Economic and Neoliberal Frames of Gender Equality and Diversity in Science: A Comparision between the EU and the US

On both sides of the Atlantic, gender equality efforts in science have been criticized for to their economic and neoliberal focus, which scholars argue limits their transformative impact. Similar concerns about prioritizing economic values over genuine gender and social justice are also prevalent in US academia. However, while policy discourses in both the EU and the US legitimize the need for gender equality and diversity in science to economic arguments, they vary in how exactly this link is made (e.g. how equality is thought beneficial for the economy and for science but also, on a more basic level, how equality is understood and how an egalitarian and just academic world is imagined). This paper offers an in-depth analysis of the varieties of economic and neoliberal frames in GE & diversity research policy discourses across the EU and the US. Employing a comparative perspective, we identify how these varieties across the EU and the US shape, enable and limit policies in these two contexts. Furthermore, we draw on the theory of “frame resonance” to explain why certain varieties of economic and neoliberal frames have been successful in the EU and the US respectively. We demonstrate how these frames resonate with certain narratives, norms, identity discourses, and current socio-political challenges that dominate the two national and institutional contexts. For example, the US context is heavily influenced by the idea of the “American Dream” and the US’s efforts to maintain its global leadership, while EU policies are influenced by the EU’s founding mission to unite war-torn Europe and resurrect its economy and democracy, its struggles to counter criticism of its democratic deficit, and to increase its legitimacy.