A Union of Equality? An Examination of Gender Equality Policies during the Von der Leyen Commission

The dissertation of Alba Kugelmeier López M.A. (OvGU) will be article based, meaning that according to the Otto-von-Guericke-University’s regulation for dissertations at least three articles will be published.

- Von der Leyen’s EU Gender Policy: A New Dawn or have we Reached a Ceiling?

The first article starts from the observation that the often acclaimed "new dawn" the von der Leyen Commission introduced has actually not been a major shift. Despite a strong verbal commitment to equality policies by the von der Leyen Commission in 2019, a closer analysis reveals that the new ‘Union of Equality: Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025’ has not been met by major policy initiatives. Unlike previous Commissions, the von der Leyen Commission does not take up innovations in feminist theory. In particular: "intersectionality", is not reflected in the policies and limited to declarations. This paper follows up on existing literature that highlights the linkages between theoretical innovations and the conceptual level of EU gender policies. Using a normative approach against the EC gender equality policies, the paper examines the instruments used during the first three years of the von der Leyen Commission. The findings reveal that the policy instruments show a mismatch between the new dawn narrative and policy output.