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About me
I am Academy Research Fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Tampere University. My research focuses on the intersections of gender, politics and the economy in Finland and at European Union (EU) level. I have studied, among other things, the gendered assumptions and impacts of economic policies, gendered and de-democratized practices of economic governance and economic policymaking, economization of gender equality policies, gender budgeting, and theoretical questions related to neoliberalism, economization and democracy. Gender equality policy, the European Parliament and European party politics, and corporatism have also been among my research themes. My research is qualitative, and it is located in the fields of feminist political economy, gender and politics, and EU studies.
I am the PI of the project "EU economic governance in member states: policies and practices from the perspective of gender and democracy" that provides a critical analysis of the impacts of EU economic governance on gender equality and democracy in member states.
Previously, I have worked as a senior researcher in the ERC project "Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: a study of European Parliament's party groups." I have also been Academy of Finland post-doctoral researcher at University of Helsinki with a project “Equality for growth and competitiveness: Economization of gender equality policy and advocacy in the European Union“. I gained my PhD from University of Helsinki in 2012.
As a researcher, I am oriented to having a high societal impact. I engage with Finnish and EU-level policymakers in different ways, and I regularly work as a consultant for gender equality issues for Finnish government administration and different EU institutions. For instance, I have led, together with Hanna Ylöstalo, the research projects "Effectiveness and functioning of government action plans for gender equality" (2022–2023) and “Gender equality in the budget” (2017-2018) funded by the Finnish government's analysis, assessment and research activities.
Selected publications
Authored and edited books
Elomäki, Anna and Ylöstalo, Hanna (2024) Governing gender equality policy. Pathways in a changing Nordic welfare state. Palgrave Macmillan.
Berthet, Valentine, Gaweda, Barbara, Kantola, Johanna, Miller, Cherry, Ahrens, Petra and Elomäki, Anna (2023) Guide to qualitative research in parliaments. Experiences and practices. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ahrens, Petra, Elomäki, Anna and Kantola, Johanna (Eds.) (2022) European Parliament’s Political Groups in Turbulent Times. Palgrave Macmillan.
Elomäki, Anna, Kantola, Johanna and Koskinen Sandberg, Paula (Eds.) (2022). Social partners and gender equality: Change and continuity in gendered corporatism in Europe. Palgrave McMillan.
Peer-reviewed articles
Paul Copeland and Anna Elomäki (2024) Filtering politicisation towards a more social Europe? The European Parliament and EU social legislation. Journal of European Public Policy (online first) https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2024.2345840
Elomäki, Anna (2023) Austerity and its alternatives in the European Parliament: From the Eurozone crisis to the COVID-19 crisis. Comparative European Politics. (online first) https://doi.org/10.1057/s41295-023-00363-3
Elomäki, Anna and Kantola, Johanna (2023). Feminist Governance in the European Parliament: The Political Struggle over the Inclusion of Gender in the EU’s Covid-19 Response. Politics & Gender 19(2): 327-348, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X21000544
Kantola, Johanna, Elomäki, Anna, Gaweda, Barbara, Miller, Cherry, Ahrens, Petra and Berthet, Valentine (2023) “It’s like shouting in the brick wall”: Normative whiteness and racism in the European Parliament. American Political Science Review, 117(1): 184-199, https://doi.org/10.1017/S000305542200065X
Elomäki, Anna and Ahrens, Petra (2022) Contested gender mainstreaming in the European Parliament: political groups and committees as gatekeepers. European Journal of Politics and Gender, 5(3): 322-340, https://doi.org/10.1332/251510822X16547712638806
Cavaghan, Rosalind and Elomäki, Anna (2022). Dead ends and blind spots in the European Semester: The epistemological foundation of the crisis in social reproduction. Journal of Common Market Studies, 60(4): 885-902, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13288
Elomäki, Anna (2021). Economization of expert knowledge about gender equality in the European Union. Social Politics: International Studies in State, Gender & Society, 28(4), 1162–1184. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxaa005
Elomäki, Anna and Kantola, Johanna (2020). European social partners as gender equality actors in EU social and economic governance. Journal of Common Market Studies 58(4), 999–1015. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.13018
Elomäki, Anna (2019). Governing austerity: Governance reforms as facilitators of gendered austerity in Finland. Australian Feminist Studies 34 (100), 182–197, https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2019.1644607
Anna Elomäki and Johanna Kantola (2018) "Theorizing Feminist Struggles in the Triangle of Neoliberalism, Conservatism and Nationalism." Social Politics: International Studies in State, Gender & Society, 25:3, p. 337-360. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxy013
Elomäki, Anna (2015) The economic case for gender equality in the European Union: Selling gender equality to decision-makers or neoliberalism to feminist organizations. European Journal of Women’s Studies 22(3), 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506815571142