Book Description

Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union commits the European Union (EU) and its Member States to eliminating inequalities and promoting the principle of equality between women and men in all their actions. As set out in the EU's gender equality strategy 2020-2025, achieving gender equality in the EU is a joint responsibility requiring action by all EU institutions, Member States and agencies, in partnership with civil society and women's organisations, social partners and the private sector. Since 2003, when gender mainstreaming activities within the European Parliament were formally launched, its Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) has regularly prepared monitoring reports on the state of gender mainstreaming in the institution. The subsequent resolutions, adopted in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2016 and 2019 respectively, are part of a whole series of activities implemented over the past two decades to support and intensify gender mainstreaming in the Parliament, the most recent being the adoption of a new gender action plan and a roadmap for its implementation, in July 2020 and April 2021 respectively. This study examines the current state of play regarding gender mainstreaming in the Parliament, in support of a forthcoming own-initiative report by the FEMM committee on the same topic. It gives an insight into the concept of gender mainstreaming and possible tools to implement it, provides an overview of Parliament's current gender mainstreaming policy (with particular focus on the new gender action plan and related roadmap) and analyses gender mainstreaming practices in other EU institutions, national parliaments and international institutions to date, in order to put Parliament's efforts into a wider context.