Poland's Labour Market Policy and Politics of Gender and the Accession to the European Union: Domestic Impediments to Europeanisation

Abstract

The PhD thesis applies gender analysis to labour market policy development in Poland before and after accession to the European Union (EU) asking whether domestic conditions facilitate or hinder the impact of EU on gender relevant labour market policies. The entrenched traditional gender ideology and difficult labour market conditions conflicted with accession to the EU and the requirement to take gender equality into account - thus it was not clear a priori how the opposing factors would combine. Applying the theoretical framework of the new institutionalism - literatures on Europeanisation, welfare state development, feminist critique of the welfare state, and socialism and post-socialism - to a documentary analysis and expert interviews, I found that the socialist failure to institutionalise gender equality hindered its achievement during the post-socialist period, while Europeanisation of gender equality holds potential for change. I distinguished between short-term outputs and long-term processes. Before accession, conditionality and the adoption of gender acquis led to a moderate level of change. The 'hard' top-down pressure rendered structure prominent. After accession, the 'soft' but iterative pressure, subsidiarity and cross-national learning, give more weight to agency. Although the exogenous pressure is weak, the comprehensive and long-term process presents an opportunity for transformative reforms.