| EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Anna KARAMANOU |
|
| EUROPEAN WOMEN'S LOBBY SEMINAR |
Brussels, 10.10.2003 |
| Panel 1: "Presentations by women in high-level decision-making about the obstacles they face and their visions and ideas to improve the situation" |
|
Ø INTRODUCTION
On the eve
of 21st century and more than a hundred of years after women were enfranchised,
the question of women's political participation is now on the european and international agenda.
Where are we today and where are we heading for tomorrow? Women's involvement
in public life in Europe
this century has been uphill all the way, and thus every small step is a major
breakthrough. Even when men presided over the ultimate authority and
decision-making structures, it was women who pushed
for, expressed, formulated, lobbied and sometimes simply protested their rights
into place.
Women's
participation in politics in Europe was launched by claiming their right to vote. First
movements have already begun at the end of the 19th century, but it was only
after a few decades that the right to vote for women was
granted by the European governments.
Equally,
women's participation in European politics was part of a broader undertaking at
international level. In 1945, the UN
Charter has recognised formally for the first time the principle of equal
rights for both women and men, despite the fact that at the time, only half of
the UN country members had granted the right to vote to women.
Following
the recognition of the right to vote, the debate was focused
on women's participation in decision-making level. A significant change was
acknowledged when slowly enough, the role of two genders were to be transformed
on the basis of job separation, since until 1970's, women dominated the agenda
in private life, whereas men in public life. The launch of the concept of
"gender" paved the way to the incorporation of equal opportunities
for men and women in politics.
At the
United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing,
China,
in 1995, the global community stressed the importance of women assuming
positions of power and influence, because their points of view and talents are needed, but also as a matter of their human rights.
Moreover, increased involvement of women in decision- making processes with
respect to social values, development directions and allocation of resources
enables women as well as men to influence political agendas and to help set
priorities. Efforts to achieve gender equality are thus more likely to be brought into the mainstream of decision-making and to be
pursued from the centre rather than the margins.
Interest in
gender-based differences and similarities in approaches to decision-making has
increased in recent years. Recent evidence on women's entry into the
"corridors of power", whether in governance, business or other public
domains suggest that negotiation and consensus-building are among women's
special abilities, along with the ability to listen, to see beyond one's own
point of view and to adapt rapidly. Because of inborn altruism or their roles
as mothers, women leaders can foster societies of peace and nurturing, women
leaders of trade and industry could advance economic justice. Additionally,
questions related to reproductive health and choice, nutrition, equality in
education and in employment opportunities, child care and related
"family-friendly" aspects are but some areas, where women have advocated
for.
Ø WHERE ARE THE WOMEN DECISION-MAKERS TODAY?
More
than two decades after the first United Nations conference on women in 1975, the
statistical picture for women's participation at high levels of decision-making
remains bleak.
The Beijing
Platform for Action "The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that
everyone has the right to take part in the Government of his/her country . . .
. Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making
will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society
and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and
promote its proper functioning. Equality in political decision-making performs
a leverage function without which it is highly unlikely that a real integration
of the equality dimension in government policy-making is feasible . . . "
Today in Europe,
despite the improvement of the legal status of women in political
decision-making level, an important gap still persists
between the improvement in legal terms and every day life. With the exception
of Scandinavian countries of Northern Europe, the
relatively recent grant to women of the right to vote in the majority of european countries has not
produced any real significant increase in their representation in political
institutions. Despite this under- representation, in all member states, there
is a strong tendency for a greater women participation in politics, which
clearly shows that things may prove better in the future.
National
parties, eager to attract new voters, each party increasingly nominated women
candidates. Almost all institutionalized quotas. But old gender patterns still
persist: only a handful of countries have chosen women to hold the portfolios
of foreign policy, finance, trade or defence - sectors that were not only
traditionally dominated by men, but are also pivotal in international relations
and can be viewed as the "public" face of a nation, in contrast to
its domestic or "private" face.
In senior
national civil service positions, the number of women has continued to increase
- still largely in social welfare ministries, which have traditionally been
associated with some of women's "caring" activities, but to a lesser
extent in others, such as energy, agriculture and the environment. These latter ministries have been dominated by men - perhaps
because of the current prominence of these areas in the economic and foreign
policy agendas of Governments. While the fields of health, education,
housing and community development doubtless mirror major concerns of many women
throughout the world, female concentration in these ministries perpetuates
traditions of women managing women and certainly does not reflect the growing
numbers of women economists, management experts, lawyers and engineers. Women at ministerial and sub-ministerial levels. The current
european statistics still
indicate a situation in which women are regarded at best as a
"special-interest group" rather than half of humankind.
Ø
INCREASING WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING
There is a
strong correlation between the level of female representation and the type of
electoral system and strategies, adopted by the political parties. Political
scholars strongly emphasize the effect that electoral systems have on women's
representation for several reasons. The impact of electoral systems is quite
dramatic. It can be seen that the differences in women's
representation across electoral systems are substantial and electoral rules are
far more malleable. According to a study produced by the Directorate-General
for Research of the EP, the majoritarian system is seen to be unfair to women because with such an electoral
practice, the success of the party heavily depends on the single candidate it
selects. Additionally, proportional representation alone is not responsible for
the strength of women parliamentarians in European Union countries. An
important factor within proportional representation is the placement of female
candidates in eligible positions on party lists.
The
under-representation of women in politics is not only due to institutional
factors, but, in many respects to different political
regimes, political culture and the socio-economic position of women. The
example of Scandinavian countries with strong democratic regimes, advanced
social studies, hold one of the highest percentages of women's representation
in the world. In the countries of Southern Europe, with
long lasting authoritarian regimes, similar percentages are very low.
Additionally,
we should emphasize the responsibility of political parties as well as civil society
organisations. To that end, parties should implement gender-conscious policies
among their structure, the ranks of their staff as well as within their agendas
and must take action to make sure that women should be
equally represented on the ballot. Many political parties, reflecting
the more general conditions in the rest of society, do not easily accept or
promote may women into their ranks, let alone women's
occupation of important positions within these parties.
The lack of
sufficient training and communication skills, or media know-how,
is also extremely problematic for women. Women politicians need to use the
media for purposes of positive image building as well as dissemination of their
agendas.
Awareness raising about women's rights and their capacities, as well
as the way the media portrays and assists have come a long way, but they have
not led to any changes over the last 10 years. However, the fact that in some
countries, women's representation on local councils, is larger that that on national
levels, does make for interesting considerations.
We also
should increase efforts to gather information on gender statistics in political
decision-making level, without this data, we cannot build appropriate mechanisms
to monitor women's access to senior levels of decision-making.
More democracy does not necessarily introduce a change
in mentality and political culture. It is quite characteristic that the european media show that women are
less interested in politics than men, read and watch less news and consider
themselves less capable to be involved in politics.
Ø
European developments
·
Council Recommendation for a gender balance in decision-making process
The
main legal instrument in the EU for a balanced participation of women and men
in the decision-making process is the Council
Recommendation 96/694 of 2 December 1996 concerning the necessity of
establishing an integrated action to fight unequal gender representation in the
EU institutions and in every decision-making body and the invitation to
establish an integrated and specific European strategy and a common approach to
achieve such a result.
As far as progress made by Member States is concerned,
the European Commission has
established a report on 2000 on the situation in respect to
the four priorities laid down in the Recommendation, which briefly, are:
· Adoption of
a comprehensive integrated strategy to promote a gender balanced participation
in decision-making,
· Mobilising
all the actors in economic and social life to achieve equal opportunities,
· Collection
and publication of statistics on gender representation on decision-making,
· Promotion of
a gender balance at all levels, in all areas.
The overall
picture provided can only be considered as a starting
point. In fact, not all Member States have been keen enough to provide
information on the different priorities, which, in their turn, are not
sufficiently precise for Member States to adopt a common set of measures. The
four priorities need to be made more precise and
compulsory with precise deadlines to be met. It is only through precise
deadlines and benchmarks that it will be possible to identify Member States,
which have not compelled to their obligations, to register global progress and
to advance in gender balance.
As a
conclusion, on the basis of the information supplied,
the Council Recommendation has been partly implemented by the Member States;
further efforts must be done towards a more comprehensive integrated strategy
which still does not exist.
·
The Women's Rights Committee Contribution
The Committee on Women's Rights and Equal
Opportunities of the European Parliament, that I have the honour to chair, is
specifically concerned as regards the little emphasis placed by most Member
States on the incorporation of a gender perspective in the political decision making.
-Towards the European
Elections in June 2004
This year,
in advance of the elections to the European Parliament 2004, my Committee as
well as Commission have put the spotlight on women in decision-making and
have concentrated its 2003 funding activities on the promotion of gender
balance in decision-making, both in political and in economic life.
The
Women's Committee has drawn up reports on the issue of women's representation in decision-making. In a resolution adopted in Plenary in the end of
2000, based on a report drafted by me, the promotion of women in
decision-making is considered in the light of the
implementation of the Council Regulation of 1996 on the same subject. In
September 2002, our committee adopted unanimously an
own-initiative report by Miet SMET (EPP-ED) on the
representation of women in the social partners of the European Union. The report, which was
adopted by Plenary in September 2002, calls for strategies to boost the
role of women and encourage the social partners to devise affirmative action
programmes and to draw up targets, with deadlines, to increase the representation
of women both in their internal organisations and in the collective bargaining
process and as such in decision making.
In view of
the European elections in 2004, a Public Hearing "Elections 2004: How to
ensure balanced representation of women and men" was held in June 2003 (Rapporteur). Experts highlighted the need for a strategy
ensuring gender balance on electoral lists and developing awareness-raising
campaigns aiming at the advantages of parity democracy. An
initiative report the Member of the Women's Committee Ms Lone DYBKJAER, on the
same subject, that has been adopted during the last meeting of the Women's
Committee in October 2003, highlights the need for positive action measures,
awareness raising and information campaigns, the specific needs in the
Accession Countries and the possibility of legislative action and increasing
the pool of women candidates. Later on, Ms Lone DYBKJAER will present to
you in detail the content and the findings of her report.
-The
new Constitutional Treaty-Gender Equality
The European Convention is a good illustration to assess the present
situation on the weak representation of women in the political forums.
"Building a democratic Europe – Women's Convention" was the theme of
two public hearings we have had in our committee on 22 May and on 2 October
2002, along with two conferences of the Network of Parliamentary Committees for
Equal Opportunities of the EU, in Copenhagen Nov. 2002 and
in Athens March 2003.
The
discussions were very contraceptive and useful, and
participants shared a number of common aims and conclusions. In close contact
and support from Parliamentarians in the EU and Candidate Countries, some women
Members of the Convention, NGOs and the civil society, we have put forward a
number of requests in order that the women's voices would be
heard in the work of the Convention.
In the
beginning of September 2003, our Committee has given its input (Lone DYBKJAER,
ELDR,) to the Parliament report on the draft Constitution and opinion on the convocation
of the Intergovernmental Conference IGC. The Committee
emphasises that the Convention has completed its task and that gender equality
is an integral part of the draft Constitutional Treaty that the principle of
gender mainstreaming is rightly placed as an horizontal article III-1 and that
the fight against all forms of discrimination, including sex-based
discrimination, is also rightly inserted as an horizontal article III-1a;
Welcomes that equality is part of the European Union's values but emphasises
that the gender composition of the Convention has been completely unacceptable:
17% women in a body of 105 members is far from enough to ensure a gender
balance. Likewise, the composition of the Presidium consisting of 12 men
and one woman was utterly unacceptable. It also
regrets that gender equality and the fight against all forms of gender
discrimination has not been inserted as a shared competence of the EU in the
Draft Treaty on the European Constitution and also that the Convention did not
incorporate an article in the institutional chapter requiring a balanced
representation of women and men in EU institutions. Although each Member State shall present three
candidates for the post of Commissioner, in which both genders have to be represented, there is still a long way to go. Our
Committee also regrets that no legal basis has been approved
to combat all forms of violence against women and children.
Parity in
political life remains an issue at both Member State and European level. Despite
the fact that in some Member States
there is a trend towards the introduction of legislation on parity, the results
of recent national elections have left mixed feelings i.e. in France the law on
parity had no impact on balancing gender representation, in Portugal a slight
improvement etc.
Ø
CLOSING COMMENTS
It makes
clear that 50 per cent of Europe remains overwhelmingly
under-represented in public decision-making. Righting gender imbalance is not only
a rights issue, but also one of cost-effectiveness that involves the need to
address the obstacles women face in fulfilling their rights to participation,
including the stereotypes upon them from childhood in every culture.
Dismantling these obstacles, as well as the prejudices that foster and support
them, should be a central concern of the EU and the members
states political agenda. It is also clear that failure to include women in
positions of power and influence is a waste of human creativity and energy that
is increasingly unaffordable. The participation of all citizens is central to
democracy and thereby to any concept of peace. Democratizing decision-making is served by mainstreaming women in decision-making.
Evidence suggests that once women achieve a critical mass, they have a chance
to influence the agenda and to promote gender equality for the benefit of the
society or community as a whole.
Thank you
for your attention.
Bibliography
- Lone Dybkjær
- Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities "On Draft Treaty on
the European Constitution and EP opinion on the convocation of the
Intergovernmental Conference IGC"
01.09.2003
- Lone Dybkjær
- Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities "On Election
2004: how to ensure a balanced participation of women and men"
Draft Report European Parliament
- Council Recommendation 96/694 of 2 December 1996, OJ L 319 10.12.96 p.11
- The European Database -
Women in Decision-Making
(http://www.db-decision.de/english/)
- Network of Parliamentary Committees for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the European Union (http://www.europarl.ep.ec/comparl/femm/ccec/default_en.htm)
- Differential Impact of Electoral Systems on Female Political Representation, Directorate-General for Research Working document Women's Rights Series W-10, March 1997 European Parliament
- "Women
in Decision making roles-promoting the contribution of women to public
life" -Chief Executives Forum and the Centre for the Advancement of
Women in Politics, Armagh Ireland
08.11.2002