Eastern Houses, Western Bricks?: (Re)Constructing Gender Sensibilities in the European Union's Eastward Enlargement

In the European Union's (EU) fifth enlargement, the post-socialist states autocratically adopted a set of internationally derived, EU-mandated gender equality legal norms and institutional mechanisms as part of harmonization. Seeking legitimacy, supranational and national, state and civil society actors (particularly feminist nongovernmental organizations) readily conceded to this assumption, with little regard for the compatibility of gender sensibilities, East and West. While gender equality policy may achieve transnational currency, the motives and interests that enable its crossover can also hinder its functionality and imperil the wider political and economic aims that such policy seeks to promote.