SGEU Online Seminar Series
The Standing Group on European Union is thrilled to present the second edition of its Online Seminar Series to support its mission of fostering collaboration among political scientists interested in the study of the European Union.
This exciting initiative comprises monthly talks showcasing cutting-edge research on pressing matters related to the European Union, delivered by group members and special guests, followed by a moderated discussion.
Convened and chaired by Professor Jonathan Zeitlin (University of Amsterdam) and Professor Nathalie Brack (Université libre de Bruxelles), the seminar takes place online each third Thursday of the month from October through April and allows researchers to present their work and get feedback from a discussant and a multidisciplinary audience.
Next Seminar: Contagion, Socialisation, or Kinship? Quotas and Gendered Career Differences in Transnational European Party Families
Thursday 20 April, 15:00 – 16:30 GMT / 16:00 – 17:30 CET
Abstract: Do gender equality norms spread within party families via the use of gender quotas? We investigate this question by examining gender equality in the candidate selection and leadership allocation practices within the European Parliament (EP) over time, asking whether and how political parties learn from one another in the presence of gender quotas. We focus on this through the lens of the European Parliament’s (EP) political groups (EPGs), where national parties have the unique opportunity to collaborate in transnational party blocs. We frame this discussion using three different theoretical perspectives – contagion, socialisation, and kinship – which are themselves familiar to the literature on both elections and politics and gender. Using novel quantitative data on MEP careers and EPG electoral and membership lists from 1979-2021, we assess the impact of quota regimes on gendered patterns of career advancement within the EP. We complement our findings with qualitative interview and archival data to explore how career data can be used to trace the spread of gender equality among legislators and legislative groups. Given the supranational nature of EP political contestation (e.g., the current discussion over transnational lists is 2024), our findings have particular ramifications for the promotion of gender equality in the European national political systems.
Speakers:
William Daniel, University of Nottingham
Will Daniel is Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham, where he serves as the Deputy Director for the REPRESENT Research Centre for the Study of Parties and Democracy. Will’s research is focussed on how the individual backgrounds and identities of politicians and political elites inform their behaviours, particularly in European legislatures and political parties. More broadly, he is interested in how the process of European integration has changed national political systems in Europe. He is currently leading a project on French legislative candidates and their behaviour of social media that is funded by the Digital Society Project. Will’s monograph, Career Behaviour and the European Parliament: All Roads Lead through Brussels?, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Additional research has appeared in JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, European Union Politics, Party Politics, Journal of European Integration, The Journal of European Public Policy, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Research & Politics, and Politics & Gender.
Andrea Aldrich, Yale University
Andrea Aldrich is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Her research examines the representation of women, exploring the conditions that encourage women’s political leadership and the consequences of women in power within political parties and legislative institutions. The cornerstone of her research is the multifaceted role political party institutions play in shaping representation focusing on how the internal organization of parties promote women to positions of political power and how party structures interact with system-level political institutions. She is an expert on party politics in both Western and Eastern Europe and the European Union. Her research has been published in Party Politics and Politics & Gender, among others. Before arriving at Yale, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Houston with the Political Parties Database, a visiting scholar at Texas A&M University, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, and a former co-chair of the Parties Research Network for the Council for European Studies.
Discussant
Arjen Boin, Leiden University.
Arjen Boin is Professor of Public Institutions and Governance at the Institute of Political
Science, Leiden University. Before he moved to Leiden, he was a professor of public
governance and crisis management at the Utrecht School of Governance and associate
professor at the Public Administration Institute, Louisiana State University.
Arjen Boin has published widely on topics of crisis and disaster management, leadership,
institutional design and organizational issues. His most recent books include Guardians of
Public Value, Understanding the Creeping Crisis and Governing the Pandemic (all three were published in 2021 by Palgrave and can be downloaded for free).
How to join
The event is open to anyone interested in research addressing major issues in the EU, completely FREE!
Registration is required but you’ll only need to register once for the entire series. You’ll need a MyECPR account to register.
