Sexual Equality in an Integrated Europe

What role does “Europe” have in defining, maintaining, constructing, or remedying sex discrimination?  This question guides an investigation into the origins, institutions, and policies associated with the European Union and its recent efforts to stem violence against women, sex trafficking, racism and heterosexism. 
Exploring the politics of the EU and the integration process through a lens of social (in)equality, Sexual Equality in an Integrated Europe keeps us current while offering an innovative means of addressing state sovereignty, transnational power, intergovernmental prowess, transparency, and social change. 

R. Amy Elman writes on politics and social inequality in contemporary Europe.  She is editor of Sexual Politics and the European Union (1996) and author of Sexual Subordination and State Intervention: Comparing Sweden and the United States (1996).  She is also a Professor of Political Science at Kalamazoo College, Michigan.

“What is special about this account of European integration and gender is that is gives equal weight to what used to be called ‘body politics’ as to the better known areas of employment rights and reconciliation of work and family. This means that it examines in detail the impact of European level policy and attitudes in areas such as violence against women, trafficking, gay rights, and the institutional treatment of marriage and personal relationships. This begins to give a more rounded picture.”

–Catherine Hoskyns, Professor Emerita in European Studies, Coventry University, United Kingdom

 

“Elman offers a much-needed critical appraisal of the EU’s gender equality initiatives. With a sharp eye for the gap between rhetoric and reality, she exposes how the language and politics of integration increase expectations for equality but actually allow both the Member States and the transnational polity to avoid responsibility for implementation. By putting the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality in the center of her analysis, Elman reveals how women of color, lesbians, and immigrants fall through the cracks of ‘gender’ policy-making in Europe, a failure that has implications for all women who place their hopes for equality in the modernization of gender regimes that the EU exemplifies.”
–Myra Max Ferree, Martindale Bascom Professor of Sociology and Director, Center for German and European Studies, University of Wisconsin