Assessing gender democracy in the EU Methodological challenges Sara Clavero and Yvonne Galligan Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics Queen’s University Belfast

Background RECON project Brings EU democracy debates to the test Develops a set of indicators of democratic performance in EU RECON-gender Constructs a methodology for assessing gender democracy in EU Assessment focused on multi-level system Uses results for comparative research

1. Defining ‘gender democracy’ Four desiderata 1. A substantive rather than procedural definition 2. Focus both on political equality and public control 3. Informed by feminist thinking on democracy 4. It can be rendered operational in a set of observable indicators Deliberative democracy Good framework for fulfilling desiderata 1-2 Not so great for desiderata 3-4

2. Deriving indicators Four normative criteria: Inclusion, political equality, publicity and reasonableness Conditions: Coherence Universality Objectivity Feasibility

3. Methods Four questions: Quantitative measures or qualitative judgements? How are attainment standards decided? How to produce data that is unavailable? Who carries out the assessment?

Some lessons learnt Need to draw on previous practice Tough methodological decisions at every step of the way Need to keep into view both internal and external constraints Open-ended process