Gender mainstreaming starts with better representation of women in parliaments and awareness raising. This is the message conveyed on Thursday 8 December by the European Parliament’s Committee on Gender Equality (FEMM), during a session dedicated to the inclusion of women in politics.
Representation influences legislation
Despite improvements, “if we look at the speed at which we are progressing, total equality will only be a reality in 180 years according to the UN”, argued Dimitrios Papadimoulis, chair of the European Parliament’s High Level Group on gender equality.
Today, 39% of MEPs are women, compared to an average of 30% in European national parliaments. But for Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA, French), co-rapporteur on gender inclusion in legislation, and with figures to back it up, this is not enough. Male experts, she demonstrated, still dominate European Parliament hearings, especially in the Committees on Agriculture (81.5%), Fisheries (77.3%), Economy (73.7%) and Industry (71.4%).
The same is true of the MEPs responsible for the important dossiers. In the Committees on Budgetary Control, Legal Affairs, Agriculture and Regional Development, 75% of these legislative reports are led by men. This rate even reaches 100% in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs.
However, “who works on topics has an influence on how the files are dealt with”, she stressed. For example, she explained, European recovery funds will be allocated mainly to sectors with a high representation of men (construction, energy, transport, IT) and not to the sectors most affected by the pandemic (education, health and social care, food and housing, culture, domestic services). Sectors which, moreover, have a majority of female employees in their ranks.
Harassment: better awareness for better laws
Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, French), also co-rapporteur on the inclusion of gender in legislation, stressed the importance of stepping up awareness-raising efforts.
She raised the case of harassment: only 1/3 of MEPs have followed the institution’s training on this subject. It should be made compulsory. “We have compulsory training for IT tools, [why not] on harassment prevention”, she said ironically, lamenting that, in its current form, “the training is preaching to the converted”. She also called for the obligation to be extended to all European Parliament staff, for the training to be available in all languages and for the list of MEPs who have not taken it to be made public.
“The legislative revolutions that can be advanced by changing what happens inside an assembly should not be overlooked. Once MEPs are aware of harassment, [they] will look at the issue differently when working on texts”, she concluded.
MEPs also listened to feedback from national women MPs and senators present at the session. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)