EU gender equality policy and the progressive dismantling of feminist governance?

The European Union (EU) is often considered as a model example of feminist governance. The objective of this chapter is to retrace the trajectory of the emergence and consolidation of this system of feminist governance, which has enabled the promotion of gender equality as a legitimate goal and autonomous field of competence, from the treaty of Rome up until the beginning of the 2000s. It will also review the transformations of the different elements of this system since the mid-2000s, under the influence of changes in the inter-institutional balance of power, stronger polarisation, economic restrictions, administrative reforms and absence of ideational consensus. The analysis underlines the fact that, even if some positive initiatives have recently appeared, the EU system of feminist governance is undergoing a process of dismantling and thus can be considered under threat.