Gendered Retirement - Women in the Shadows of Illiberal Constitutionalism
This project investigates how the constitutional value of gender equality is strategically reinterpreted in illiberal contexts within the EU, using a comparative analysis of Austria and Poland. While equality, democracy, and the rule of law are nominally co-equal under Article 2 TEU, equality often receives less substantive attention in EU governance and scholarship. Drawing on constitutional theory and empirical fieldwork, the project conceptualizes “instrumentalized equality discourse” – a phenomenon in which illiberal actors invoke gender equality rhetorically to justify regressive reforms, especially in family and labor law, while simultaneously hollowing out its emancipatory meaning. Focusing on retirement age regulation, a policy area both gendered and constitutionally significant, the study reveals how formal equality rhetoric may in practice reinforce structural inequality and hinder women’s democratic agency. The project employs a mixed-methods approach, combining doctrinal legal analysis, qualitative discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in Poland and Austria. By connecting legal norms to their implementation and effects on the ground, this research advances a more context-sensitive, substantive reading of equality. My goal is to generate empirically informed, legally grounded insights that respond to the selective enforcement of EU equality norms and contribute to more inclusive democratic and constitutional frameworks within the EU.
