Round-Table “50/50, No More Excuses”: Brainstorming for Equality After Lisbon

Feminist  scholars characterize the European Parliament as one of the world’s  most “gender-friendly” legislative bodies, but as Margot Wallstrom  observed in 2008,  the EU still reflects “the reign of old men.”  The  EU’s top jobs still depend on an “inner circle of male decision-makers [who] agree behind closed doors on whom to nominate – Angela Merkel notwithstanding. The  EU has embraced a wide array of conceptual frameworks,  primary and secondary  laws,  court verdicts,  action programs, and networking strategies since  1979, but women are still a long  way  from attaining real equality regarding segregated labor markets, pay, promotion and pensions, the gendered  division of household labor, and the “balanced participation”  of the sexes in decision-making.  What “pieces” are still missing from this intractable “implementation” puzzle? 

 The European Parliament  has urged the new Commission to  renew the EU Gender Equality Strategy for 2015-2020,  but its provisions may not remedy three of the biggest  underlying problems:  the under-representation of women in key decision-making organs, the lack of  political will among national leaders and  the lack of sanctions “with  teeth” to compel implementation across all EU bodies.

This round-table will pull together  “long march veterans” and younger scholars who are tired of waiting for  50/50, and interested in working out new “pressure points,” action strategies and  agenda  items  -- despite the  somewhat troubling outcomes of the 2014 EP elections. The longer term goal will be to draw up a number of concrete policy recommendations  as well as to find new  ways to leverage gender  equality network within the context of multi-level governance.