the European Parliament. The panel aims to provide a multidimensional understanding of party political contestation around gender and gender equality beneath EP’s progressive surface. Thus, it contributes to recent efforts within feminist EU studies to nuance the understanding of the EP as a gender friendly actor and shed light on the complex dynamics around gender in the EP.

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