The evolution of the gender gap in the committees of the European Parliament

The empirical and theoretical research on institutions, specifically, parliaments through a gender perspective have affirmed that they are gendered institutions (Acker, 1990; Erikson & Josefsson, 2020; Lovenduski, 2020; Mackay et al., 2010). Starring from this, the studies on the legislative organization have found the same: that the organs in the representative institutions are gendered (Acker, 1990). Parliamentary committees have been considered as the epicenter of influence within legislatures (Murray & Sénac, 2018). The evidence that they are gendered organs has interested scholar which is reflected in the increase of studies about the distribution of power through the committee assignment or allocation from a gender approach (Baekgaard & Kjær, 2012; Espírito-Santo & Sanches, 2020; Murray & Sénac, 2018; Pansardi & Vercesi, 2017; Prihatini, 2021). The committee assignment process understanding as a way of distributing power has been the principal main perspective to study the legislative organization (Gaines et al., 2019). This process is intrinsically related to the gender of the MPs when in some way the spaces of power represent the social gender roles (Krook & O’Brien, 2012). The case of the committee assignment process in the European Parliament is interesting because the spaces of power are double crossed: in one hand we have the territorial and ideological fight of the chamber and in the other hand we have the gender issues. This has been studied by Rhodes (2013) or Skalin (2010) from the 1st legislative term until the 7th. These works show the importance of the European Parliament as a case of study since is one of the most representative and parity institutions in the Union. In this paper we aim to analyse the evolution of the gender gap in the committees of the European Parliament. Traying to see the possible changes in the assignment with the new demands of the kind of representation in the European chamber. The research question is the following: How has been the evolution of the assignment committees in the European Parliament through a gender perspective? In order to answer we use the data available in the European Parliament website. The main contribution is to continue producing empirical evidence on the gendered distribution of power in a context of greater parity.