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

Abstract

Speaker: Simona Guerra Discussant: Henriette Müller Rewriting the past history of European integration can change how we look both backward and forward. Shifting the focus towards more equality can provide new narratives, that existed, but have long been overlooked. 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 percent of parliamentarians are under 30, and less than 1 percent are young women. The persistent lack of women in 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 its digital and historical archives. The analysis of the minutes of meetings, oral and written questions, reports, pictures, and in-depth archival research enable us to outline the role and work of women who actively contributed to the process of European integration in the early years. As the Founding Fathers, they show an extraordinary life that has simply gone undocumented. There is a problematic deficit in European studies that has led to the repeated transmission of biased historical narratives. This presentation introduces the work of the early women to offer a more inclusive history of European integration.