Resilient Women and the ‘She-Cession’: Gender Equality Discourse in the EU

This article discusses gender mainstreaming – the institutionalization of a gender equality dimension in policy-making – in recent EU policy discourse, focusing on Ursula von der Leyen’s first mandate as President of the European Commission (2019-2024) and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on women and labour. The pandemic-induced recession, which has been termed the ‘she-cession’ due to the widening gender gap in the paid workforce, put women in a “disproportionately” vulnerable position, also in terms of access to the economy. In this context, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) – the overarching EU funding mechanism and the specific plans developed by each member state to use RRF funds effectively – have represented a unique opportunity to channel extraordinary resources towards redressive measures identifying women as the main beneficiaries, fighting economic abuse and promoting equal treatment. Building on Ursula von der Leyen’s pledge to make gender equality a key priority in her agenda, the article presents a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of a collection of interrelated EU political, institutional and legal documents that address gender equality and gender-sensitive recovery measures. The aim is to offer a critical discursive perspective on how the EU is struggling to effectively incorporate gender mainstreaming to improve the rights that are central to its democratic functioning.