Gender Equality in European Union Development Policy in Times of Crisis
| Author | Gill Allwood |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929919863224 |
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919863224
Political Studies Review
2020, Vol. 18(3) 329 –345
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929919863224
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Gender Equality in European
Union Development Policy in
Times of Crisis
Gill Allwood
Abstract
Gender equality is firmly established on the European Union development policy agenda. However,
a series of interrelated crises, including migration, security and climate change, are becoming
more prominent in European Union development policy. This article asks whether development
objectives have been subsumed under these crisis-driven European Union priorities, whether
this is compatible with efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment through
development cooperation and whether it will affect the ability to keep gender equality high on
the European Union’s development policy agenda. The theoretical framework draws on horizontal
policy coordination and nexuses. The analysis of European Union development policy documents
shows how migration, security and climate change are constructed as crises, how they intersect
in various nexuses and how gender intersects with each of these nexuses. This research finds that
gender equality is absent from the migration–security–climate nexuses, which are increasingly driving
development policy priorities. The article argues that it is quite straightforward to keep gender
equality on the development policy agenda, but it is difficult to retain a focus on gender equality when
multiple policy areas intersect. The research suggests that the discourse of crisis has blocked the
way, and this will have an impact on the European Union’s internal and external activities.
Keywords
gender mainstreaming, European Union development policy, horizontal policy coordination
Accepted: 20 June 2019
Gender equality is firmly on the European Union (EU) development policy agenda and
has been so for more than two decades. Development policymakers were among the first
and most enthusiastic advocates of gender mainstreaming, and since 2010, efforts have
been made to translate into practice the well-established rhetorical commitment to gender
equality in EU development cooperation. This has taken place in an evolving context, in
which a series of interrelated crises have become more prominent in EU development
policy. These crises include migration and climate change. The threat of these external
Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK
Corresponding author:
Gill Allwood, Nottingham Trent University, 50 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK.
Email: gill.allwood@ntu.ac.uk
863224PSW0010.1177/1478929919863224Political Studies ReviewAllwood
research-article2019
Special Issue Article
330Political Studies Review 18(3)
crises is used to justify prioritising expenditure in particular focus areas, including
addressing the root causes of migration. So development aid is diverted to refugee sup-
port, to border control and to other controversial security-orientated costs. Have develop-
ment objectives been subsumed under these crisis-driven EU priorities? Is this compatible
with efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment through development
cooperation? And will it affect the ability to keep gender equality high on the EU’s devel-
opment policy agenda?
The analytical framework through which the impact of the discourse of crisis is under-
stood is built on three levels. First, how are migration and climate change constructed as
crises in development policy? Second, how do they intersect in various nexuses, such as
development–migration and development–climate change–migration? Third, how does
gender intersect with each of these nexuses? The research combines a content analysis of
key gender and development policy documents and 11 semi-structured interviews with
gender and development policy actors and civil society advocates in Brussels. It finds that
gender equality is absent from the migration–security–climate nexuses, which are driving
development policy priorities. I argue that it is quite straightforward to keep gender equal-
ity on the development policy agenda, although admittedly it is more difficult to make it
a priority and to implement it (Debusscher, 2013). The real problem, however, is how to
retain a focus on gender equality when multiple policy areas intersect. This research sug-
gests that the discourse of crisis has blocked the way, and this will have an impact on the
EU’s internal and external activities. It also suggests that development objectives are
being subsumed under the goals of migration and security policy. Since development
policy had the strongest gender profile, this means that the presence of gender equality in
EU external action is fading (see Welfens, this issue). The article is structured in the fol-
lowing way. First, it outlines the theoretical framework which informs the analysis.
Second, it gives an overview of the relation between gender equality and EU develop-
ment policy. Third, it describes the methodology. Finally, it presents the findings of the
analysis and the conclusions.
Crisis and Securitisation
The analysis of gender equality in EU development policy is informed by the scholarly
literature on crisis, which contributes to our understanding of whether and how issues
remain on the policy agenda in times of crisis, and what factors influence prioritisation.
Scholars argue that crises are socially constructed through narrative and discourse (De
Rycker and Don, 2013: 11; Hay, 2013: 23; Manners and Rosamond, 2018: 28), and that
the way in which they are constructed determines how we respond to them (Hay, 2013:
23). The discourse of crisis has an impact on the policy agenda and on decision-making.
For example, Falkner’s (2016: 961) study of crisis-induced pressures in nine EU policy
areas found that other issues were pushed down the agenda, with the ‘urgent crowd[ing]
out the important’. Policy actors’ narrative constructions of crisis ‘may foreground par-
ticular political claims over others’ (Manners and Rosamond, 2018: 28), and actions that
were once considered exceptional can be normalised in times of crisis (Otto, 2011: 7;
Warner and Boas, 2017: 204).
The way in which an issue is framed has an impact on how it is treated, including the
venue where it will be discussed and the instruments used to address it. Powerful actors
(whether individuals or institutions) are better able to impose their frames than less pow-
erful ones:
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