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Introduction: EU Gender Equality Policy-Making

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Actors, Institutions, and the Making of EU Gender Equality Programs

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Abstract

In this chapter, Ahrens presents her actor-centred sociological approach to studying EU gender equality policy-making by introducing policy programmes as a common supranational measure of soft law. Ahrens offers a critical reading of Giddens’ structuration theory and its application to EU gender equality policy and analyses the milestones in the history of the EU gender equality policy in terms of its actors, (legislative) scope and content. Ahrens claims that how gender equality policy is produced can only be investigated by analysing the participating actors, their (in)formal relationships and institutionalised policy processes that ultimately determine the final content of gender equality within the context of the EU system.

I miss the times when women’s issues, gender issues were a priority.

(Interview with NGO representative)

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    Petra Ahrens

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Ahrens, P. (2018). Introduction: EU Gender Equality Policy-Making. In: Actors, Institutions, and the Making of EU Gender Equality Programs . Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57060-4_1

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