ABSTRACT
Researching transnational party politics is a quite recent addition to the scholarly debate on European integration (e.g. Andeweg 1995; Bardi 1994; Hix and Lord 1997). Mainstream research mainly focuses on formal institutions; it can be broadly divided into: (1) the analysis of parties and political groups as elements of a parliamentary party-based European Union (EU) democracy (Westlake 2019); (2) the electoral successes and failures of (Euro)parties and voter-party congruence in the European Parliament (EP) (Mattila and Raunio 2006; Stockemer and Sundström 2019; Schmitt and Thomassen 1999); (3) political group cohesion and measures to ensure it (Hix et al. 2005, 2007; McElroy and Benoit 2007, 2010, 2012; Yordanova 2013); and (4) party positions towards European integration (Brack 2018; Almeida 2012). Gender perspectives have not played a role in mainstream research, except for studies of women’s representation in the European Parliament (Fortin-Rittberger and Rittberger 2014; 2015; Stockemer and Sundström 2019).
