Founding Women and Men: For a New – and Fairer – History of European Integration

Abstract

Speaker: Simona Guerra, University of Surrey Re-writing the past history of European integration can support how we look both backward and forward. Shifting the focus towards more equality can provide new narratives, that existed, but we did not see for a long time, for the readers of today. Women and above all young women are the least represented amongst political leadership. The 2023 United Nations Inter Parliamentary Union data on youth participation in parliaments shows that only 2.2 per cent of parliamentarians are under 30, and less than 1 per cent are young women. The persistent lack of women on some specific offices is not a novelty and has critical policy consequences that can provide insight on recent and current political debates, as well as on the discipline. This contribution builds upon the recent research done with the support of the European Parliament Research Service and their digital and historical archives. The analysis of the minutes of meetings, oral and written questions, reports, pictures, and the in-depth archival research enable to outline how these women actively contributed to the process of European integration in the early years. As the Founding Fathers, they show an extraordinary life that have simply gone undocumented. There is a problematic deficit in European studies that does not seem to be justified. It is recognized and, still, we continue to learn the history and politics of the European Union by repeating and transmitting the same bias. This paper introduces to the work of the early women to re-write the history of European integration.