Splendid Isolation? On How a Non-member Is Affected by—And Affects—EU Gender Equality Policy

Abstract

Although not a member of the EU, Norway is deeply affected by European integration, owing to its participation, since 1994, in the EEA Agreement which made Norway a full participant in EU’s internal market. Norway’s commitments to the EEA also apply to the area of gender equality policy. Yet, a comprehensive public inquiry report (NOU 2012: 2) on the consequences of Norway’s affiliation status concluded that EEA commitments and other EU agreements had limited impact on the scope and content of actual policy making in the gender area. This chapter will critically examine this claim through a discussion of EU influences on four core gender equality policy themes: antidiscrimination law, work-life balance, gender mainstreaming, and gender quotas for corporate boards. The chapter concludes with a re-assessment of how affiliation status has been shown to be relevant to policy development in this area. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of the article. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://link.springer.com/