ABSTRACT
If the ‘second wave feminism’ of the late 1960s and 1970s was greatly influenced by developments in the United States, the pace-setters in relation to gender equality issues over the last two decades have been the European Union and, to a lesser extent, the United Nations. Since the early 1980s, the European Union has formulated no fewer than four equal opportunity action programmes designed to put pressure on member governments and to stimulate the development of gender equality policies in member countries. At the same time, the United Nations Organisation has also organised conferences focusing on women which have highlighted the range of problems and areas of discrimination facing women across the globe. This chapter will examine the ways in which these two organisations have sought to empower women in the last two decades of the twentieth century, and will also look at the growing role of the European Parliament and of bodies such as the Council for European Municipalities and Regions and the European Women’s Network in highlighting the continuation of gender inequalities in western European countries.
