EU Gender mainstreaming in Tunisia as process to perpetuate the status quo and invisibilise gender problems

Drawing on the insights of gender mainstreaming and European Union studies. This article examines the gender mainstreaming in 40 action documents (implementing documents) covering 10 years of EU aid development to Tunisia in different sectors such as infrastructure, health, justice, and environment. Through a critical frame analysis, the data reveals that the EU has evolved in the consideration of gender, from an integration of women as mothers and caregivers to the integration of women as deficient employers in the labour market. Subsequently, the data shows how author’s gender stereotypes are transmitted in the action documents. Ultimately, the ambivalent and arbitrary (lack of procedures) gender mainstreaming process results on incoherence producing the conservation of the patriarchal status quo. In all, the article shows that even though the gender mainstreaming can be a transformative tool, the ambivalent and arbitrary EU gender mainstreaming processes and implementation produces an invisibility of transformative actions and therefore could perpetuate the gender unequal status quo.