Gendering Europe: British national identity from EEC accession to EU secession

Lead researcher: Dr Charlotte Galpin 

This project seeks to create a new understanding of (Anglo-) British national identity during the UK’s EEC/EU membership by analysing the role of gender and its intersections with sexuality, class and race. ‘Europe’ has functioned as an ‘external Other’ against which national identity has been constructed. However, existing literature overlooks the significant body of feminist work on gender and national identity. Using a feminist methodology that uncovers dominant and marginalised identity narratives, Gendering Europe argues that two phenomena usually imagined as separate – Britain’s shift towards/away from Europe, and struggles over gender, sexual and racial equality – are actually deeply intertwined.