Gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament: State of play

Article 8 TFEU commits the European Union 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 Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, achieving gender equality in the European Union is a joint responsibility, requiring action by all EU institutions, Member States and EU agencies, in partnership with civil society and women’s organisations, social partners and the private sector. Since 2003, when Parliament formally launched gender mainstreaming activities within the institution, Parliament’s FEMM Committee has regularly prepared monitoring reports on the state of gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament. 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 EP, notably 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 of gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament in support of the forthcoming own-initiative report on ‘Gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament’ to be drawn up by the FEMM committee. 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 the European Parliament’s efforts into context.