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Opportunity and Setback? Gender Equality, Crisis and Change in the EU

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Gender and the Economic Crisis in Europe

Part of the book series: Gender and Politics ((GAP))

Abstract

In this chapter, we assume a feminist historical institutionalist approach to consider whether the confrontation between the EU's gender equality project and the (global) economic and financial crisis set off in 2008 has effected a major change in the path of the EU's gender equality project. We focus in on the interplay of the social(gender inequality) with the economic (market) to show how economic instability has worked to slow or even stall the EU's gender equality project throughout its history. We further highlight enduring mechanisms in the EU—specifically a neoliberal logic of action and a stronghold of male power—that have long circumscribed the project's path. Against this backdrop, we suggest that the implications of the recent crisis for the EU's gender equality project are less extraordinary than one might assume..

Funding for this research was provided, in part, by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Insight Grants Program). The views expressed in this chapter are those of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West, 712 Leacock Building, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 2T7

    Elaine Weiner

  2. Department of Political Science, York University, S672 Ross Building, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M3J 1P3

    Heather MacRae

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  1. Elaine Weiner
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  2. Heather MacRae
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland

    Johanna Kantola

  2. Department of Political Science and Administration 2 Faculty of Political Science and Sociology, Madrid Complutense University, Spain

    Emanuela Lombardo

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Weiner, E., MacRae, H. (2017). Opportunity and Setback? Gender Equality, Crisis and Change in the EU. In: Kantola, J., Lombardo, E. (eds) Gender and the Economic Crisis in Europe. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50778-1_4

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