On Wednesday 5 November, MEPs from the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) held a public hearing on the “Women’s Leadership in Politics”, to mark Gender Equality Week (3 to 9 November).
As a preamble to the discussions, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola (EPP, Maltese), said that “the European Union needed more courage, a collective courage”, to combat and remove the obstacles to women’s political involvement.
She was nonetheless pleased to see a relative breaking of the glass ceiling, welcoming the increase in female representation in the Chamber. Now close to 40%, it was only 17% at the time of the first elections in 1979, noted the President, who nevertheless regretted that “too many women were left on the sidelines”, because it was more “difficult” for them “to enter politics”.
The MEPs and guest experts agreed on the need to implement measures to provide a framework for a more inclusive political life. Childcare services, online security, proxy voting for elected women on leave (see EUROPE 13746/24), mentoring and training were among the recommendations, while several speakers condemned the fact that progress was still fragile and uneven, depending on the level of power.
The former Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Orla O’Connor, stressed the importance of alliances between elected representatives and civil society in order to make progress. She went on to say that “greater equality between men and women is good for democracy”.
Dutch researcher Zahra Runderkamp, from the political alliance ‘Stem op een Vrouw’ (Vote for a Woman), reported that in the last Dutch parliamentary elections, “this strategic voting campaign enabled five more women to be elected”, despite the fact that many women have to leave politics mid-career.
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Maja Herman advocated a leadership culture that takes emotional intelligence into account. Recognition of physiological realities, medical care and appropriate facilities can, she believes, prevent some women from leaving public life prematurely.
Echoing these demands, the founder of the LEADERIS Institute, entrepreneur Joanna Burnos, called for a “European ‘roadmap’ for women’s leadership in politics”. (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)