This collection explores how pioneering gender equality policies have shaped women's economic presence in Europe since 2000. Equal pay policies, parental leave reforms, corporate quotas and electoral quotas have raised pressing questions about the effectiveness in promoting equal participation, as researchers quote both quantitative improvement in gender diversity and qualitative lag in cultural change. The chapters in this book present interlocking cross-national and cross-policy comparisons of the three most controversial reforms: equal pay, parental leave, and quotas for political representatives. The contributors address the cultural context in which reforms arose, internally contradictory policies, and the relative effectiveness of fast-track quotas and incentives compared to long-term efforts to change the overall culture of gender. This critical examination of the new millennium's groundbreaking gender policies will appeal to academics and practitioners interested in the progress of gender equality in the economic, political, and social welfare fields.

Diana Auth is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Science at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. Her main research areas are comparative welfare state research, gender studies, elderly care research and social gerontology, and policy analysis.Jutta Hergenhan is a Berlin-based political scientist. She is a researcher, lecturer, scientific translator, and editor. From 2012 to 2015, she was the executive director of the Research Group for Gender Studies at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. Her main research areas are gender and politics, language and gender, and transformation processes in the Mediterranean area.Barbara Holland-Cunz is Professor of Political Sciences, with a primary focus on gender studies, and Head of the Research Group for Gender Studies at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany. Her main research areas are political theory; women's movements, equality policy, and political participation; and the theory and sociology of science and nature.ContributorsCatherine Achin, Paris Dauphine University, FranceFrancesca Bettio, University of Siena, Italy Roland Erne, University College Dublin, IrelandGesine Fuchs, Independent Researcher, SwitzerlandCécile Guillaume, Queen Mary University of London, UKNatalie Imboden, Unia, SwitzerlandSigrid Leitner, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, GermanyHanne Martinek, Uppsala University, SwedenSophie Rouault, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, GermanyChristine Scheidegger, Independent Researcher, SwitzerlandDorota Szelewa, University of Warsaw, Poland

1. Introduction: Re-Thinking Gender Equality since the Turn of the Millennium.- 2. Can We Call it a Revolution? Women, the Labor Market, and European Policy.- 3. Symbolic Policymaking for Gender Equality: Comparing the Use of Quotas for Civil Services and Corporate Boards in France and Germany.- 4. Overcoming the Gender Pay Gap: Equal Pay Policies Implementation in France and the United Kingdom.- 5. Equal Pay by Gender and by Nationality: A Comparative Analysis of Switzerlands Unequal Equal Pay Policy Regimes across Time.- 6. Reconciliation of Employment and Childcare in Austria, Germany, and Iceland: Examples for Gender Equality in Family Life?.- 7. From Implicit to Explicit Familialism: Post-1989 Family Policy Reforms in Poland.- 8. Social Investment or Gender Equality? Aims, Instruments and Outcomes of Parental Leave Regulations in Germany and Sweden.-9. The French Parity Law: A Successful Gender Equality Measure or a Conservative Revolution?.- 10. Political Representation of Women in Europe: What Accounts for the Increase in the 2000s?.- 11. Successes and Failures of Electoral Gender Quotas in a Global Perspective.- 12. Targeted Measures versus Change of Political Culture: How can Gender Equality Best be Achieved?.