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This volume is the first comprehensive analysis of women's ascendance to leadership positions in the European Union as well as their performance in such positions. It provides a new theoretical and analytical framework capturing both positional and behavioural leadership and the specific hurdles that women encounter on their path to and when exercising leadership. The volume encompasses a detailed set of single and comparative case studies, analyzing women's representation and performance in the core EU institutions and their individual pathways to and exercise of power in top-level functions, as well as comparative analyses regarding the position and behaviour of women in relation to men. Based on these individual studies, the volume draws overarching conclusions about women's leadership in the EU. Regarding positional leadership, women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions, they more often hold less prestigious portfolios in such positions, and manifold structural hurdles hamper their access to power. Furthermore, huge variations exist across EU institutions, with the intergovernmental bodies being the hardest to access. Regarding behavioural leadership, women acting in powerful EU positions generally perform excellently. They successfully exercise a combined leadership style that integrates attributes of leadership considered to be 'masculine' and 'feminine'. This is not to argue that women per se are the better leaders. Yet more often than men they are exposed to stronger selection processes and their prevalent practice of a combined leadership style tends to best meet the requirements of modern democratic systems and particularly those of the highly fragmented EU.
A propos de l'auteur
Henriette Müller is Visiting Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies at New York University Abu Dhabi. Her research encompasses the comparative study of leadership and executive politics both at the national and international level and across regime types and diverse cultural regions. At NYUAD, Müller teaches and conducts comparative research on women and leadership, emphasizing the European Union and the Arab Gulf region. Her publications include Political Leadership and the European Commission Presidency (OUP, 2020) and her research has appeared in Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, the Journal of European Integration, and West European Politics.
Ingeborg Tömmel is Professor Emeritus in International and European Politics and Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Osnabrück. She is holder of the Diefenbaker-Award 2005/06 of the Canadian Council. Her research focuses on the political system of the EU, European governance and policymaking, implementation of EU policies in the member states, the European neighborhood policy towards the Mediterranean, and political leadership in the EU. Her publications include Political Leadership in the European Union (with Amy Verdun, Taylor and Francis, 2019) and she has published in numerous scholarly journals such as the Journal of Common Market Studies, the Journal of European Integration, and West European Politics.
Résumé
This volume is the first comprehensive analysis of women's ascendance to leadership positions in the European Union as well as their performance in such positions.
Texte suppl.
The publication of Women and Leadership in the European Union, edited by two outstanding scholars of European integration, Henriette Müller and Ingeborg Tömmel, is very welcome. The gender dimension of European integration and particularly women's leadership contribution is largely part of the hidden history of the EU. No longer. This comprehensive volume fills a gap in the literature.
Commentaire
Women and Leadership in the European Union is the first systematic account of women's access to leadership, their performance and impact on EU governance. Henriette Müller and Ingeborg Tömmel's first-rate cast has produced a uniquely insightful, empirically rich, interdisciplinary collection that will stand the test of time. Timely too, now that, finally, the EU glass ceiling has begun to crack Liesbet Hooghe, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute
