Gender (In)equalities in the Knowledge Society

Abstract

The article seeks answers to the question why progress towards gender equality has not turned out to be an inevitable part of the transition towards the knowledge society in Europe, in spite of efforts to ensure such an outcome. In this analysis I demonstrate how the market processes involved in the transition to the knowledge society entail opposing tendencies regarding gender inequalities. The European Union (EU) has brought into play a certain degree of convergence pressure by integrating relevant objectives of the Lisbon Strategy into the European Employment Strategy (EES) in order to pressure member states to develop its model of the knowledge society, which involves economic, employment and social progress. The main concern here is to identify the extent to which the EES and, in particular, the gender mainstreaming strategy is a tool to challenge the market forces underlying gender inequalities. It is argued that the EU's policy processes take as a given, and indeed promote the predominance of market forces in the construction of the knowledge society. Hence, the EU does not have a clear vision of what perpetuates gender inequalities and therefore what needs to be done to change them.