Supranational Gender Equality Policy and the Agenda-Setting Role of EU Commission Presidents 2004-2024

Since the Treaty of Rome, the European Union included gender equality in its treaties. The scope and content of the policy field has expanded over time, driven by the changing powers and interactions of the interinstitutional triangle comprising the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament. Nevertheless, key features of policy fields are often driven by ‘critical actors’, among them, at the supranational level, the European Union’s Commission President. The Commission president is a crucial agenda-setter and defines their political priorities upon appointment the latest. In this paper, we engage with a policy field - gender equality - that has gained in prominence over the last decades and by now signifies a highly politicised topic. Member states clash over issues like board quotas, gender-based violence, reproductive rights and LGBTIQA+ rights. Likewise, parties hold highly conflictual positions, with radical right and populist parties but also increasingly conservative parties, challenging these EU core values and questioning the EU's so far progressive stance. Against this background, we examine the role of Commission presidents in setting the agenda, defining political priorities, and navigating institutional conflicts around gender equality. We scrutinise the time span 2004-2024, covering three Commission presidents: José Manuel Barroso (2004-2009; 2009-2014), Jean-Claude Juncker (2014-2019), and Ursula von der Leyen (2019-2024; 2024-ongoing). We explore how presidents addressed gender equality in their political agendas, how they integrated it into the Commission’s institutional structure, and which gender equality policies were pursued or adopted. By comparing developments over time, we demonstrate how the understanding of what gender equality entails, as well as the visibility of the policy field, changed significantly.