Supporting and opposing equality in the Council of the European Union: contestations of gender and intersectionality between the member states

The Council of the European Union is arguably the most powerful, yet the least-known European Union (EU) institution. Despite wielding power in equality politics, its policy-making processes have hardly been researched from the point of view of gender or their significance for advancing gender equality in the union, in comparison to the other EU institutions. This article aims to fill this gap by analysing the role of the Council of the European Union in negotiating legislative files on gender equality in the period 2019–2024 and to examine the dynamics of support and opposition for equality files in the Council. We explore this with regards to two directives: the Pay Transparency Directive (2021/0050(COD)) and the Directive to Combat Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (2022/0066(COD)). The goal is to understand the gendered controversies of Council policy-making. We find an interplay of ideological positions on equality and gender, national political interests, and domestic gender regimes in negotiating strategies in the Council, with particular resistance towards the introduction of the concept of intersectionality.