Consulting Publics in European Union Gender Policies

Organizing Echo Chambers or Facilitating Critical Norm Engagement?

Book Chapter appearing in Rethinking Gender Equality in Global Governance

  • Author:
  • Sabine Lang
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Date: April, 2019
Rethinking Gender Equality in Global Governance

This chapter analyzes the productivity of gender norms in European Union public consultations. With the public consultation process, the European Commission (EUC) wants to increase its democratic legitimacy by way of increasing public outreach beyond experts and professional civil society actors. At the same time, public consultations provide particular topical emphases and frames to the public for discussion. Analysing responses to the 2015 Public Consultation on Equality Between Women and Men in the European Union as well as their uptake by the EUC, we can assess the degree to which the online public consultation advances EUC goals, encourages listening of its institutions and produces critical norm engagement by EU citizens.