"Keep Calm and Carry on": Agenda Setting and the Work of Femm

While recommendations from the Committee on Women’s Rights & Gender Equality (FEMM) are “non-binding,” its members nonetheless bring substantial gender-expertise to bear in other EP committees where they serve. Another key to FEMM’s influence has been members’ strong issue-consensus, likely to be disrupted by delegates from Austria’s FPÖ, Germany’s Family Party and the AfD, Slovenian Conservative Democrats, France’s Front National, the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS), and Hungary’s Fidesz and Jobbik, all anti-EU and opposed to redefining gender roles. Despite controlling a majority of votes, equality advocates will face significant stone-walling. This  paper examines the extent to which the EP might continue to  pursue its unfinished "equality" agenda, including the advancement of quotas for corporate leadership posts, the expansion of maternity protections, and mitigating the women-unfriendly impact of austerity programmes.