This paper uses feminist theory to bring a critical perspective on gender as a power order found at the core of European integration and EU institutions. It takes a starting point in European integration as institution building and engages critically with historical and sociological institutional theory to advance a feminist institutional framework of analysis. The theoretical argument of the article is that institution building normalizes certain gender orders. Through path-dependency, masculine norms are reproduced even as ’new’ institutions emerge and develop in relation to new policy fields. Even invisible or hidden norms, such as masculinity, heterosexuality, homosociality become embedded to confirm the current gender order, unless challenged. The article exemplifies this through an analysis of the institutionalization of two ’new’ areas of EU policy: the Common Security and Defense Policy and the Climate Policy. The ambition is to illustrate how European integration organize gender norms and gender power, way beyond what has been previously dominating EU gender studies namely gender policy analysis. Many EU gender scholars have pointed to the meager results of EU’s gender mainstreaming policy. This article suggests that the failure of gender mainstreaming cannot be understood without a broader feminist critical analysis that contributes with knowledge about institutional practices that support masculine power.
