Gender Equality in Theory and Practice

This chapter compares the way in which the EU defines and promotes gender equality and the empowerment of women on the one hand and the conceptions of women’s rights in Southern Mediterranean Countries (SMCs) on the other. The chapter begins by examining the evolution and metamorphosis of the EU’s self-image as a gender entrepreneur, followed by an in-depth analysis of EU gender promotion policy in the region both before and after the Uprisings, in theory and in practice. It then examines the progress that has been made in SMCs in gender equality and concludes by discussing the attitudes of women and men in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia to gender equality. It concludes that there is a mismatch between EU gender policy and the attitudes of citizens, with the latter remaining conservative with strong support for family policy being based on shari’a.