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Abstract: In this special issue of the European Integration online Papers (EIoP), we reconsider the practicability of gender mainstreaming in the European Union (EU) and its traction in the European integration project more broadly. We follow the feminist institutionalist turn which seeks to bring contemporary feminist insights and new institutionalism's various schools of thought to bear on one another. Out of this synergy comes the recognition of gender as an inherent feature of institutions and the opening up of new avenues to interrogate the dynamics of power and change. Collectively, we argue that the EU is a battleground where gender equality concerns must struggle against a masculine stronghold. We question whether there are better means to bring about gender mainstreaming's transformative triumph.
Keywords: comparative public policy; gender policy; governance; institutions; neo-institutionalism; non-discrimination; political science.
Introduction
And then, in his painful torment, I saw Sisyphus striving with both hands to raise a massive rock. He'd brace his arms and feet, then strain to push it uphill to the top. But just as he was going to get that stone across the crest, its overpowering weight would make it change direction. The cruel rock would roll back down again onto the plain. Then he'd strain once more to push it up the slope. His limbs dripped sweat, and dust rose from his head. - from The Odyssey (Book 11)1
Sisyphus' story has long captured not only the imagination of poets such as Homer and Ovid but also philosophers like Lucretius and artists such as Tiziano Vercelli (known as 'Titian'). In this tragic tale, Sisyphus' maddening fate involves a futile laboring. His punishment, exacted by the gods, entails enduring a ceaseless and eternal struggle. In preparing this special issue of European Integration online Papers (EIoP), Sisyphus' story repeatedly came to mind in our efforts - as feminist scholars and activists - to make sense of the interminable struggle to gender European Union (EU) policy, particularly via gender mainstreaming. Like Sisyphus, we were buoyed by the apparent successes that we, and others, found in a variety of cases. And yet, we also noticed that these successes have not cumulated to a gender equitable polity. We began to feel like Sisyphus, doomed to push a massive rock uphill to...