Gendering the European Parliament

Structures, Policies, and Practices

Edited by Petra Ahrens and Lise Rolandsen Agustín

Gendering the European Parliament: Structures, Policies and Practices provides a multifaceted innovative analysis of the EP by studying it comprehensively from a gender perspective addressing changes and continuities. It asks how and why the EP, as an institution, is gendered and what the gendered impacts of recent changes are when it comes to the structures, policies and practices of the EP. This collection brings together scholars from a variety of different disciplines (sociology, political sciences, law, management studies and cultural studies) as well as theoretical and methodological backgrounds who are united by their ability to provide the puzzle pieces necessary to fully comprehend the EP from a gender perspective.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / ECPR Press

Pages: 264 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78552-308-3 • Hardback • December 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-5381-5686-5 • Paperback • June 2021 • $40.00 • (£31.00)

978-1-78552-309-0 • eBook • December 2019 • $38.00 • (£29.00)

Subjects: Political Science / World / European, Social Science / General, Political Science / Policy Analysis

Gendering the European Parliament

Structures, Policies, and Practices

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Gendering the European Parliament: Structures, Policies and Practices provides a multifaceted innovative analysis of the EP by studying it comprehensively from a gender perspective addressing changes and continuities. It asks how and why the EP, as an institution, is gendered and what the gendered impacts of recent changes are when it comes to the structures, policies and practices of the EP. This collection brings together scholars from a variety of different disciplines (sociology, political sciences, law, management studies and cultural studies) as well as theoretical and methodological backgrounds who are united by their ability to provide the puzzle pieces necessary to fully comprehend the EP from a gender perspective.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / ECPR Press

Pages: 264 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78552-308-3 • Hardback • December 2019 • $105.00 • (£81.00)

978-1-5381-5686-5 • Paperback • June 2021 • $40.00 • (£31.00)

978-1-78552-309-0 • eBook • December 2019 • $38.00 • (£29.00)

Subjects: Political Science / World / European, Social Science / General, Political Science / Policy Analysis

Author

Petra Ahrens is Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland.

Lise Rolandsen Agustín is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and Society at Aalborg University, Denmark.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations

List of Boxes

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction: Gendering the European Parliament: Introducing Structures, Policies, and Practices (Petra Ahrens and Lise Rolandsen Agustín)

Part I: Function and History - Gender Equality and the European Parliament

The Powers of the European Parliament: Implications for Gender Equality Policy (Gabriele Abels)

The European Parliament as a Constant Promoter of Gender Equality: Another European Myth? (Anna van der Vleuten)

Staging Power: Constructing Gender in the Debates of the European Parliament, 1999-2014 (Julia Marie Zimmermann)

Part II: Strategies and Outreach beyond Parliamentary Affairs

Undermining Critical Mass: The Impact of Trialogues and Treaty Reforms on Gender-Sensitive Decision-Making in the European Parliament (Joyce Marie Mushaben)

Working against the Tide? Institutionalizing Gender Mainstreaming in the European Parliament (Petra Ahrens)

Gendering the EU Budget: Can European Parliament Play the Role of a Gender Budgeting Advocate? (Firat Cengiz)

Part III: The Role of MEPs in Steering Gender Equality

‘Feminist to Its Fingertips’? Gendered Divisions of Labour and the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (Mary Nugent)

Politicisation of Gender Equality in the European Parliament: Cohesion and Inter-Group Coalitions in Plenary and Committees (Markus Warasin, Johanna Kantola, Lise Rolandsen Agustín and Ciara Coughlan)

The European Parliament and Irish Female MEPs: Female Political Agency for Gender Equality (Pauline Cullen)

Overcoming Male Dominance? The Representation of Women in the European Parliament Delegations of the Post-Communist EU Member States (Cristina Chiva)

*Gender*Power*? On the Multiple Relations between Gender and Power in the European Parliament (Petra Meier, Petra Ahrens and Lise Rolandsen Agustín)

Reviews

This important collection addresses key issues about both new and continuing actions of the European Parliament, covering policy areas for which the EU has responsibilities and commitments to democracy and diversity as well as gender equality. The book presents cutting-edge research, drawing on the analysis of an up-and-coming young cohort of experts as well as established scholars. A must read.
— Jane Jenson, Full Professor, Department of Political Science, Université de Montréal, Canada

This timely and important book allows scholars to understand the genderedness of the European Parliament (EP) at a crucial moment for democracy, when the EP has strengthened its powers simultaneously with the growth of populist, right-leaning parties. The brilliant analysis of actors’ dynamics, institutionalization, and discursive contestation presents the European Parliament as a multifaceted arena of democratic power struggles in which feminist empowerment co-exists with opposition to gender equality.
— Emanuela Lombardo, Senior Lecturer in Political Science, Madrid Complutense University, Spain

This is a timely collection that not only demonstrates the agency of the European parliament in shaping European norms and practices, but also provides an important feminist dimension to the study of a key institution of European integration This book is a ‘must read’ for those interested in parliamentary agency, EU integration and gender equality promotion and institutionalisation within the European institutions.
— Toni Haastrup, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of Stirling, UK