Gender Equality, Citizenship, and the EU's Constitutional Future

• Published date: 01 March 2007
• Date: 01 March 2007
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0386.2007.00365.x
• Author: Susan Millns

Gender Equality, Citizenship, and the EU’s

Constitutional Future

Susan Millns*

Abstract: While gender equality has been a matter of some concern for EU law and policy

makers over the past half century, this concern has tended, at least historically, to focus

upon equal treatment in employment and has not yet materialised into the delivery of a

broader package of civil, political, and social rights for women. Taking the concept of EU

citizenship as a framework within which to view the promotion of gender equality, this

article assesses the debate on the constitutional future of the EU. This is with a view to

examining the possible amelioration of women’s social position through the exploitation of

opportunities that the constitutionalisation of EU law presents. Looking at women’s

citizenship through the lens of political rights to participate in the debate on the EU’s

future, together with examining substantive aspects of the Constitutional Treaty for their

gender equality content, the article suggests that a more comprehensive endeavour by all

institutional actors to engage in gender mainstreaming is needed in order to give effect to

a broader form of equality between women and men.

I Introduction

Gender equality has featured on the European Community’s agenda since its inception.

While originally focused upon equal rights and equal treatment for women and men in

employment, initial measures such as the requirement to reward equal work by men

and women with equal pay (Article 141 EC) have underpinned the further development

of gender equality as a social policy objective in its own right.1These beginnings have

since been strengthened by gender mainstreaming initiatives, which aim to evaluate the

gender implications of policy making across all EC activities (Articles 2 and 3-2 EC).2

* Sussex Law School, University of Sussex, UK. I would like to thank Fiona Beveridge, Tamara Hervey,

Annick Masselot, Francis Snyder, and the participants at the workshop on ‘The State of Gender Equality

in the EU’, University of Leeds, 21 November 2005, for their helpful comments and suggestions on this

article.

1Barnard, ‘Gender Equality in the EU: A Balance Sheet’, in P. Alston (ed) with M. Bustelo and J. Heenan

(Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 215.

2For a range of discussion of aspects of gender mainstreaming in European public policy and in the EU

institutional framework, see F. Beveridge and J. Shaw (eds), (2002) 10 Feminist Legal Studies (special

edition); Lang, ‘Framing the Beast? Transnational Women’s Networks and Gender Mainstreaming in the

European Union’, presentation at the ECPR General Conference, 8-10 September 2005, panel on ‘Gender

and Politics’; Lombardo and Meier, ‘Implementing Gender Mainstreaming in the EU: A Battle of Policy

Frames’, presentation at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Granada, 14–19 April 2005, Workshop on ‘The

Future of Gender Equality in the European Union’; Mazey, ‘Gender Mainstreaming Strategies in the EU:

European Law Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2, March 2007, pp. 218–237.

© 2007 The Author

Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

The concept of European Union (EU) citizenship, likewise, despite being of more

recent origins, has tended to resonate best within economic parameters facilitating the

possibility for economically active migrants to move and freely reside in other Member

States. Here too though, we are beginning to see a more expansive interpretation of

citizenship rights broadening into a larger European commitment to social solidarity

and social citizenship.3That said, citizenship is not a wholly unproblematic notion

when viewed from a gender perspective.4The values that underpin it, such as demo-

cracy, liberty, and equality, need to be reviewed continually in the light of the historic

and current exclusion of women from public life and their consequent inability to

benef‌it from what are ostensibly gender-neutral entitlements.

It is with this consideration in mind that this article reviews a number of aspects of

the recent constitutional developments in Europe from a gender perspective and in

terms of the citizenship claims that women in the Union might make. In so doing, it

assesses the relationship between gender equality and citizenship entitlements against

the backdrop of the signing of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (CT)

by the Heads of State or government of the 25 Member States and the 3 Candidate

Countries on 29 October 2004—a move that promised a constitutionalisation of Euro-

pean law, including the provisions on citizenship and gender equality. The purpose of

this article is, thus, to examine the implications of this constitutionalisation process and

the opportunities it has presented for the promotion of gender equality in the Union. Of

course any investigation of this terrain has now to be tempered by the sobering thought

that the CT, having been rejected in national referendums by the peoples of France and

The Netherlands5has effectively been put ‘on ice’ and its future placed in jeopardy.

That said, there is still some merit to be had in an examination of the constitutional

process and its results—not least in order to investigate why the citizens of the EU, both

men and women, were unconvinced by the endeavour and its results.

As things stand, the EU remains poised at the crossroads of profound change, if

not political crisis. Still seeking legitimacy in the eyes of the peoples of Europe, facing

the challenges of recent and prospective enlargements and buffeted by the winds of

globalisation, the Union has arrived at a period of ref‌lection to which the CT is but one

response. The ‘constitutional moment’ or opportunity for ref‌lexivity that presents itself

at this juncture is an ideal occasion to assess the implications of constitutional change

for women as citizens of the Union. It also presents an opportunity to ref‌lect upon the

important contribution women should be making to the debate on its political, insti-

tutional and legal evolution. Moreover, a gendered reading of the constitutionalisation

Delivering on an Agenda?’ (2000) 10 Feminist Legal Studies 227; Pollack and Hafner-Burton, ‘Main-

streaming Gender in the European Union’ (2000) 7/3 Journal of European Public Policy 432; Squires,

‘Evaluating Gender Mainstreaming in the Context of EU Diversity Strategies’, presentation at the ECPR

Joint Sessions of Granada, 14–19 April 2005, Workshop on ‘The Future of Gender Equality in the

European Union’.

3The EU formulation of the institution of the citizen stands in marked contrast to that suggested by

Marshall premised upon the progressive endowment of all individuals with civil, political, and social

rights: T. H. Marshall and T. Bottomore, Citizenship and Social Class (Pluto Press, 1992). The extension

of citizenship rights in the EU particularly to include a form of social citizenship is explored further below.

4Kingdom, ‘Citizenship and Democracy: Feminist Politics of Citizenship and Radical Democratic Politics’

in S. Millns and N. Whitty (eds), Feminist Perspectives on Public Law (Cavendish Publishing, 1999);

R. Lister, Citizenship: Feminist Perspectives, 2nd edn (Palgrave MacMillan, 2003).

5The Treaty was rejected in France on 29 May 2005 (against: 54.68%, turnout: 69.34%) and in The

Netherlands on 1 June 2005 (against: 63%, turnout: 61.7%) It had been due to come into effect on

1 November 2006, were it to be ratif‌ied by all the signatory States.

March 2007 Gender Equality, Citizenship, and the EU’s Constitutional Future

© 2007 The Author 219

Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.