European External Policy through a Feminist Institutionalist Lens: Gender, Power and Contexts

Guided by high-level political commitments, the external services of the EU have institutionalized gender mainstreaming methodologies and gender equality principles across their policy and operational work. This paper engages with the question of how useful a feminist institutionalist approach is in the analysis of EU gender policy implemented outside of Europe. To examine feminist institutionalism´s suitability for analysing the transformative potential of gender policies in EU external relations, I apply a feminist institutionalist approach to two case studies: EU–Botswana and EU-South African development cooperation. The paper concludes that a feminist institutionalist lens is particularly useful for the in-depth analysis of EU gender policy abroad, as it allows to bare the complex web of gendered norms, practices and logics in the EU Headquarters, the EU Delegations and the governmental and non-governmental organisations at the partner country level. Furthermore a feminist institutionalist lens proves particularly suitable to capture inherent hierarchical gender imbalances and gender stereotypes in EU external services, both at EU and partner country level. Lastly the paper concludes that it is crucial for a feminist institutionalist approach to involve the views of gender activists from the national context in the analysis of EU external policy, as to avoid stereotypical, paternalist and Eurocentric ideas about the meaning of gender equality abroad and allow for a contextually grounded reflexivity on the quality of gender policy.