Gender mainstreaming in economic governance: governing women’s productive and reproductive labor in the European Union

This article provides new insights into how gender mainstreaming interacts with the techniques and tools of international and regional economic governance. The case study is the key economic governance tool of the European Union (EU), a process of policy coordination and surveillance called the European Semester. Through a Foucault-inspired analysis of governmentality, the article asks how the relationship between the European Semester and gender mainstreaming as two distinct yet intertwining technologies of government has changed over time, and what role gender takes in the government of European economies and populations. The article is based on analysis of document data from the period 2011–2024, complemented with interviews with EU and national civil servants. The article suggests that gender mainstreaming has been crucial for the EU’s government of member states’ economies and populations, helping to problematize and visibilize women’s productive and reproductive behavior and subject it to mixed policy interventions that combine improving public provisioning with neoliberal policies. Gender mainstreaming has broadened the scope of the European Semester to encompass more issues, though mainly in relation to lower-level governance tools focused on knowledge production and without using gender to critically assess the economy and economic policies.