Shifting Strands: Socio-Economic Austerity, Institutional Relocation and Gender Equality Organisations in the EU Anti-Discrimination Regime

EU gender  equality advocates have faced a dramatically changed landscape over the last few years, due to a harsher economic climate, austerity measures and institutional shifts at the European Union level.   The focus on antidiscrimination law and  ameliorating other strands of inequality, e.g., the Race Equality Directive, seem to have outpaced efforts to secure gender equality in terms of the material scope of protections.  Under Barosso, the institutional interlocuters for gender initiatives and social movements were moved from their old home in the field of employment to a new home within in the framework of “justice,” while expertise has been physically transferred  to the European Institute for Gender Equality in Lithuania. This paper examines how women’s rights organizations have responded to the reconfiguration of the gender equality policy field, taking into account developments in the European Parliament and the European Commission since the 2014 elections. It concentrates on the interpretations put forward by the European Women’s Lobby, coupled with findings from interviews with other gender equality organizations. We argue that the introduction of new actors and institutions has narrowed older, more established opportunities to engage on gender equality.  While the altered political opportunity structure represents a challenge to equality advocates such as the EWL, the evidence also suggests that feminist NGOs and gender experts are responding creatively to the environment, deploying a variety of instruments within a number of venues to address international relations, migrant women’s rights, disabled women and violence against women.