The Discursive Politics of Gendered Violence and Bodily Rights in the European Parliament

The European Parliament (EP) is traditionally described in the academic literature as a champion of gender equality (Locher 2012). Because Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are directly elected, the EP is also considered the most democratic body of the European Union (EU). In this context, it is important to analyse how gender equality, as a precondition for democracy (Lombardo and Kantola 2019), is handled in the EP as a supranational policy field and as an internal objective for its own practices. This dissertation seeks to do so by analysing one aspect of gender equality policy in the EP, namely issues of gendered violence and bodily rights.

Previously understood as a unified and progressive actor, the EP is now characterised in the literature by tensions and contradictions within and among its political groups (Kantola, Elomaki and Ahrens 2022). Contributing to these debates, this dissertation analyses the discursive politics of gendered violence and bodily rights and its impact on the EP as a supranational policymaker for gender equality. Adopting a discursive approach to politics in the EP means analysing the discursive practices of the political groups surrounding issues of gendered violence and bodily rights, as well as the institutional discursive context and practices in which they are embedded. By analysing the discursive practices on issues of gendered violence and bodily rights, in contrast with the EP’s internal practices regarding the same issues, this dissertation scrutinises the mismatch between the two. It argues that the role of the EP as a democratic and legitimate supranational policymaker for gender equality is undermined when internal gendered inequalities persist.

The research objectives are, first, to analyse the discursive politics at stake when political groups debate gendered violence and bodily rights, both as supranational policy fields and internal practices. This includes, first, analysing the discursive practices of the political groups around those issues and, second, contrasting those discursive practices with the EP institutional practices. Finally, one objective is to assess the impact of the discursive politics of gendered violence and bodily rights on the EP as a supranational policymaker for gender equality. Notably,the analysis questions the EP’s legitimacy as a supranational policymaker for gender equality to the extent that its own practices reproduce gendered inequalities.

These objectives underpin the following research questions: first, how are the issues of gendered violence and bodily rights discursively constructed in the EP by the political groups, both as supranational policy fields and vis-a-vis the EP’s own internal practices? Second, what impact do these constructions have on the EP as a progressive supranational policymaker for gender equality?

The dissertation argues that the pursuit of gender equality at the supranational level is undermined when the institution in charge of delivering such policies, i.e., the European Parliament, is itself reproducing internal unequal gender practices. This dissertation is an article-based dissertation comprised of four articles published in academic peer-reviewed journals, including one co-authored piece. It is part of the research project “Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of the European Parliament’s party groups” (EUGenDem), which analysed the gendered policies and practices of the EP’s political groups during the 8th and 9th legislative terms (i.e., 2014–2019 and 2019–2014), this dissertation studies the discursive politics of gendered violence and bodily rights in the EP, which includes analysing the political groups’ discursive practices surrounding these issues and the EP’s institutional practices in this regard. Discursive practices include strategies of support and opposition to gendered violence and bodily rights, while the EP’s institutional practices include opportunities to implement institutional reforms for gender equal practice or resistance. The articles produced for this dissertation are complementary. They include the sub-issues of the EU’s ratification to the Istanbul Convention, the right to abortion in the EU, and sexual harassment within the European Parliament.

This dissertation seeks to contribute to debates in the gender and politics literature on backlashes against gender equality in the European Union by focusing on the case of the European Parliament as a supranational policymaker. Here, the European Parliament is regarded as a site of gendered policy formation, including the contestation to gender equality; a site of gendered violence, such as sexual harassment, and a site of resistance, including internal mobilization.

For this dissertation, the research material is comprised of interview data and documentary research. The interview material builds on the EUGenDem project’s database of 135 interviews with MEPs and other parliamentary actors from all groups, respecting a gender balance. Methodologically, this dissertation employs qualitative interpretative methods of analysis based on the understanding that discourses are, from a Foucauldian perspective, powerful and meaning-constitutive.