Everyday Activities of the European Parliament’s Political Groupings: Gendered Dynamics and Practices

The political groupings are key actors to promote and embody gender equality since they coordinate the practical organization of political programmes in the European Parliament, whose powers are increasing. The everyday of political groupings is constituted by five broad activities. As well as inter-group and intra-group relations (Kantola and Miller) this paper introduces three further dimensions that the political groupings are nested within. These are: (3) relationships with the parliament; (4) relationships with the Euro-parties, and (5) inter-institutional relations. The paper explores the work that gender does within these activities and poses some broader questions, through the lens of gender and democracy, in which to make sense of the everyday life of the groupings, and the effectiveness of gender representation.