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Enlarging the Club: When do Candidate States Enforce Gender Equality laws?

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Comparative European Politics Aims and scope

Abstract

This paper develops a model for explaining levels of government compliance with EU accession requirements on gender equality in the workplace in four post-communist enlargement countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland. Government compliance is understood as a complex two-stage process that consists of legislative and institutional reforms. I argue that government compliance with international requirements is determined by the domestic political system and depends on the configuration of political actors mobilized in support of and in opposition to new policies. In countries where gender equality reforms are not politically and socially contested (Lithuania and the Czech Republic), government compliance depends on the degree of mobilization of women, whether in women's movements or among women parliamentarians. In countries, where counter-movements are strong (Poland and Hungary), the success of government reforms are explained by the mobilization capacities of women's movements and their ability to form coalitions with political actors within government elites, most importantly governing parties. In Poland and Hungary, the effect of women's movements on the implementation of policies on gender equality in the workplace is moderated by the ideology of political parties in power.

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  1. Department of Political Science, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, 60626, Illinois, USA

    Olga Avdeyeva

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  1. Olga Avdeyeva
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Correspondence to Olga Avdeyeva.

Appendix

Appendix

EU Directives on Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities of Women and Men Recommended for Transposition and Implementation for EU Accession Countries

Council Directive 75/117/EEC of 10 February 1975 on the principle of equal pay for work of equal value.

Council Directive 76/207/EEC on equal treatment for women and men as regards to access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions.

Council Directive 92/85/EC on maternity protection.

Council Directive 97/80/EC on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex.

Council Directive 96/34/EC on the framework agreement on parental leave.

Council Directive 97/81/EC of 15 December 1997 on non-discrimination against part-time workers.

Council Directive 96/97/EC on equal treatment of men and women in the field of social security – statutory social security schemes.

Council Directive 86/613/EEC on equal treatment of men and women in the field of social security – occupational social security schemes.

Council Directive 96/613/EC on the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including agriculture, in a self-employed capacity and on the protection of self-employed women during pregnancy and motherhood.

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Avdeyeva, O. Enlarging the Club: When do Candidate States Enforce Gender Equality laws?. Comp Eur Polit 7, 158–177 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2008.34

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