Work/family reconciliation, equal opportunities and social policies: the interpretation of policy trajectories at the EU level and the meaning of gender equality

Abstract

There have been major changes in the approach to policy-making in the fields of work/family reconciliation, equal opportunities and social policies at the EU level at the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s. These fields have been historically closely connected, with a commitment to promoting gender equality marking all of them. However, interpretations of these shifts have been contested for each policy area. This article compares recent policy trajectories in the three fields in terms of ‘framing’ and ‘fit’. It concludes that while no unequivocally linear policy development can be identified in any of the fields, when they are taken together, it is possible to argue that gender equality has been framed more narrowly and more instrumentally than before. The slipperiness of policy meanings and the way in which this may serve to reshape policy priorities is something that has significance for policy development that goes beyond the sphere of gender equality.