A crucial, but very little explored topic in EU politics concerns internal policy coordination and the domestic level mechanisms for policy preparation on EU issues in member states. This arena can be argued to be of major importance for gendering EU policy-making in general, since it is there that the agenda and demands of the member states are formulated. This study targets the grassroots level of Finnish EU policy coordination, that is, the ministerial EU-divisions in charge of preparation of all EU related issues. In principle, these bodies are supposed to work hand in hand with NGOs; they are subject to Finnish strong gender quota regulations (second order quotas relating to appointed multi-member bodies); and,they as state authorities, are expected to implement gender mainstreaming in alltheir all activity. Based on a quantitative analysis of members of these bodies and a series qualitative interviews conducted with members of three ministerial EU-divisions he paper discusses the actual state of women’s descriptive and substantive representation at this stage of EU policy-making in one of the most ‘egalitarian’ member states.
