Are Times of Europeanisation Times of the Gender Experts? The window of opportunity in the EU accession process in Croatia

Abstract

The EU has established dominant models regarding social matters, one of which is gender equality. In the phase prior to the accession of a given country to the EU, adapting the current dominant model of a political field often constitutes a matter of fulfilling the conditions for actually becoming a member state. Hence, the pre-accession period is a high point regarding a country’s transformation in matters of policies and polities as well as dominant models, discourses and standards, and can be a time of substantial change in belief systems. Gender equality makes up for a notably contested field of social politics, as it is often aimed at changing traditions and orders of social life traditionally perceived as personal choices and private convictions. This paper is concerned with one aspect of the interplay of these pre-accession features, namely, the possibility of agency for domestic gender experts pushing for changes in the gender equality order of Croatia. In search of such agency, expert interviews have been conducted with political gender actors and members of feminist organisations in the Croatian civil society. These interviews provide an insight into the experiences of experts on the Europeanisation of Croatian gender equality standards and show some aspects of their specific role in the realisation of the relevant provisions.