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European Parliament's (EP) party groups are crucial to democratic representation in the EU. Much of the academic research about party groups has been gender‐blind. This article draws on qualitative methods to undertake a gender analysis of EP party groups. The article analyses the gendered experiences of women MEPs from two Nordic countries, Denmark and Finland, and draws on interview data with 18 women MEPs from these two member states to explore their perceptions of gender equality in the political groups. The findings illustrate that party groups exhibit some shared and some diversified gendered norms as well as concrete practices for advancing the position of women, including informal women's networks. We draw attention to the shortcomings in m/paternity leave rights in the EP and the lack of political will within the party groups to tackle this, which is further cementing exclusionary practices of the institution.

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Inclusiveness of different social groups and responsiveness to the needs of increasingly diverse societies are key criteria for policy analysts to assess the quality of public policies. We argue that an intersectional approach attentive to the interaction of gender with other inequalities is particularly apt to deal with equality and diversity in policymaking. By analysing a selection of European Union policy documents on gender-based violence in the period 2000–2014, we attend to the question of what intersectionality can bring to policymaking in terms of strengthening inclusiveness and address the methodological question of applying an intersectional approach to policy analysis.