Gender equality is one of the fundamental values of the European Union (EU). The EU possesses the ambition as well as the legal obligation to promote equal rights beyond its borders. Hence, it is of most importance that the EU construct gender equality policies that foster positive change, certainly due to the EU’s normative ability to influence other actors. This paper is concerned with how problems of gender inequality is constructed by the European Commission and moreover which foreign policy approach that is proposed to combat inequality. While focusing on contexts where gender is present, this study applies feminist theoretical approaches to critically examine statements given by the European Commission. The ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ approach allows the study to identify problem representations, underlying assumptions and effects. It is determined that elements from both liberal and radical feminism is evident in the European Commission’s problem representations and that the male/female dichotomy which the problematisations are based on might prevent equality between men and women. Mostly due to its focus on the differences between genders. The findings also show that the European Commission suggest to combat inequality using a multidimensional problem-solving approach where actions are executed at individual, national, international and supranational levels simultaneously. Additionally, much emphasis is put on solving issues at grass-root levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-21489 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Larsson, Linn |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för kultur och samhälle (KS), Malmö universitet/Kultur och samhälle |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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