Great Expectations, Structural Limitations: Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission's New Equality Agenda

Abels, Gabriele; Mushaben, Joyce Marie

doi:10.1111/jcms.13102

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…However, many interviewees mentioned how the appointment of the first female leader for the Commission and the new female PM also boosted the visibility of gender issues. 39 Gender equality was high on the agenda of the new Commission (Abels and Mushaben, 2020). A clear difference from the side-lining of gender equality during Sipilä’s government was recognized with the new government.…”

Section: Success Of the Value-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The internal perspective was also more prominent than the external one in the debates on sustainability. 43 According to civil society actors, Finland did not use its full potential in the negotiations over reforming the financial architecture for development or in trade policies. In external meetings where Finland represented the EU, its efforts were still highly praised.…”

Section: Success Of the Value-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In defence of common values: The Finnish EU Council Presidency 2019

Tuominen¹

2022

Cooperation and Conflict

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Finland promoted a value-based agenda as the President of the European Union (EU) Council in 2019. The focus was especially on the defence of the rule of law principle. A role as a strong value promoter departs from the pragmatic and cautious tradition of Finnish EU policy. In this article, I will ask why Finland chose to promote values, and what kind of political debate preceded its Presidency term. Second, I will look at the actual promotion of the common values during the Presidency. Third, I will provide some evaluations of the success of Finland’s value-based approach. The analysis draws from comprehensive documentary sources related to Finnish EU policy and her Presidency term, and from 33 semi-structured research interviews among the key Finnish politicians, civil servants and civil society organization representatives in 2020. The article shows that values were thoroughly debated before the term and their relevance increased as the Presidency approached. Finland also succeeded in promoting several values, especially by linking them to practical questions. The article argues that evaluating the success of Finland’s approach is more contentious, which may be tackled several ways.

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Section: Success Of the Value-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Success Of the Value-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

In defence of common values: The Finnish EU Council Presidency 2019

Tuominen¹

2022

Cooperation and Conflict

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“…As a former physicist, Merkel not only cleared a path for women to pursue STEM/MINT (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics/Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften, Technik) careers but also served as a role model for others willing and able to assume powerful posts as party chairs, heads of state governments and defence ministers. Her ministerial protégé, von der Leyen, became the first woman President of the European Commission in 2019 (Abels and Mushaben, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Politics of Small Steps: Angela Merkel's Transformative Impact on Germany and the European Union

Mushaben

2022

J of Common Market Studies

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“…The von der Leyen Commission delivered on its promises of a restored "Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025", but the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic and global health crisis saw the practice of crisis management and recovery centralized in the agenda of yet another Commission. This surge of gender equality rhetoric and commitments at the EU-level under the von der Leyen Commission, after a decade of crisis, recovery, and austerity, marks a potential avenue for investigation, as feminist scholarship (Villa and Smith 2013;Ahrens et al 2018;Kantola and Lombardo 2017a;Jacquot 2015Jacquot , 2017Karamessini and Rubery 2014;Cavaghan 2017b;Abels and Mushaben 2020;MacRae, Guerrina, and Masselot 2021) must now also address the resurgence of the representation of gender equality as a "core value" in the revived Strategy implemented by the new Commission (European Commission 2020b,1).…”

Section: List Of Tablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Women's Charter (2010d) aimed to reassert the commitments made to the BPfA and the pursuit of equality between women and men is directed towards the economy, including encouraging sustainable growth, increasing competitiveness, and promoting work-life balance the pursuit of social cohesion. The previous efforts mentioned in the Women's Charter are linked to successes in increasing the number of women in the labour force and higher education along with maximizing the skills and talents that "Europe" has within it (European Commission (Abels and Mushaben 2020). The use of gender expertise…”

Section: Gender Equality As a "Right"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Equality Mythologized? Depoliticization, Discourse, and Policymaking in a Post-Crisis European Union

Humniski¹

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With the 2008 financial crisis, the European Union (EU) was launched into what has become over a decade of ongoing crises that has included the subsequent emergence of the refugee crisis, Brexit, and the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst austerity policies, reform efforts, and shifting political landscapes. Under these conditions of "polycrisis" the basis of the European project has been called into question, as recovery and reform efforts have dictated political priorities and constrained institutional capacity for fourteen years. The challenges that crises have posed to the EU's legitimacy draws attention to the foundational mythologies that hold the polity together and establish the uniquely "European" values and identities that undergird European integration. Gender equality has been continuously represented among these "European values" fuelled by the EU's longstanding commitments, however the scaling back of social provisions under the guise of crisis management prompted challenges to the EU's reputation as a gender equality leader. The election of the first woman Commission president in 2019 provided some optimism for gender actors and this dissertation interrogates the EU's presentation of its own gender equality project from 2009-2022 by investigating the "myth" of "gender equality" in the EU. "Mythologies," represent the norms and stories of the polity and are constitutive dimensions of politics, which is demonstrated in this study through the analysis of EUlevel discourse. This dissertation focuses on the intra-discursive functions that "myths" serve in EU politics and policymaking, drawing attention to the disconnect between active and celebratory commitments. By employing different qualitative methods and engaging in discourse analysis, this project investigates the mobilization of "foundational myths" in both overarching EU programmes and targeted gender policies. It then analyzes the effects of mythologizing on the politicization (or depoliticization) of gender equality. This dissertation argues that to legitimate its supranational polity in "polycrisis," the EU discursively mobilizes mythic commitments to "European values" in place of substantive efforts. It finds that the repeated representation of gender equality in the "common sense" of "European values" obscures and naturalizes its secondary status as a political priority and, as such, currently renders gender equality "mythologized" in the EU.

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Great Expectations, Structural Limitations: Ursula von der Leyen and the Commission's New Equality Agenda

Cited by 15 publications

References 23 publications

In defence of common values: The Finnish EU Council Presidency 2019

In defence of common values: The Finnish EU Council Presidency 2019

The Politics of Small Steps: Angela Merkel's Transformative Impact on Germany and the European Union

Gender Equality Mythologized? Depoliticization, Discourse, and Policymaking in a Post-Crisis European Union

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