Petra Ahrens

I am Academy of Finland Research Fellow with the project "On the road to gender-sensitive parliaments? Gender Equality and Democratic Practices in the Finnish, German, and Polish Parliament Compared (GSParls)" since September 2021. 

My research interests are comparative gender policies and politics, particularly with view to parliaments, political institutions, and parties as well as to civil society organisations, participatory democracy, and political strategies like gender mainstreaming. Next to Germany and the supranational level of the European Union, I also focus on other European states like Austria, Finland and Poland. 

- receiving an Academy of Research Fellowship "On the road to gender-sensitive parliaments? Gender Equality and Democratic Practices in the Finnish, German, and Polish Parliament Compared (GSParls)"

- receiving a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Postdoc-Fellow „Effects of Institutional Change on Participatory Democracy and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations“ (DemocInChange) at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, granted by EU Horizon 2020

- co-founding editor of the European Journal of Politics and Gender (EJPG)

- receiving a doctoral scholarship from the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst e.V. (2007-2010)

- Co-chair of the Steering Committee of the ECPR Standing Group Politics & Gender 

- co-editor of the German feminist journal Femina Politica 

I received my PhD in Sociology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2014 with the dissertation 'The Sound of Silence – Institutionalizing Gender Equality Policy in the European Union'. From 2014 to 2016, I was assistant professor on Sociology of Work and Gender relations at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. I held a Marie-Sklodowska-Curie-Fellowship titled „Effects of Institutional Change on Participatory Democracy and the Involvement of Civil Society Organisations” (DemocInChange, 2017-2018) and was Guest Professor for Comparative Politics and for Gender and Diversity from 2018-2019 at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Antwerp.

Until August 2021, I was Senior Researcher in the ERC-funded research project „Gender, party politics and democracy in Europe: A study of European Parliament’s party groups” (EUGenDem) here at Tampere University. In 2021, I also was Guest Professor for Gender and Diversity at the Free University Berlin, Germany (2021).

I also work as free-lance policy consultant for public administration on gender equality and gender mainstreaming since 2006, for instance for the 'Mayor and Senator for Economics, Technology and Women’s Issues Berlin (2008-2009), the 'Agency for Gender Equality within the ESF' (2009-2014), and subcontracted for the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) (2014; 2017-2019).

- Ahrens, Petra, and Lise Rolandsen Agustín. 2019. Gendering the European Parliament: Structures, Policies, and Practices. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

- Ahrens, Petra, and Anna van der Vleuten. 2019. Fish Fingers and Measles? Assessing Complex Gender Equality in the Scenarios for the Future of Europe. Journal of Common Market Studies.

- Ahrens, Petra. 2019. Birth, life and death of policy instruments: 35 years of EU gender equality policy programs. West European Politics 42(1): 45-66.

- Ahrens, Petra, Katja Chmilewski, Sabine Lang, and Birgit Sauer. 2020 (forthcoming): Gender Equality in Politics – Implementing Party Quotas in Germany and Austria. Cham: Springer International.

- Ahrens, Petra. 2018. Actors, Institutions, and the Making of EU Gender Equality Programs . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

- Ahrens, Petra. 2016. The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality in the EP – Taking Advantage of Institutional Power Play. Parliamentary Affairs 69(4): 778-193.