‘Black Boxes’ and ‘fracture points’: the regulation of gender equality in the UK and French construction industries

Abstract

Gender equality was a founding principle of the European Union (EU) and has remained on its policy agenda ever since, yet delivery of policy goals has been uneven across countries and economic sectors. We draw on theoretical and empirical literatures from human resource management and policy science to explore EU gender equality initiatives and their enactment within one sector which has seen virtually no improvements in gender-based employment equality: construction. To help understand the possible reasons for this, we compare practice and experiences in two countries; the UK and France. In both, the construction industry remains resolutely male-dominated, with women employed primarily in support and administrative roles. We deploy the concept of Europeanisation, to provide an analytical framework to understand the potential gaps between policy goals and on-the-ground implementation, whilst a comparative approach allows us to see if different national approaches to EU policy implementation can help explain these policy failures. We identify three potential ‘fracture points’ where breaks in policy transmission and enactment may occur: between the EU and national levels; between the national and industry levels; and within the industry itself. We identify areas for further research, where unpacking the ‘Black Boxes’ of policy development and industry practices, can help more effective policy-targeting to deliver policy goals on gender equality.

Keywords:

• EU gender policy
• gender equality
• UK
• France
• construction industry
• Europeanisation

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Erratum

Notes

1. Running in parallel is EU support for ‘social dialogue’ (http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=329&langId=en) which works to engage all social partners in social policy-related matters. A detailed analysis of this is beyond the scope of the present paper.

2. This article draws on a case study involving the UK. The UKs EU referendum result in no way affects our analysis, as the empirical case study and its implications for theory are taken as representative of wider policy processes. Specifically, country-specific cases inform generic questions about Europeanisation, albeit through the empirical lens of a case study including the UK construction industry and related employment policies.

3. See Liebert, 2016, for a full list of the relevant Directives.

4. European Institute for Gender Equality website: http://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/what-is-gender-mainstreaming

5. European Commission Directorate General for Justice website: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/charter/index_en.htm

6. See Smith and Villa (2010) for a comprehensive discussion on both the relaunch of the strategy and quantitative targets.

7. http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000023487662