Europeanising gender mainstreaming: constraints and opportunities in the muetieevee euro-poeity

Feminist Legal Studies

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 241-256

  Lebert, Ulrike ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BREMEN   (Germany)

Author keywords

Comparative europeanisation; Equal treatment and equal opportunity directives; European governance; Gender mainstreaming; Germany; Multilevel polity

Indexed keywords

EID: 0347041304     PISSN: 09663622     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1021275812426     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. Following Tesoka, the structures of opportunity and incentives in the field of gender equality include "state models", "patterns of governance", "access to decision-making", the "position of the judicial branch", "sub-national autonomy", and "configuration of alliances" (Tesoka, 1999, p. 6).
2. "Speed of transposition" refers to whether the E.U. law was translated into national law within the time limit specified by each directive, or whether it was late. "Extent of transposition" is assessed by the degree to which the original directive is translated adequately into national law, without omissions prompting the Court of Justice to conduct infringement procedures against member governments.
3. The terms 'gender order' or 'gender regime' draw on Ostner and Lewis' (1995, p. 161) reference to the "norms, principles, and policies informing the allocation of tasks, rights, and life chances" to individuals of different sex or sexual orientation. Although the 'needle's eye' thesis helps to explain the good Swedish and the relatively deficient German performance, it does not explain the cases of France and Spain: Spanish compliance is much better, and French compliance worse than one would have expected.
4. Gender equity' is defined as an equitable treatment of individuals of different genders, it includes equal treatment as much as differential treatment, as long as this is considered as of equal value, regarding rights, entitlements, obligations and chances (European Commission 1998, p. 32).
5. Different European publics were asked whether equality between men and women was considered to be a value that strengthened democracy, that made personal development easier and that improved human relationships (Eurobarometer, 44, p. 3).
6. Mainstreaming was included in the Treaty of Amsterdam as a result of the accession to the EU in 1995 of member states with advanced levels of gender equality, most prominently Sweden.
7. The implementation of mainstreaming in Germany began at the Federal level in 1999, after the SPD-Bündnis 90/Grüne-coaliton had taken office; it reached East German Länder first, and subsequently has developed also roots in many of the "old", West German Länder.
8. First évaluation reports, see Meseke and Armstroff, 2001.
9. In social policy, the E.C./E.U. has relied most extensively on directives and soft law as the major policy instruments. Between 1971 and 1995, Cram calculated a total of 182 soft law provisions, 41 directives and 2 regulations (Cram, 1997, pp. 101-102.)