The Europeanization of Gender Equality Policies : A Discursive-Sociological Approach

EU member states and candidate countries are increasingly exposed to the domestic impact of EU regulations, policy instruments, and discourses in the fields of gender equality and antidiscrimination. This impact not only affects national or subnational legislations and equality machineries, but also the framing and the wording of these policies, providing domestic actors with new resources and opportunity structures. This book explores the divergent policy outputs in the member states as regards the making of gender and other equalities, bringing together the most recent insights from Europeanization and gender scholars from a discursive-sociological perspective. Using largely unpublished empirical data, the book addresses policy issues ranging from gender violence to reconciliation and antidiscrimination policies, through case studies and comparisons covering up to 29 European countries. The result is a book that provides us with a more realistic and complex picture of Europeanization processes.

EMANUELA LOMBARDO Ramon y Cajal Researcher at the Faculty of Political Science of Complutense University, Madrid, Spain, and Researcher in the European QUING project. Her research interests concern gender equality policies, particularly in the European Union and Spain. She is co-editor, with Petra Meier and Mieke Verloo, of The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality. Stretching, Bending, and Policymaking (2009). MAXIME FOREST QUING Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. His main research interests include the Europeanization of gender policies at the national and sub-national levels, policy transfers and women's representation. He has published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals and chapters in edited volumes.