Women in Europe. Recruitment, practices and social institutionalization of the European political field
Résumé
This chapter shows that MEPs feminisation is a factor of EP emergence as a space of political professionalisation and that this situation implies various consequences on practices inside and outside the institution. By political professionalisation, we mean the process by which an actor lives 'for' and 'of' political activity, as Max Weber said. It means that this actor gives most of his time for political activity and that political activity gives to him the most important part of his salary. In the sense of Pierre Bourdieu, structures of social and political properties and resources can help to understand practices of political agents in European political arenas and institutions. The comparison between women and men underlines that women generally possess fewer properties that lead to political professionalisation, notably less political experience at the national level, than their male counterparts. For women, internal and external networks represent important opportunities for acquiring political resources (particularly informational), which compensate for their lack of experience and allow them to play the European political game. Women's participation in these networks favours permanent mediations between the EP and national political spaces.
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