AI, democracy and gender equality: EU regulatory frameworks and the wager of gender mainstreaming

This article contends that gender mainstreaming in today's world constitutes a wager for all societies at the crossroads of democracy, technology and justice where multiple crises are experienced. At the same time, gender mainstreaming can be seen as the cornerstone of a possible cultural and political shift, to strengthen and revive democracy, in vision and in practice; it can be mobilised as a democratic innovation. Different actors, institutional and from civil society, have recently called for renewed efforts in mainstreaming gender in digital developments and governance. The paper assumes those calls as a basis from which to critically interrogate European regulation of AI through the dual lens of gender equality and mainstreaming. Could gender mainstreaming constitute a transformative principle in EU normative interventions for the digital age? And what research agenda may contribute to guiding the transformation towards renewed democratic visions and practices?