Despite the fact that equality between men and women is one of the most widely developed areas of European social policy and there is growing body of literature on gender and the EU (Kantola, 2010; Abels & Mushaben, 2012), mainstream accounts remain blind to the gendered nature of the integration process. This paper explores how EU studies has engaged with gender approaches. The paper will review key disciplinary concerns, as presented by mainstream approaches, in order to highlight “blind spots” in the way these issues have been approached and understood. The paper will draw on Youngs’ (2004) and Zalewski & Pappard’s (1998) work on gendering International Relations to develop a analytical framework for highlighting power structures and hierarchies within the discipline and the way we have come to understand the EU. The focus of this analysis is on uncovering strategic silences that keep gender approaches on the margins. The ghettoization of feminist scholarship in EU studies has resulted in a distorted vision of European integration as process and its associated institutions. Presenting gender/equality as a niche subject within the broader field of European studies, ultimately serves to crystallise the division between high and low politics at the heart of EU institutional politics. Finally, this paper asks if gender blindness in the discipline is a reflection of the failures of mainstreaming as a policy strategy within the EU.
