Petra Ahrens, Ph.D.
petra.ahrens@tuni.fi
Senior Researcher
Tampere University
I am currently Senior Research Fellow in the research project "Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament’s party groups" (EUGenDem).
From 2018 to 2019, I was Guest Professor at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Antwerp for Comparative Politics and for Gender and Diversity. I received my PhD in Sociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2014. In my research I focus on gender policies and politics in the European Union and its institutions, transnational civil society organisations, participatory democracy, social politics, political strategies like gender mainstreaming, and on gender equality policy in Germany. From 2017 to 2018, I held a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Fellowship titled „Effects of Institutional Change on Participatory Democracy and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations” (DemocInChange) at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Antwerp. From 2014 to 2016, I was assistant professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin at the Department of Social Sciences. I have also worked as free-lance policy consultant for public administration on gender equality and gender mainstreaming since 2006. My most important publications include the monograph Actors, Institutions, and the Making of EU Gender Equality Programs (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), Gender Equality in Politics – Implementing Party Quotas in Germany and Austria (Springer International, forthcoming 2019, co-authors Katja Chmilewski, Sabine Lang, and Birgit Sauer), and the co-edited volume Gendering the European Parliament: Structures, Policies, and Practices (Rowman&Littlefield, forthcoming 2019, with Lise Rolandsen Agustín). Other publications include ‘The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in the EP – Taking Advantage of Institutional Power Play’ (Parliamentary Affairs, 2016), the Special Issue ‘20 Years Treaty of Amsterdam – European Equality Policies Revisited’ (Femina Politica, 2016, with Alexandra Scheele and Anna van der Vleuten), and ‘Birth, life and death of policy instruments: 35 years of EU gender equality policy programs’ (West European Politics, 2019, 42(1): 45-66). I am co-editor of the new European Journal of Politics and Gender and the German feminist journal Femina Politica.
Research Interests
European Politics
Gender and Politics
Comparative Political Institutions
Political Participation
Political Parties and Interest Groups
European Union
Civil Society Organisations
German Politics
European Parliament
Gender Mainstreaming
Gender Quotas
Social Policy
Gender Equality
Countries of Interest
Germany
My Research:
Senior Research Fellow in the research project "Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament’s party groups" (EUGenDem). In my research I focus on gender policies and politics in the European Union and its institutions, transnational civil society organisations, participatory democracy, social politics, political strategies like gender mainstreaming, and on gender equality policy in Germany. 2017 to 2018: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Fellowship „Effects of Institutional Change on Participatory Democracy and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations” (DemocInChange), the Department of Political Sciences, University of Antwerp.
Policy instruments research is an essential part of studying European Union governance. A growing interest in processes of (de-)legalisation and patterns of instrument choice requires a more process- and context-oriented analysis of the EU’s instrument selection. Using a political sociology approach, the article analyses patterns of instrument choice in soft law policy programmes, by examining the life cycle of EU gender equality policy programmes from 1982 to the present day. Gender equality policy programmes offer an in-depth understanding of how the Commission upgrades and downgrades policy instruments. The analysis indicates that patterns of policy instrument choice are not necessarily inflexible once a policy instrument is selected. Instead, patterns vary while the instrument is (de-)legalised. Investigating gender equality policy programmes provides explanations for the shifts in the use of legislative instruments and their limitations.
100 years ago German women received the right to vote (and to stand as candidates); thereby, they acquired, at least on paper, full political citizenship. Suffrage was the result of a long fight. Yet, until today de facto political equality is still not achieved. Neither at national nor at regional level are more than 30 per cent of parliamentarians females. This contribution discusses the implications for substantial and symbolic representation
The European Social Fund (ESF) is the European Union’s policy addressed at reducing social inequalities, and mentions promoting gender equality as a horizontal goal. Despite the vanguard role of the ESF in this area, and with gender mainstreaming already specified as a strategy since the early nineties, we lack details about how such supranational rules were effectively transferred into national contexts. This article employs feminist-institutionalist theory for examining top-down Europeanization in the ESF funding period 2007–2013 in Germany using the case of gender equality and by focusing on potential institutional change and the role of actors. The article analyses (1) rules about gender, (2) rules with gendered effects, (3) gendered actors working with rules, and (4) gendered outcomes.
The European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM Committee) is a core actor within the European Union's gender equality policy machinery. Its capacity to act, though, is shaped by the institutional setting within the European Parliament (EP). Using a qualitative approach, this article shows how this particular committee exploits parliamentary rules and routines to maximise its influence. Existing scholarship has suggested that the voluntary nature of its membership implies a weak position within the EP. However, there is evidence to support a contrary interpretation that its voluntary membership assures institutional persistence, thematic inclusion, organisational attention and networked integration.
This book is an actor-centred sociological study of the EU-level processes that produce gender equality policy. Based on interviews and documentary analysis, the study unpacks the process of the “Roadmap for Equality between Women and Men 2006-2010” to explain the different roles of actors in the making of EU gender equality policies. By analysing policy processes inside institutions and among institutions, the study focuses on the internal working logics in and between EU-level institutions. It highlights the shifting spaces, openings, and constraints for the development of gender equality policies. Concentrating on EU policy programmes helps shed light on the invisible aspects of EU gender equality policy-making and how this process changed regarding actors, structure and content in the late 2000s. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of EU politics, gender politics, and public policy, as well as to institutional and non-governmental actors in the area of gender politics in Europe and the working of EU politics.
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