Gendering Civil Society Perspectives on the EU

In the feminist discourse, assumptions about the democratic prospects and participatory potential of a developing European civil society are linked to questions of power and governing mechanisms in civil society.  The paper outlines the development of an integrative theoretical approach. It identifies gaps and deficits of “civil society” as a key concept in the empirical and academic reality of European integration from a gender perspective. Criticizing the power-blindness of the term civil society, feminist discourse poses the question of the gendered impacts of European integration. The paper builds on Michel Foucault‘s concept of governmentality and Antonio Gramsci’s broad understanding of civil society. The key argument is that the question about the potential of civil society can only be answered, if one assumes a society-centered approach. Such approach focuses on women’s potential for action, and it includes those social areas in which gender relations are formed as power and dominance relations.