EU Neo-Corporatism and Gender Equality Policy: Disappearing Partnership?

Abstract

In this chapter, I focus on the role of social partners in the governance of gender equality policy at the EU level, putting forward three main sequences. Firstly, until the late 1980s, relationships between gender equality policy actors and EU social partners were characterised by collective mistrust and individual support. Secondly, starting from the 1990s, the relationship is marked by constraint: social partners play a central role in the construction of EU legislation on gender equality at work and don’t want to be considered as ‘any other partners’. Thirdly, since the 2010s, social partners, like most other gender equality actors, have lost a significant part of their direct influence: the relationship can then be characterised as impeded. EU social partners, contrary to what has been the case until now, should be given a more important analytical role in the literature on EU gender and politics.KeywordsCollective identity framesEuropean gender equality policyEuropean social dialogueEuropean social partnersVelvet triangle