Politics, Gender Equality and the European Union
(2026) Elgar Encyclopedia on Gender and Politics — ISBN: [9781035322602], 391-396, accepted/in-press
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- Abstract
- In the European elections of 1994, the proportion of women Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) went from 19% in the 1989-94 legislature to 27%. A leap jump created in particular by the new concept of parity democracy and the Europe-wide campaign “vote for women” which linked gender balance to the democratic legitimacy of the European Parliament (EP). Gender balance in politics entered the EU gender equality agenda in the early nineties when it became clear that equal pay would not be reached without addressing the unequal status of women in society, including their low representation in decision-making. In a context where the scope EU competencies in this area and the use of quotas were being challenged, the concept of parity democracy upheld the conception of a gender equal transformative political participation to revitalise democracy. Three decades later, the EU is praised to be the most gender equal continent where the proportion of women in European politics is approaching parity. How transformative this change has really been? In the first part, we will assess the current state of play in all the EU institutions. In the second part, we will recall how the concept of parity democracy emerged on the European agenda. In the third part, we consider how the equality rhetoric translated (fully or partly) into equality promotion. As discontent of the electorates and anti-gender movements are manifest all over Europe, the question of the sustainability of the progress achieved so far is being challenged, as we will see in the fourth part.
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Hubert, A., & Jacquot, S. (2026). Politics, Gender Equality and the European Union. In Collectif (ed.), Elgar Encyclopedia on Gender and Politics (pp. 391-396). Edward Elgar. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/267883