Gender Equality in the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan: the Depoliticizing Effects of the Technocratic Draghi Government.

The European Union considers gender equality to be a key issue for post-pandemic recovery. The establishment of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) required member states to present their National Recovery and Resilience Plans and commit themselves to considering gender equality a horizontal objective. As Italy’s Recovery and Resilience Plan was, in terms of resources, the largest national plan under the RRF, it had the potential to be a ‘turning point’ for gender equality in Italy. This article offers a preliminary analysis, based on the categories elaborated by feminist policy research, aimed at assessing whether the National Plan initiated a process of policy and institutional change and if so, in what direction. It is argued that under pressure from the European vincolo esterno, the scope of gender equality has been narrowed and the measures aimed at promoting gender equality have become more bureaucratized and aligned with a managerial and technical policy turn, thus promoting a shift towards the depoliticization of gender equality.