Gender, Civil Society and the State in European social dialogue

Abstract

Deliberations about policy formation and/or implementation between state actors and (parts of) civil society have been institutionalized in many European countries in the form of corporatist or consociationalist practices. In the 1970’s women were severely underrepresented in the fora were these deliberations took place, even more so than in elected assemblies. Pressure by women’s movement activists has resulted in formal or informal rules to remedy this under representation and this has been successful in a number of countries, most spectacularly in Scandinavia. In the wake of the policies of the European Parliament to stimulate ‘balanced decision making’, the problem of under representation of women is also in discussion in the European Economic and Social Committee. In many countries state/society relations have changed considerably under the influence of neo-liberal policies during the 1990’s. Shifting of responsibilities between states, supranational organizations and different types of intra state actors have an impact on the opportunity structure and on the strategic responses of social movements. The new democracies form an especially interesting terrain in this respect. Changes in the interactions between civil society and the state have an impact on women’s chances to enter the social dialogue. In this panel we would like to compare and discuss theoretical inroads into state restructuring, its impact on social dialogue and the chances of women’s substantive and descriptive representation therein.

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