Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Budgeting and Intersectionality

Abstract

This panel examines how gender equality is governed, negotiated, and challenged within the European Union by focusing on gender mainstreaming, gender budgeting, and intersectionality as central frameworks of contemporary policy practice. Across institutional, discursive, and policy settings, the panel highlights both the ambitions and the persistent limitations of EU gender equality efforts. The contributions explore how feminist perspectives shape understandings of the EU’s normative power, how gender-sensitive tools are incorporated into policy frameworks such as National Recovery and Resilience Plans, and how notions of inequality and intersectionality are constructed within the European Parliament. The panel also investigates how leadership, language, and institutional culture influence gender-sensitive policymaking across EU institutions and how gendered and racialized narratives, particularly in far-right migration discourse, undermine equality goals. Taken together, the papers illustrate the tensions between formal gender equality commitments and their uneven implementation across the EU. They show how intersectional inequalities continue to shape access to rights, representation, and protection, while revealing the political and institutional barriers that hinder transformative change.

Title	Details
In Her Own Words: Gender in the Rhetoric of Ursula von der Leyen’s Second Term	View Paper Details
Reimagining the EU Dream: Feminists Perspectives on EU’s Normative Power in Difficult Times	View Paper Details
Gender, Language, and Leadership in High-Level European Politics: A Comparative Analysis Across EU Institutions	View Paper Details
Strong Institutions, Weak Outcomes? Gender Mainstreaming in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans of Austria and Belgium	View Paper Details
The Struggle over Intersectionality: Competing Constructions of Inequality in the European Parliament	View Paper Details