Europeanization Through the European Women’s Lobby: A Sociological Comparison of the French and Belgian National Coordinations

Abstract

What impact has the creation of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) had on national feminist Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in France and Belgium? To find this out, I examine how the national CSOs’ coordinations have adapted their practices, discourses, strategies and internal organisation to be part of European Civil Society. Drawing on 40 interviews and two internships within both French and Belgian EWL intermediary coordinations, I put forward an actor-based sociological perspective focusing on three causal paths in order to explain the findings derived from comparing the Europeanization of the CSOs in France and in Belgium. If identical effects of this Europeanization were identified in both coordinations, the French coordination appears to be more proactive on EU issues and more EWL-orientated than the Belgian. These two distinctive outcomes can be explained by three factors: cultural, organisational and individual. While cultural factors explain some long-term Europeanization outcomes, factors to do with actors’ individualities also highlight the mutability of the Europeanization process.