‘It’s a total no-no’: The strategic silence about gender in the European Parliament’s economic governance policies
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120978329 |
| Author | Anna Elomäki |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512120978329
International Political Science Review
2023, Vol. 44(3) 403 –417
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512120978329
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‘It’s a total no-no’: The strategic
silence about gender in the
European Parliament’s
economic governance policies
Anna Elomäki
Tampere University, Finland
Abstract
The European Union’s (EU) economic governance is pivotal for gender equality in the EU, yet gender
equality concerns have been sidelined in governance processes. This article analyzes the struggles involved
in integrating a gender perspective into the EU’s economic governance in the European Parliament (EP). It
explores how the EP, often perceived as a champion of gender equality, constructs gender in relation to
economic governance and how conflicts between the EP’s political groups and committees influence the
EP’s ability to challenge gendered inequalities related to the governance regime. This article reveals that the
EP’s positions have been characterized by strategic silence about gender and understandings of gender equality
as a productive factor that legitimized gendered policies. Party-political conflicts and compromises that have
sidelined critical views, and a boundary between social and economic issues and actors, were key barriers
for the integration of critical gender perspectives.
Keywords
EU economic governance, European Parliament, gender, European Semester
Introduction
International economic governance has long been criticized for its lack of democratic accountability as
well as its unequal and gendered effects. Similar claims can also be levelled at the European Union’s
(EU’s) economic governance, which was strengthened in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–
2008 and the ensuing Eurozone crisis. This article analyzes the struggles involved in integrating a gender
perspective into the EU’s economic governance in the European Parliament (EP). The article explores
how the EP constructs gender in relation to economic governance and how political conflicts within the
EP influence its possibilities to challenge gendered inequalities related to the governance regime.
Amongst other things, the EU’s recent economic governance regime has been criticized for
constitutionalizing austerity through new and more strictly enforced fiscal rules (Bruff, 2014), for
Corresponding author:
Anna Elomäki, Gender Studies, Tampere University, FI-33014 Tampere University, Finland.
Email: anna.elomaki@tuni.fi
978329IPS0010.1177/0192512120978329International Political Science ReviewElomäki
research-article2021
Original Research Article
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