The transformation of the legal framework and their impact: The principle of equal treatment of men and women has been enshrined in the EC Treaties since the establishment of the European Economic Community in 1957. It has been implemented in a number of fields by EU legislation over the past 30 years, and developed in extensive case law by the European Court of Justice. The Commission monitors the application of this legislation and, where appropriate, proposes new legislation. The aim of the project is to illuminate how the legal framework (primary Directive on the principle of equal treatment between women and men in the access to and supply of goods and services) correspond with the everyday life of women and men; how daily practices will be evolving throughout the adoption of EU legislation and how the national cultural concept of religion, economy, policy affect the adoption of national regulation and wellbeing of people.

The contribution of intersectionality to the sustainability of gender, women as carriers of socio-economical progress: This work will be based on an analysis of the extent and nature of disadvantage across the major social differentiations within European society, which have been or are about to be incorporated into equal opportunities and diversity legislation: gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religious belief and age. Underpinning its arguments will be the acknowledgement that these differentiations do not create homogeneous groups and therefore where appropriate and relevant the intersections of experienced disadvantage and discrimination will be explored. Intersectionality as a feminist theory will be used is a springboard for the gender social justice agenda. It starts from the premise that people live multiple, layered identities derived from social relations, history and the operation of structures of power. The main theoretical thrust of this work will be to look at the problem of intersectionality as it arises in new structures, legislation, policies and processes at national, regional and European levels. The overall aim of the work is to clarify and develop the concepts of equal opportunities and diversity as they have changed to incorporate not just gender equality, but the six strands of equality which include ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, disability and religious belief. The development of such intersectionality in legislation, policy and practice needs to be analysed and understood in order to facilitate genuine social change.

The role of international actors (transnational movements and international organisations): The national states implement gender equality policy if they feel the need to comply with the norm of gender equality as set by EU. The inter- and trans-national networks do exercise pressure on the national level of implementation. There is a paradox we need to acknowledge here that the legal implementation is happening on the national level but as a result of the pressure from national and inter-transnational actors. We will analyse feminist internationalism and global feminisms in practice and theory.
Women’s lobbies at the EU level appear not to be networking and cooperating. After mapping the European scène on Equal Opportunities in ATHENA2, which was a more technocratic description of what is happening on the national level and what we think should happen we should line up the international and transnational allies and look at possibilities of knowledge transfer and networking at least at the EU level.

From Rhetoric to Practice: Investigating the gaps between design and implementation in gender equality policies. Most of the EU countries have improved the rhetoric on gender equality following the UN and EU huge range of guidelines and recommendations. In addition, design of gender equality policies became ambitious and promising by almost all state mechanisms for gender equality. However, when we examine the implementation and assess results, we realise that they lag behind our expectations that were created when at the design phase of public policies for gender equality. Where exactly is situated the problem in the policy cycle? Do politicians intentionally promise more than they can deliver? Do technocrats deliver less than they have to? Do women have mystified the possibilities of public policies to have a real impact on gender equality? Answers depend on countries and policy contexts, on the role of collectivities and individuals. The Athena working group 3A will investigate the ways that gaps between design and implementation are created and aim at understanding better what policy mechanisms as well as theoretical assumptions should be integrated in the process in order to reduce the gap.

III: Media, Libraries and Documentation Centre’s

Gender in public and media discourse: threats and opportunities: In the debate about the evaluation of Equal Opportunities Policies, we feel that it is important to take into account the role of the mass media. In particular: do the media take up issues that are connected to the national machinery for equal opportunities? What items are on the mass media agenda? Are these complex kinds of items or are only the easy questions tackled in the media? The assumption is that there is very little attention given to gender equality in the mass media (except in Sweden), and that this silence is a way of keeping gender equality uninteresting and off the agenda. The objective of this exercise is: gathering information about the impression the respondents have about mass media coverage of Equal Opportunities in their country – in this stage we will thus not consider how these issues are discussed in the media and how they could be perceived. We would like to know which topics concerning equal opportunities do appear in the news broadcastings (television, radio and newspapers) of the countries represented in our working group