Comparing Feminist Policy in Politics and at Work in France and Germany: Shared European Union Setting, Divergent National Contexts

Abstract

This essay introduces the seven articles in the symposium. Placing this special issue within the purview of the new field of Feminist Comparative Policy, the analysis shows how the symposium contributes to comparative theories of feminist policy formation in Western postindustrial democracies. It then defines the three subareas of feminist policy covered in the rest of the volume-political representation, equal employment, and reconciliation-explains why the German and French cases were selected for comparative analysis, discusses the importance of the ongoing process of Europeanization for feminist policy in the two countries, and finishes with a presentation of the outline for the seven articles.

Gendered Political Opportunities? Elite Alliances, Electoral Cleavages, and Activity Choice Among Women's Groups in the UK, France, and Germany

“…Nonetheless, research also shows that social democratic parties can become important allies for women's groups (Young, 2000;Banaszak et al, 2003;Franceschet, 2004;Waylen, 2007;Ortbals, 2008;Viterna & Fallon, 2008), though leftist governance does not guarantee feminist policymaking (Stetson, 2000;Mazur, 2003aMazur, , 2003bFranceschet, 2004). Women and politics literature tells us very little about other POS though scholars have shown that authoritarian regimes and international institutions facilitate, respectively, movement emergence when other political channels are blocked (Noonan, 1995;Franceschet, 2004) and pressure for domestic change from above (Pollack & Hafner-Burton, 2000;Joachim, 2003).…”

Pay equity through collective bargaining: when voluntary state feminism meets selective business practice

“…2 Since then, the gender pay gap has remained relatively stable, even though women caught-up to men in education and increased their share of the labor force (Meurs and Ponthieux 2006). In this context of persisting disparities and with EU pressure for more authoritative equal employment policy (Mazur and Zwingel 2003), the issue of pay inequalities received renewed attention on the French political scene in the beginning of the twenty-first century with adoption of an Equal Pay Law in 2006. However, the law was limited by the same symbolic imperative and it was not until the adoption of new policies in 2010 and 2012 that the weaknesses of equal pay policy were addressed.…”