Gender Policies in the European Union

An interdisciplinary group of European feminist scholars critically explores the European gender policies from the founding of the European Community to the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam. They offer different interpretations of the contradiction between the exceptional development of gender equality policy within Community social policy and actual gender inequality. Analysis of the EU policies on the equality of women reveals their central role in the making of the common market and the Community's modernizing action to reform employment patterns and welfare systems. From different, and at times contrasting, feminist perspectives, the contributors propose new policies to challenge the current situation and overcome the EU juridical defect in women's rights, which exacerbates the European «citizenship deficit» and «democratic deficit».

Autorentext

The Author: Mariagrazia Rossilli is a sociologist and freelance researcher. Her work on international and European Community policies on women has appeared in several journals.

Zusammenfassung
«Will women be more equal or less in the New Europe? The thought-provoking answers proposed in this multiperspective volume by leading scholars of gender policy in the European Union rest on passionately thorough research on issues as diverse as sexual harassment and old-age security, workplace parity, and electoral quotas. They should engage not just European women but all who are committed to advancing the conditions for a more egalitarian, inclusive, and meaningful practice of citizenship.» (Victoria de Grazia, Professor of History, Columbia University)

Inhalt

Contents: Louise A. Tilly: Foreword - Mariagrazia Rossilli: Introduction: The European Union's Gender Policies - Ilona Ostner: From Equal Pay to Equal Employability: Four Decades of European Gender Policies - Catherine Hoskyns: A Study of Four Action Programmes on Equal Opportunities - Eliane Vogel-Polsky: Parity Democracy - Law and Europe - Joni Lovenduski: Change in Women's Political Representation - Julia Adiba Sohrab: European Equality Legislation on Social Security - Francesca Bettio/Jill Rubery/Mark Smith: Gender, Flexibility, and New Employment Relations in the European Union - Myriam Bergamaschi: The Gender Perspective in the Policies of European Trade Unions - Jeanne Gregory: Sexual Harassment: The Impact of EU Law in the Member States - Eleonore Kofman/Rosemary Sales: The Implications of European Union Policies for Non-EU Migrant Women - Marjan Wijers: European Union Policies on Trafficking in Women.