Published on 13.3.25

Gender inequality in political institutions remains a major social and political issue, especially in the case of executive bodies. Against the background of a scholarly literature that recognises women confront barriers in their careers, we take a fresh look at gender and leadership. We look at the backgrounds and experience of the individuals who have occupied leadership positions in the European Commission under three Commission Presidencies between 2004 and 2019. In a first step, we attempt to determine whether there are distinct, well-trodden routes to the positions of Commissioner and of Director General – the top administrative stratum in the organisation. In the second, we compare the pathways taken by men and women.

Whereas existing studies typically focus on politicians or on bureaucrats, we look at both. This approach enables us to reach an overall assessment about gender and leadership.

This is especially important for a body, such as the Commission, which combines both political and administrative responsibilities, and occupies a central position in the EU system. We also test whether the factors highlighted by other author, that hamper women’s careers in other institutions apply in the case of the Commission.

Examining the educational backgrounds and professional experience of Commissioners and Directors General over the fifteen-year period in question, we find that it is possible to distinguish distinct routes taken by Commissioners on the one hand, and Directors General on the other – three in each case – to their positions. Comparing the numbers of women and men on each, we find that women are less well represented than men on all pathways, but on one or two the difference is difference is less great.

In terms of sustaining a gender balance at the top of the institution, it is important to distinguish between the ways in which Commissioners and Directors General are appointed. Reflecting the EU’s multi-level structure, the Commission President selects the members of the College that he or she presents to the European Parliament for its approval, but can only choose from among the nominees put forward by national capitals and is therefore a ‘constrained selector’ (van Scherpereel 2021). Although national governments were responsive to Ursula von der Leyen’s call to forward female candidates for her first Presidency in 2019, the same was not true five years’ later. In short, the willingness of member states to nominate women is fundamental to gender balance in the College. Directors General, by contrast, make their way up the ranks of the EU’s career civil service. The Commission has made considerable, if slow, progress since it first sought to redress the gender imbalance at senior levels in the 1980s. The successive increases achieved under the three Presidencies considered in the article were important, but it took until the first von der Leyen Presidency for the Commission to achieve near-gender parity. These efforts will need to continue.

Pierre Alayrac, Sara Connolly, Miriam Hartlapp, and Hussein Kassim (2025) ‘Still struggling to reach the top? Women officeholders and gendered career pathways in the European Commission’,European Union Politics, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14651165241300650