Gendering womens political representation and good governance in the EU? : A feminist approach against informal norms of corruption

Soyaltin Colella, Digdem and Cin, Melis (2022) Gendering womens political representation and good governance in the EU? : A feminist approach against informal norms of corruption. In: Norms, Gender and Corruption : Understanding the Nexus. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 99-119. ISBN 9781802205824

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Abstract

The European Union (EU) is regarded as par excellence in promoting good governance principles of participation, accountability, and transparency as a part of its fight against corruption policies. Yet, corruption remains a major problem within and in the periphery of the EU. The literature highlights the gap between legal institutions and implementation as the main reason for the ongoing corruption and governance-related problems and underlines the ineffectiveness of traditional anti-corruption interventions. Yet, we argue that the anti-corruption strategies in the EU lack a definition of good governance from a feminist intuitionalist perspective and thus fail to disrupt informal norms and unequal gendered power relations that feed corrupt and ill practices. This chapter illustrates the argument by focusing on participation, particularly that of women, as the fundamental principle of good governance in the EU and brings evidence from EU's annual reports on equality between women and men, EU Gender Equality Strategy, and the statistics database of European Institute of Gender Equality.