IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/eeupol/v26y2025i1p23-44.html

Still struggling to reach the top? Women officeholders and gendered career pathways in the European commission

Author

Listed:
  • Pierre Alayrac

    (Alcide de Gasperi Research Centre, 10185European University Institute, Fiesole, Toscana, Italy)

  • Sara Connolly

    (School of Business, 4488University of Leicester, Leicester, UK)

  • Miriam Hartlapp

    (Department of Political and Social Sciences, 9166Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany)

  • Hussein Kassim

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, 2707University of Warwick, Coventry, UK)

Abstract

This article assesses whether women face the same challenges in the European Commission as men by examining the career paths to top political and administrative positions. Drawing on a unique dataset, it investigates whether and, if so, how and when, women are disadvantaged. First, we analyze the characteristics and experience of all Commissioners and Directors General (2004–2019) to delineate the career paths to the top positions in the organization. Secondly, we compare pathways to find that men outnumber women in all pathways. For Commissioners women are very significantly under-represented in one of three pathways and for Directors General in two of three pathways. We identify how women are disadvantaged and the extent to which the results support arguments in the comparativist literature on gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Pierre Alayrac & Sara Connolly & Miriam Hartlapp & Hussein Kassim, 2025. "Still struggling to reach the top? Women officeholders and gendered career pathways in the European commission," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 23-44, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:26:y:2025:i:1:p:23-44
    DOI: 10.1177/14651165241300650
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165241300650
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/14651165241300650?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeremy Dodeigne & Silvia Erzeel & François Randour, 2025. "Putting the European Parliament's gender exceptionalism to the test: MEPs’ specialisation in masculine and feminine policy domains in parliamentary questions," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 115-144, March.
    2. Thomas Däubler & Maarja Lühiste & Mihail Chiru, 2025. "Do public attitudes on gender equality affect candidate selection in proportional representation systems? Evidence from European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 45-65, March.
    3. Elena Frech, 2025. "Gendered EUropean careers? Representation and the challenges in women's political careers," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 3-22, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elena Frech, 2025. "Gendered EUropean careers? Representation and the challenges in women's political careers," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 3-22, March.
    2. Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, 2025. "What is special about women in EU institutions?," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 185-202, March.
    3. Elena Frech, 2025. "Gendered exits: The role of parliamentarians, parties and voters in women's departure from the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 145-166, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, 2025. "What is special about women in EU institutions?," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 185-202, March.
    2. Silje Synnøve Lyder Hermansen, 2025. "Lingering bias: The effects of legislated gender quotas on representation quality in the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 66-95, March.
    3. Elena Frech, 2025. "Gendered EUropean careers? Representation and the challenges in women's political careers," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 3-22, March.
    4. Anna-Lena Högenauer, 2025. "Can the European Parliament be a stepping stone into national politics? The gendered career paths of Maltese and Luxembourgish members of the European Parliament," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 96-114, March.
    5. Thomas Däubler & Maarja Lühiste & Mihail Chiru, 2025. "Do public attitudes on gender equality affect candidate selection in proportional representation systems? Evidence from European Parliament elections," European Union Politics, , vol. 26(1), pages 45-65, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:eeupol:v:26:y:2025:i:1:p:23-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.