Log #1/ L. Cornell: The role of women in policy-making in the EU

Date of search: October 31, 2009

Source 1,2 - Resources Checked: Academic Search Premier
Search terms: women, European Union, government, policy
Results - The results were pretty varied. The terms I used were broad so they returned a bunch of results that were essentially useless. I had to spend a pretty good chunk of time reading through the pages of the results to find some applicable materials but a couple of articles/books stood out to me relating to gender mainstreaming in the EU. I briefly considered being much more specific in my search terms, even using specific countries in the EU and the gender composition of their parliaments, etc. However, that isn't what I really hope to pursue research-wise. I'm interested in the general policies of the EU regarding women's issues like paternity leave, pay equity (Article 119) etc. So, I narrowd down my search results to the subhead "women in policy" and came up with a decent article and a book which I think will be pretty useful. The article is especially recent, March 2009, which I think will be an asset.
Citations:

Ellina, Chrystta. Promoting Women's Rights: Politics of Gender in the European Union (International Relations Series). New York: Routledge, 2003. Print.

Sarikakis, Katharine, and Eliane Thao Nguyen. "The Trouble with Gender: Media Policy and Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union." Journal of European Integration 31.2 (2009): 201-216. Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 Oct. 2009.

Source 3 - Resources Checked: This time I used Google Scholar.
Search term: women in the European Union
Results - The first search result was a book entitled Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union and fortunately, Google Scholar included substantial portions of the book to preview. Though a bit older than I would prefer, the book has some chapters that offer some serious potential for the avenue I hope to pursue with my research. Including a chapter devoted to gender and policy-making an a chapter devoted to the adoption of Article 119. In order to make sure that I would indeed be able get my hands on a full text of this book, I took the information back to the Library Database search and searched for a books under this author's name. Fortunately, this book is available in the main stacks and I plan to pick it up tomorrow.
Citation: Hoskins, Catherine. Integrating Gender: Women, Law and Politics in the European Union. New York: Verso, 1996. Print.

Source X - Resource Checked - The London Guardian online
Search terms: First I tried Article 119, then women and European Union
Results - Many, many results were returned but after perusing these results for awhile i found nothing of interest. I was hoping to get a local view of Article 119 or other gender policies and chose the Guardian because if it's prominence and the fact that is it in English. Nothing of vale came from it.