European Roundup
Report on meetings of SIW Executive and Council,
San José, Costa Rica, 20 and 21 January 2012
Sexual and reproductive freedom - a woman's right'
Since 1986 the two yearly statutory meetings of SIW and SI are always held in conjunction. The host party, member of SI, provides the necessary infrastructure.
For the first time since then the PLN of Costa Rica has refused to provide the necessary and costly preparations (interpreters and the corresponding technical equipment) for SIW. For ‚logistical and financial reasons'. It transpired that the theme (see above) was rejected.
It was obvious for the SIW Executive that moving the SIW meetings to another country was not an option. Therefore conditions for the meetings were below the minimal level. The women of PLN did not give any assistance nor did they participate in the meetings. All of this is even less comprehensible since the president of the country is a woman (Laura Chinchilla) who comes from the party. The Catholic church is even more powerful in that country than in other Latin American states. Present were delegates from member organisations from Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria (2 parties), Dominican Republic, Finland, Cameroon, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Ukraine, Venezuela and the Russian Federation, as well as delegates from PES. The representative of a local feminist organisation participated as an interested guest.
Pia Locatelli in her opening speech criticised the attitude of PLN and spoke also about the arrests of 144 persons (among them 32 women), all of them members or sympathisers of the Party for Peace and Freedom in Turkey, SI member.
Miguelina Vecchio (SIW-VP, Brazil) in her introductory remarks pointed out the respective restrictive and worsening laws concerning abortion in Latin America. A film about a pregnant woman who was forced to give birth to a child without a brain is available in various languages (miguelinavecchio@yahoo.com.br) . She showed this film at a regional meeting of SI and reported on the shocked tears of male delegates.
The second speaker from a feminist organisation in Nicaragua, the Pink Panthers, did not show up.
Zita Gurmai (MEP and chair of the women's group of PES) referred mainly to the worsening of legislation in the Eastern European countries. (Her speech can be obtained from the SIW Secretariat.)
A resolution on the theme was adopted as well as one on the arrests in Turkey. At the recommendation of the Executive a short text on the attitude of PLN re SIW was adopted and distributed at the following SI Council meeting on 23/24 January 2012.
Pia Locatelli also raised the issue at the meetings of the SI Ethics Committee and the SI Presidium meeting as well as at the SI Council meeting.
On 23 January upon the request of Laura Chinchilla a meeting with the SIW Executive took place.
Barbara Prammer, SIW-VP, presented a summary/overview on proposals for changes to the Statutes. In time before the Congress a further meeting of the Executive will deal with the points still to be clarified and will possibly be held in Vienna.
The Congress of SIW will take place later this year in South Africa. The dates are not yet fixed, either in July or in October.
26 January 2012
Day of Zero Tolerance of FGM
PRESS RELEASE from the European Women's Lobby :
Does the EU have zero vision on ending female genital mutilation?
[Brussels, 03 February 2012] Ahead of the International Day of Zero Tolerance of female genital mutilation (FGM), Amnesty International and the European Women's Lobby (EWL) challenged the European Union to lay out its vision and commitment for ending female genital mutilation and other forms of violence against women. Since 2010, when the European Commission committed to adopt a strategy on violence against women, including FGM, there has been no coherent, structured attempt to address this human rights violation.
The European Parliament estimates that 500,000 women and girls living in Europe are suffering from the lifelong consequences of FGM and another 180,000 are at risk each year. Most often, girls are taken abroad during their summer vacation and are forced to undergo FGM to ensure their marriageability or social status. While some member states have laws and other policy measures in place, there is a wide disparity amongst the states.
France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and other countries where FGM has been criminalised for over a decade continue to grapple with FGM. "This shows that legislation is not the master key that will lock all doors to this human rights violation. The EU must take a holistic approach which engages community members to ensure girls are protected and their families are not stigmatized", said Dr Christine Loudes, Director, END FGM European Campaign, led by Amnesty International.
Violence against women, of which FGM is one of the gravest examples, is a widespread structural phenomenon: almost every other woman in the EU will experience some form of violence during her lifetime; one in five will fall victim to domestic violence; one in ten will be raped or forced into sexual acts.
Amnesty International and European Women's Lobby believe that one step that each member state and the EU can already take to protect women and girls against FGM and other forms of violence is to sign and ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
"Ending all forms of violence against women, including FGM, should be a priority, especially in times of crisis. We know that the EU has the means to end violence against women and deliver a strategy to guarantee all women the right to live free from violence; so what are we waiting for?", asked Cecile Greboval, EWL Secretary General.
To mark the International day of Zero Tolerance of female genital mutilation, Amnesty International has launched a video calling on European leaders to END FGM! Watch it here: www.endfgm.eu
Background :
In September 2010, the European Commission presented an action-oriented strategy to combat violence against women in its strategy to promote gender equality. Amongst other actions, it promised to "adopt an EU wide strategy on combating violence against women, including practices of female genital mutilation".
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence has been signed by 18 countries with no ratifications so far.
Female genital mutilation is a human rights violation that affects 8000 girls each day across the world. The European Institute of Gender Equality has launched a study to collect data on the practice of FGM in the EU. The results are expected to be released in 2013.
The END FGM European Campaign, led by Amnesty International, launched a strategy in 2010 to end FGM with specific demands for EU institutions and member states.
The European Women's Lobby, the largest umbrella organisation of women's associations in the European Union (EU) working to promote women's rights and gender equality, issued a press release on 25 November 2011 on the impact of the crisis on violence against women and reiterated its call for EU action to end violence against women.
Update on The Daphne Programme : funding to fight violence against women and children
Funding for the next Daphne programme must be kept at a level comparable to that of the previous ones, says a resolution to be voted Thursday.
From 2014, Daphne will be incorporated in the new Rights and Citizenship programme, notes the draft, prepared by the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee.
Daphne is the only EU programme supporting organisations in all EU Member States, candidate countries, EFTA states and the Western Balkan countries that develop measures to prevent or combat all kinds of violence against women and children.
The first Daphne programme (2000-2003) was renewed twice, in 2004 and 2007. During this time its budget was increased from €20 million to almost €117 million for Daphne III.
Procedure: Non-legislative resolution
Debate/Vote: Thursday 2 February
Further information:
- Draft resolution on the Daphne programme: achievements and future prospects
- Profile of rapporteur Regina BASTOS (EPP, PT)
PES Women - November 2011 Meeting
PES Women congratulate President Higgins, 'a great feminist'
PES Women President informed the members about the PES Council and the Convention taking place on 24-26 November in Brussels. Cléo Davis, PES Adviser, presented the Declaration of Principles, which will be adopted Thursday 24 November during the PES Council. Sara Montinaro, PES Assistant, presented the website of the Convention, and informed the members about use of social networks during the event.
The PES Women members discussed what exactly 'equality' and 'sharing power' should mean. They adopted the following : "that women and men equally share work, share power, share time and share roles, both in the public and in the private realms". There was debate concerning the word "feminist". While some members proposed to replace "feminist movement" by "women‟s movement" in order to be more inclusive, the final vote decided to keep "feminist", with a strong majority. PES Women members agreed that there is a lack of gender balance and gender perspective in the Convention and therefore proposed to raise the issue of including a gender perspective in every plenary session as well as inform the organisers and moderators once again. Currently, women represent 30% of all the speakers. PES Women President agreed to look into preparing a list of workshops that are specifically dealing with women‟s issues. PES Women President presented the PES Women Action for International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25th November in cooperation with the Sp.a Women‟s Organisation Zijkant.
PES Women President gave an overview of the Delegation trip to the USA in October. PES Women members agreed to discuss the issue of a possible Fourth Global Women‟s Conference.
PES Women President informed the members on the state of play of the activities on pension‟s issues: a letter has been sent to the Polish Presidency, Minister Jolanta Fedack responsible for social affairs. Moreover, the publication of the White Paper on Pension by the European Commission has been postponed. However, PES Women President met three times with Commissioner Andor, sent several letters to Commissioner Reding and requested a meeting with President Barroso to put pressure on the Commission for a gender perspective in the White Paper. PES Women President also called again on PES Women members to actively engage on this issue and resend the letter to their national governments. In order to engage the women organisation, PES Women will look into addressing the different regions and giving PES Women Vice-presidents the task to contact the regions and ask for feedback.
PES Women President informed the members about the current state of play of the Directive on Maternity Leave, which is still blocked by the Polish Presidency. Therefore, we now count on Danish Presidency in the first semester of 2012 to move forward and put in place the Directive. Inger Segelstrom, Vice-President of PES Women will submit the Maternity Leave Directive issue to Danish Presidency, at the next Nordic meeting.
PES Women President put the following issues forward as possible activities/priorities for 2012: "Re-newing" PES Women in order to reach out to women at local, regional and national level, including you women. The issue of "Baby Boxes" as raised at the European Parliament through the Europe of Council report on the Czech Republic; The ongoing changes and democratic-process following the Arab Spring; how to build links with the women‟s movements.
Combating trafficking of women in the context of the 2012 Olympic Games in London, possibly with the with Labour Party; Looking at the issue of the image/role of women in media; Promoting the ratification of the ILO convention for domestic workers and touching upon the issue of decent work of migrant women.
Janna Besamusca, PvdA, presented the PvdA Card-game using feminist figures, which could be used as an example for a PES Women tool. The idea was brought forward as a possible PES Women action for the next International Women‟s Day. PES Women Members were asked to think about 4 iconic women from their country who have contributed to gender equality. More detailed plans will follow.
Hatice Coban, from BDP Turkey, circulated a petition on asking for freeing Turkish academic to be released and distributed a Press Release on a decision of the Constitutional Court of Justice regarding a 13-old girl, who has been raped and recognized as consent to this sexual abuse.
PES Women members agreed to send a Congratulation letter to new Irish President Michael Higgins, who has been elected for 7 years and who is a great feminist.
PES Women president informed the audience about the last Bulgarian elections. BSP lost but the democratic conditions of the election have been questioned. (Ivailo Kalfin who is the head of the Bulgarian S&D delegation in the EP has only lost by 5% in the run-up for president.) Anna Karamanou, PES Women Vice-President - PASOK, informed the women on the latest events taking place in Greece. Finally, Marja Bijl informed us that the Secretary General of PvdA, Lilianne Ploumen has resigned. Unfortunately only 3 men are candidate to follow her up
EU Parliament backs gender quotas for boards
The European Parliament has told EU businesses to get women in their executive boards by 2012 or face a mandatory quota of 40%. This is the model used in Norway since 2003 where women now make up 40% of the board members.
The MEPs say in their non-binding recommendation that women should make up 30% of top management in the largest listed EU companies by 2015 and 40 percent by 2020. Should this not happen, companies will be obliged to do so. While some progress is made all the time, the pace is too slow. At the moment 10% of directors are women and 3% only CEOs in the large EU companies.
In Norway the measure was initially resisted by some, but when the legislation became the reality companies had no choice but to go and hire women directors. The Parliament says that research shows companies with women do better financially. Women today are well educated and therefore it would be foolish to leave out such a pool of talent. So hiring women is not about hiring people who are below par or who have no skills, on the contrary women posess ample qualifications and experience to do the job.
Individual member states such as France, the Netherlands and Spain are also looking at binding quotas.
In Ireland the Programme for Government includes a commitment to ensure all state boards have a 40% gender balance, but this does not apply to private companies.
A (non-binding) resolution on Violence Against Women in the European Parliament in April
This non-binding resolution will be going through the European Parliament in April :
(EU) EP/WOMEN: Directive to tackle violence against women
Brussels, 16/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - A criminal law instrument in the form of an EU directive against gender-based violence should be put in place. Rape and other sexual violence against women should be recognised as a crime throughout the EU. Perpetrators should be prosecuted automatically. All reference to cultural, traditional or religious practices, including so-called "honour crimes" and female genital mutilation, as mitigating factors should be rejected. These are the main calls from the European Parliament (EP) women's rights and gender equality committee on Tuesday 15 March, as it adopted the report by Eva-Britt Svensson (GUE/NGL, Sweden) by 27 votes to none, with 2 abstentions.
The EP committee calls on member states to: - recognise rape and sexual violence against women as a crime, particularly within marriage and intimate informal relationships and/or where committed by male relatives; - consider stalking as a form of violence against women and treat it by means of a common legal framework in all member states; - develop age-appropriate psychosocial counselling to help child witnesses of all forms of violence to cope with their traumatic experiences; - provide at least one shelter per 10,000 people victims of gender-based violence.
To prevent exploitation, the EU and its member states should establish laws guaranteeing immigrant women the right to hold their own passports and residence permits. It should be made possible to hold a person criminally responsible for taking these documents away.
Context. Of all women in Europe 20-25% have experienced physical acts of violence at least once during their adult lives. More than one-tenth have suffered sexual violence involving the use of force.
Women do not have equal protection against male violence across the EU, because the relevant national laws and policies differ from one member state to the next. In several member states, violence by men against women in the form of rape is not treated as a state offence and does not result in automatic prosecution. (G.B./transl.rt)
April 2011 plenary
French plan to harmonise women's rights wins EU supporters
Published: 09 March 2011
Brussels is warming up to the idea of harmonising women's rights across Europe, an idea launched by a French lawyer, whose call to apply the best laws across member states is beginning to attract supporters.
Background :
Gender equality is a key political objective for the EU and a central facet of its non-discrimination strategy. It is also considered important for achieving the EU's economic and social goals as enshrined in the EU 2020 blueprint for sustainable economic growth.
The Roadmap for equality between women and men 2006-2010 defines existing areas and proposes new areas of action, namely : equal economic independence for women and men, reconciliation of private and professional life, equal representation in decision-making, eradication of all forms of gender-based violence, elimination of gender stereotypes and promotion of gender equality in external and development policies.
Politically, the Barroso II Commission has also taken a strongly pro-equality line. When putting together his team, Barroso pushed member states to nominate female commissioners, yet the number of women chosen (nine out of 27) ended up matching that of the previous term. In Europe, only 24% of national MPs and 27% of government members are female.
More on this topic :
News:Bonino: Forget quotas, punish gender discrimination
News:Gender equality is 'unfinished business'
The so-called 'Clause de l'Européenne la plus favorisée', launched by French lawyer Gisèle Halimi and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, co-founders of the French association Choisir la cause des femmes, was presented yesterday (8 March) at the European Parliament, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Women's Day.
The clause aims to harmonise European legislation to secure the same rights for all European women on the basis of 14 national laws most favourable to women.
It is designed to widen the scope of EU directives on gender discrimination, which are limited to employment, to include all aspects of daily life, such as social protection, education, accessibility and housing.
Naming and shaming exercise :
According to comparisons carried out by the French association, Sweden stands out with its well-paid parental leave, part of which is reserved for fathers.
Spain is exemplary for its legislation against domestic violence and France for its laws regarding rape.
Sweden has sought to eliminate prostitution by criminalising it for prostitutes and clients alike, while Lithuania has taken precautions against sexual harassment in its employment laws.
France scored highly on all aspects of women's work, whereas Belgium wins on the subject of absolute gender parity in all elections.
These are all examples which could be mainstreamed across Europe, Halimi believes.
"Women's rights are currently under threat in all member states. You can see this in particular in the right to abortion or employment law, where the crisis has further accentuated inequalities. Therefore we must remain attentive and renew on a regular basis the study that was done for the clause," pointed out Elisabeth Riboud, national secretary of the organisation 'Choisir la cause des femmes'.
The work is carried out by the Institute of Gender Equality in Vilnius, which is expected to issue within the next year a comparative study on women's rights in EU member states.
Political support :
Halimi's clause idea has already progressed through the maze of French politics.
The French parliament adopted last year a resolution that aims to engage France in harmonising women's rights across Europe on the basis of the clause.
French Socialists & Democrats MEP Pervenche Berès, chair of the European Parliament's employment and social committee, has proposed to author an own-initiative report on such a clause.
French European People's Party MEP Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, vice-president of the Parliament's women's rights and gender equality committee, also wants the clause to be discussed by MEPs.
The French minister for solidarity and social cohesion, Roselyne Bachelot, is among the leading supporters of the clause. Reportedly, Bachelot presented Halimi's clause to EU social affairs ministers on 6 December.
Is harmonisation feasible? :
The French organisation believes harmonisation is possible. But not everybody agrees, even in France.
"The clause is a very good idea, which makes sense and could help national legislation evolve," said Brigitte Grésy, a top French official on social affairs, stressing that a comparative exercise would be beneficial and stimulating.
"Nonetheless, an integral transposition of a law in the other member states is difficult as every law responds to a specific context that differs from the context in the other member states," added Grésy.
She cited in particular the example of a Norwegian law to establish a 40% quota of women in board rooms, which she defended before the French government.
"France adopted this law at the end of January, but not with the same sanctions [Norway prescribes the dissolution of the company in case of breach of the quotas, France only the annulment of the appointment], otherwise the law would never have passed," she said.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel preferred to allow companies to set their own quotas and promised that they would take stock within two years. Elisabeth Riboud remains optimistic, however.
"In effect, we realise that such an enterprise is technically difficult. But Europe is still young and under construction. We must give it time," she said.
PES Women call for the EU to address mainstream issues
like gender pension gap and not just 'women in the boardroom'
PES Women launch pension campaign video; "It's different for women"
Press release - Party of European Socialists (PES)
Event - International Women's Day
7 March, 2011, Bruxelles
Speaking before the launch of the Party of European Socialists (PES) campaign, 'It's different for Women', the President of PES Women, and Hungarian Member of the European Parliament, Zita Gurmai MEP stated that;"On International Women's Day, the European Union must send a signal that the lives of ordinary women are central in our concerns. On the fundamental issue of pensions, the European Commission should be leading the charge in closing the structural gaps between men and women. It is all very well to look at the gender gap in the boardroom, but outside those windows there are gender gaps that continue long into old age".
Women are being disadvantaged for contributing to society. For reasons that are often beyond their power such as the pay-gap, taking care of children and the elderly and because of work in precarious and undervalued sectors, women are all too often in receipt of pensions barely above the minimum subsistence level. Their pension income as a proportion of men's is difficult to calculate but could be about 66% in Italy, 60% in Britain, and 56% in France, 42% in Germany.
The OECD's 'Pensions at a Glance' for 2009 and Romanian MEP Rovana Plumb's report on female poverty provide substance to these claims.
All European societies are facing aging populations and pension systems all over Europe are being reformed. These reforms are now mostly led by conservative governments that don't specifically take into account a gender dimension. They should, because pension issues are gendered. Women aged over 65 years are at a much higher risk of poverty than men: on average the poverty risk for women is 22% versus 16% for men.
Ms. Gurmai added that; "Investing in gender equality rather than going down the road of the Annual Growth Survey is essential. We believe in investing in childcare facilities, in the equal sharing of domestic work, in a renewed effort of tackling the pay gap, in fair parental leave and in designing equality and redistribution into pension schemes, such as generous carer credits. Some of these factors we have illustrated with the animation, but all of them majorly impact on women's wellbeing in retirement".
Irish business should sign up to EU boardroom gender pledge
After meetings today March 2nd 2011 with European business leaders, Commissioner Viviane Reding challenged them to sign a "Women on the Board Pledge" by March 2012. This pledge represents a voluntary commitment to increase women's presence on corporate boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020. It is open for signature by all publicly listed companies in Europe.
Read Nessa Childers MEP Statement
Poland to put forward 35% women
Read News
Lobby minister for maternity leave legislation
On 20th October 2010, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution in favour of 20 weeks fully paid maternity leave throughout the EU, and two weeks fully-paid paternity leave. Now, it is up to national governments to discuss, and hopefully approve, the Parliament's proposal. These discussions will start on Monday 6 December.
The debate is going to be very heated and, in order to get agreement on this crucial legislation on the reconciliation of work and family life through, the European Women's Lobby is asking everyone to get in touch with the minister in charge as well as relevant decision-makers / officials as soon as possible and before the meeting on 6 December and convince them to back the Parliament's proposal.
European Commission adopts new strategy on gender equality
The European Commission has adopted a five-year strategy for promoting equality between women and men in Europe. The strategy aims in particular to make better use of women's potential, thereby contributing to the EU's overall economic and social goals.
The strategy spells out a series of actions based around five priorities: the economy and labour market; equal pay; equality in senior positions; tackling gender violence; and promoting equality beyond the EU. They include:
- Getting more women into the labour market and helping to reach the Europe 2020 target employment rate of 75% overall for women and men
- Putting forwardtargeted initiativesto get more women into top jobs in economic decision-making
- Promoting female entrepreneurship and self employment
- Instituting an annual European Equal Pay Day to raise awareness of the fact that women continue to earn an average of nearly 18% less than men across the EU
- Working together with all Member States in combating violenceagainst women, especially eradicating female genital mutilation in Europe and beyond.
The Commission will also set up a yearly top-level Gender Equality Dialogue involving the European Parliament, the Council presidencies, European social partners and civil society to assess progress in implementing the strategy
Declaration of the European Parliament of 9 September 2010 on establishing a European Year of Combating Violence against Women
Read European Year of Combating Violence Against Women
CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP: THE CHALLENGES AND THE SOLUTIONS
Socialist International Women : Regional meeting, Oslo Norway, April 2010
Across Europe the average pay gap between women and men currently stands at 18%. For women, the pay gap has a major impact on lifetime earnings and pensions. Earning less money means that women have less financial freedom. It also means that women will have a lower pension which can lead to a higher risk of growing old in poverty.
The gender pay gap is linked to a number of legal, social and economic factors which go far beyond the single issue of equal pay for work of equal value. The attitudes to the role of women and men in society; the traditions in balancing work and family household responsibilities; the expectation that women are the primary care givers; the different value given to male and female skills as well as the ongoing discrimination and inequalities in the labour market are all factors that mainly affect women and have lead to the gender pay gap.
Over the past 15 years there has been some considerable progress towards gender equality in the labour market in Europe but the gender pay gap has remained unchanged and continues to be the most persistent form of discrimination between women and men in the workplace in Europe.
That women continue to earn less than men is not just wrong, but also economically counter-productive. The gender pay gap is an obstacle to gender equality which should be recognised as a complex problem and should be addressed immediately by all actors in the professional sphere. Political pressure and the implementation of measures to fight this unfair reality for women are also vital in order for women to enjoy full gender equality in the workplace.
Therefore, the Socialist International Women calls on governments and the member parties of the Socialist International to:
Respect the laws and directives on equal pay for work of equal value;
Implement measures in all relevant policy processes with the aim to closing the gender pay gap;
Work in close cooperation with trade unions to find solutions and to undertake concrete measures to closing the gender pay gap;
Encourage employers and companies to introduce reporting and transparency on pay;
Promote family friendly policies (taking into account the different family structures) in both the private and public sector such as flexible working hours decided jointly by employers and employees; and better care facilities for children and the elderly with the aim to create a more equal work-life balance within families;
Introduce quotas for women in leadership positions in private companies and the public sector and
Ensure that gender-disaggregated statistics in the labour market be introduced and harmonised worldwide in order to obtain comparable data.
Finally, the Socialist International Women calls on governments, member parties of the Socialist International, social partners, non-governmental organisations and the media to:
Support campaigns and raise awareness of the gender pay gap and its causes and
Encourage and support initiatives to promote gender equality at the workplace in the private and public sector.
News from the European Women's Lobby
Read EWL News April 2010
Women want a different Europe
Conclusions from the hearing 'Towards 2014: What are the links between women and the EU?' Although they make up 51% of the population of the EU, women have weaker ties to it than men.
At least that's the view of DG Comm's Public Opinion Marketing Unit, which came to this conclusion together with the market research company TNS Opinion.
The first stage was quantitative, with several pre- and post-election survey carried out in 2008-2009, followed by a qualitative stage, which took the form of a second survey carried out after the European elections.
The results of the two and a half year-long series of surveys are contained in 50 or so pages of tables and graphs.
Food for thought...
What is the relationship between women and the EU? How did women vote in the European elections in 2009? What can be done to change things in 2014?
To try to answer these questions, DG COMM organised a hearing on 2 March entitled "Towards 2014: What are the links between women and the EU?", organised shortly before seminars and events to mark International Women's Day.
MEPs, media representatives and NGOs all took part. Vice-Chairs Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (information and communication), Silvana Koch-Mehrin (equal opportunities and diversity) and Edite Estrela, Vice-Chair of the FEMM Committee, chaired the debates in turn.
'What women want' results of the various surveys showed that:
- women have less of a sense of belonging to the EU than men;
- they are still too often the victims of clichés and inequality;
- they are largely responsible for bringing up children and looking after the elderly;
- they are more interested in local and national politics (which have a greater bearing on their everyday lives) than European politics;
- they are not concerned by the same issues as men and they have different expectations (they are more concerned with social, environmental and solidarity-driven policies);
- the pay gap between men and women in the EU is still 17% on average;
- 32% of women on average have felt discriminated against at some point because of their gender (22% in Malta, 43% in Sweden!);
- they have trouble seeing the impact the EU has on their everyday life and criticise the media, who tend to focus on incidental issues or conflicts within the EU rather than its benefits;
- men who stand for election are given greater media coverage than women during a European election campaign (currently 35% of MEPs are women).
If you add to that the fact that more women than men have been victims of the economic downturn, then you can see why the message isn't getting through.
Reversing the trend
The aim of the hearing was to try to identify some useful avenues for reviewing policies in order to reverse the trend by 2014. Here are some of the ideas suggested:
- adapting the EP's message to different target groups, particularly women;
- developing and repeating this message over the five-year period;
- putting in place policies which interest women directly (e.g. the gender pay gap, strategy for childcare facilities and care for the elderly, child rearing, violence against women, etc.);
- passing the message on to men as well (for example, helping them understand that the gender pay gap works against them as well by lowering their standard of family life);
- Use social networks even more, to establish a permanent dialogue, in real time, between women and the EP;
- increasing the involvement of NGOs, which can help to spread the word to women;
- campaigning on issue of greater interest to women.
It's now up to DG COMM and politicians to play their part.
However, the post-election work of Jacques Nancy's team is not over yet: "Another lesson to be drawn from our research is that fewer young people (another major target group) voted in 2009 compared to other age groups: an average of 43 % throughout the UE against 29 % for 18-24 year-olds (i.e. 14 percentage points less). Their outlook tends to be more global than European."
Social networks immediately spring to mind...
European Parliament votes on Annual Report on Equality between Men and Women
The European Parliament voted on its annual report on equality between men and women in the first week of February. Nessa Childers MEP voted for this report along with Proinsias de Rossa MEP and Joe Higgins MEP . Alan Kelly MEP could not make the vote due to a Dell workers meeting. All other Irish MEPs voted against.
Read Report
Proposed initiative - protecting victims of domenstic violence in Europe
Brussels, 07/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 7 January, the Spanish Presidency unveiled a legislative proposal to protect victims of domestic violence in the EU. If adopted, the draft directive on a European victim protection order would allow member states to recognise and apply victim protection measures ordered in another member state. For example, a violent husband, on whom Spanish courts had put a restraining order preventing him going near his wife after his being convicted of violence towards her, would be subject to the order no matter the county to which his wife may decide to move. A number of delegations, such as the United Kingdom's, however, believe that the proposal raises the issue of the legal basis. Several countries' legal systems make preventive measures related to victim protection a civil, rather than a criminal, matter. Other delegations fear that Europe-wide protection measures may be not only disproportionate, given the potential number of people involved, but also difficult to apply, for example, when victims travel to another European country on holiday. For more information see EUROPE 10035. (B.C./transl.rt)
European Roundup, October, 2009
First, it is wonderful to report the strong majority for the Lisbon Treaty, on an increased turnout, in the Referendum on 2nd October. There is also the good news from Portugal and Greece, where is looks like the PS and PASOK will be forming the governments.
PES Women meeting, 23rd September This was held in Brussels and concentrated further on the outcome of the European Parliament elections and its impact on the work of the PES for the next five years. Everyone was very interested in the outcome on 2nd October.
Eamon Gilmore at a recent meeting of PES Party Leaders proposed that each country should be required to offer two nominations, a man and woman, for Commissioner, so that the President of the Commission could make sure that there was gender balance in the Commission! When each country makes only one nomination in isolation it is impossible to ensure gender balance.
Make-up of Parliament :
Ireland and the Czech Republic were the only countries to increase their PES representation, the other 25 sister parties lost seats. The original PES parties won 163 seats compared to 215 in 2004. As I reported before, the MEPs of the new Italian Partito Democratico, most of whom would have been in the parties affiliated to the PES, joined the PES group in Parliament to form the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), bringing the number to 184. Fianna Fáil have changed their group and are now members of ALDE (Liberals) which remains the 3rd largest group with 84 MEPs. The UK Conservatives changed from the EPP (Christian Democrats) to the eurosceptic ECR : European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
A worrying trend has been the growth of the far right and nationalist groups.
Gender Balance: In the S&D the percentage of women is 40% compared to 41% in 2004. Overall in the European Parliament the percentage of women is 35% compared to 31% in the last Parliament. We need to make sure that women MEPs support progressive policies that promote the interests of women.
This is a very good site for a detailed breakdown:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/archive/elections2009/en/new_parliament_en.html
EP Committees. The new Chair of the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee is Eva-Britt SVENSSON, a feminist from GUE (Green Left). Edite Estrella one of our MEPs from Portugal is a Vice-Chair. Zita Gurmai the PES Women President is Vice-Chairwoman of the very important Committee on Constitutional Affairs which oversees the work of the European Union, she is also a Member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality; the Delegation to the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and a substitute on both the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
Of our own MEPs, Nessa Childers is a member of both the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and Delegation for relations with Japan and is a substitute on the Committee on Culture and Education. Alan Kelly is a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Delegation for relations with the United States. He is a Substitute on the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee. Proinsias de Rossa as an experienced MEP is Chair of the Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, a member of Conference of Delegation Chairmen and the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and a Substitute on the Committee on Development.
Women's Rights Charter. The PES, in its Manifesto for the 2009 elections put forward the proposal of a "European Women's Rights Charter to improve women's rights and opportunities and to promote mechanisms to achieve gender equality in all aspects of social, economic and political life". The meeting agreed to set up a working group comprising PES Women members, like-minded NGOs such as the European Women's Lobby, European Women Scientists, other close partners (ETUC, ECOSY, S&D) and experts on gender equality. The group should report to the PES Congress in December. The President of the Commission, Barroso has agreed to support this charter.
PES Women timetable of activities. This has changed, again! The next PES Congress will be held in Prague on Monday and Tuesday 7-8th December. The PES Women conference will be held on the previous Saturday 5th December on the theme "Visions for a new feminism for the 21st Century". The elections for the new President and Executive Committee of PES Women will be held at this meeting.
The next Committee meeting will be held on Saturday 14th November in Stockholm. Inger Selderstrom (who has retired from the EP) has offered to organise a day of activities and visits on the Friday.
SI Women. The next Council will be held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on 20 and 21 November 2009
European Roundup July 2009
The European elections, while a success for us, were not very good for the PES overall and we lost some of our best women MEPs, including Pia Locatelli from Italy and Marusya Lyubcheva from Bulgaria. The parliamentary group have joined with the MEPs of the new Italian Partido Democratico to form the Socialists and Democrats group. For the current make up of the Parliament and proposed committees see:http://www.euractiv.com/en/ as well as the official site and http://www.europarl.europa.eu
The Women's Rights committee is no longer in danger and together with the new Gender Institute should not only continue but improve the focus.on women's issues for the term of this parliament.
The parties on the left have combined to block the automatic reappointment of Barroso as President of the Commission, and the hearings for the appointment of the new President of the Commission won't happen until the autumn.
The first session of the new European Parliament is on 14 - 16th July in Strasbourg. Former Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek has been elected European Parliament president today (14 July), becoming the first politician from a former communist country to lead an EU institution. He is a member of Solidarnosc, part of the centre-right EPP group. The Chairs of the various committees are being selected..when the President of the Parliament will be elected and the committee chairs.
On 30th June the Constitutional Court of Germany found that "there are no decisive constitutional objections to the Act Approving the Treaty of Lisbon".
The court specifically stated that the treaty would not lead to the formation of an EU state and the EU under Lisbon would remain "an association of sovereign states to which the principle of conferral applies". However, the court decided that the German chambers of parliament would need to be granted a stronger voice in EU affairs by the German government.
On 26-27th June I attended the Socialist International Women Council meeting in Montenegro.
The theme was "The impact of the global financial crisis on women" and there were interesting papers from the different regions on how they were affected. Pia Locatelli, the President, in her opening remarks pointed out that the income gap between industrialised and developing countries is narrowing while the gap between rich and poor within the individual countries is widening. She referred to a study which shows that companies with a high percentage of women in leadership positions make higher profits, since women are less "adventurous" and less focussed on personal success but rather that of the company.
The keynote speakers were:
Mirjana Feric-Vac, MP, SIW Vice-President, Croatia, on Eastern Europe
Altai Dulbaagiin, Mongolia, chair of the women's organisation of MPRP, on Asia,
Rosalie Kaboré, Burkina Faso, Women's coordinator of the PDP/PS, on Africa,
Clara Liebermann, Costa Rica, Secretary for Gender Development, PLC, on Latin America, and
Barbara Prammer, SIW-Vice-President, Austria, Speaker of the Austrian Parliament, on Western Europe.
The Council meeting (formerly called Bureau) was attended by 50 delegates from 28 countries, or 34 organisations respectively, as well as about 30 observers from the host country.
Three resolutions were discussed and adopted: one on the main theme, one on the sale of a rape computer game in Japan and an emergency resolution on Iran (to be found on the website of SIW).
The PES women meeting that was to have been held on 28th April was cancelled, as it was too close to the elections. The next meeting will be on 23rd September.
PES meeting, 19th February This was held in Brussels and concentrated on
preparations for the 2009 European Parliament elections, and publicising the PES Manifesto.
Most countries still didn't have their lists drawn up, though Zita Gurmai is number three on her party list in Hungary, and in Germany they are renewing their lists, with new candidates replacing MEPs who have served several terms. A particular loss is Lissy Groener, who was a former chair of the Women's Rights committee, and a great activist. She was a strong campaigner for the DAPHNE programme against domestic violence.
PES Women are strengthening our links with the parties in countries that have not been attending our meetings and pushing for women's issues to be kept on the European agenda. Both the SP in France, which now has Martine Aubry as General Secrerary, and UK Labour have promised to become more active, and Lynn Brown, an MP attended this meeting. Harriet Harman has put Women and the Economic Crisis on the agenda for the G8 in April.
PES Women will be part of a campaign to have gender parity in the number of commissioners appointed in the autumn after the European Elections, supported by the EWL.
The next PES Congress will be held in Prague on 7-8th December. It was initially proposed that our conference would be on the day before, but it now seems that it will be on 14th November in Stockholm instead.
THE IMPACT OF THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS ON WOMEN
SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL WOMEN
Council, Petrovac, Montenegro
26 and 27 June 2009
RESOLUTION
The world is now going through the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression and it may turn out to be the greatest financial crisis ever. Even with an impressive array of economic international institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF, the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and many central banks, the financial crisis could not be prevented. In other words these institutions have failed. The crisis can be called a man made disaster, because women are still insignificant bearers of political power on all levels and virtually excluded from decision-making positions in the financial and economic sector. However as with previous financial crises women and children are the most affected.
In general, national recovery plans give priority to the industrial sector. As a result companies that receive financial support are disproportionately male, for example the construction, transport and car industry. This means that support is given to the future of men's employment without offering more space for women and this leads to greater inequality in terms of opportunities for women in their economic development. For instance, in Asia women are most likely to have jobs in the informal sectors of the economy with virtually no job security and lower wages which makes them more vulnerable to unemployment without any financial compensation. In factories women are more likely to be less skilled than men and therefore more likely to be the first to be made redundant. Since employment in the care sector is dominated by women, cuts in public spending on social services affect mostly and severely women, increasing their domestic and care-giving tasks.
Never before the livelihoods of so many people in the world's poorest countries have been so directly affected by circumstances in the richest countries. For many of the poorest countries remittances from immigrants in developed nations are a major source of household income. Because of the rise of unemployment in Europe and North America remittances to Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe have reduced substantially. Studies have shown that when household income declines girls are more likely to be withdrawn from school in order to contribute towards the household income. This is a cause of great alarm because girls and women may even end up being trafficked with the promise of a job and pushed into prostitution.
Social democratic governments have the moral obligation to prevent a rise in poverty, inequality and exclusion. Ending global poverty begins with women. Women in developing countries are more likely to spend their income on food, education and health care for their children, which will reduce poverty in the long term. Greater economic opportunities need to be implemented as a way of empowering women and their families to combat poverty.
The global economic crisis is a threat to development, but it also presents an opportunity for world leaders to push the development agenda forward. Also, development aid needs to be sustained rather than drastically reduced in order for governments to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Micro-credit schemes have been very successful in allowing the poorest women to have access to small loans. Micro-credit is a lifeline for women and needs special protection during economic crises.
The current crisis can provide an opportunity to acknowledge that the time has come to involve women in the running of economies. Women are entitled to be in positions of financial decision-making. Also, it is important to highlight the fact that women have a different, more cautious approach to risk taking. Therefore the inclusion of women in financial decision-making may change strategic priorities of financial institutions in a way that benefits not only women, but also the system as a whole.
In addition, this financial crisis is an opportunity to show that another vision of the world is possible, a more inclusive world in which equality between women and men will lead to a sustainable and effective implementation of human rights, to democracy and good governance.
Gender budgeting is an application of gender mainstreaming in the budgetary process. It means gender-based assessment of budgets, incorporating a gender perspective at all levels of the budgetary process and restructuring revenues and expenditures in order to promote gender equality. However, since gender budgeting initiatives in many countries have been implemented outside the macro-economic policy framework, they sometimes failed to benefit women.
The Socialist International Women (SIW) calls on governments to:
- Address the gender dimension of the impact of and the solution to the economic crisis;
- Invest in childcare, education, health care and other social services, as this will ensure an equal start in life for the children of the socially excluded, diminish unjust social differences and generate jobs for women;
- Take into account the gender dimension in the new rules and regulations of the global financial system;
- Take into account the gender dimension when drafting and implementing recovery plans and when investing in and financially supporting companies;
- Put pressure on the international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF to continue to provide financing for micro-credit schemes that benefit women;
- Ensure that gender responsive budgets are founded on a gender-sensitive macro-economic policy framework;
- Introduce legislation which makes gender budgeting mandatory as well as ensuring its strict implementation and
- Change electoral systems in order to ensure equal representation of women and men in all decision-making bodies at all levels, as well as enforce by law the same rules in financial institutions and company boards regardless of their status as private or public
European Women's Lobby give Labour Grouping GREEN LIGHT
European Women's Lobby (EWL) have audited all the European Election Manifestos and give PES the GREEN LIGHT - the only grouping to receive the best rating.
More information http://www.5050democracy.eu/
European Elections 2009
As all the EU member states prepare for European Elections, in Ireland Labour's European candidates put themselves forward to offer people a choice : the choice to elect a voice in the powerful Labour grouping in the European Parliament.
Labour is the only party in Ireland to offer 50/50 gender balance for the electorate - two out of four candidates are women. Nessa Childers in Ireland East and Susan O'Keeffe in Ireland North West have been listening to the people around their constituencies. People want change, accountability, action and integrity from their MEPs. In all four Labour candidates the people will get that.
Read Labour's European Candidates www.labour.ie
European Roundup February 2009
The PES Women's Executive and PES MEPs have been very busy in the early weeks of 2009.
The European Parliament adopted a report by the Spanish MEP, Teresa Riera Madurell, on the problems in the implementation by member states of the EC Directive 2007/73 on Gender Equality in the Workplace and which called on the Commission and member states to take action on the issue.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2008-0491+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
The Czech Presidency of the EU intended to propose a review of the EU childcare targets of having 30% of pre-school children in childcare, agreed to in 2001, questioning their relevance. PES Women organised a strong PES campaign against this, with Jan O'Sullivan of Ireland one of the national spokespersons speaking out as well. As a result, the proposal did not gat through.
In January, the European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee held a public hearing on the report by Edite Estrela of Portugal on the Commissioner for Social Affairs proposals for improvements in the safety and health at work of workers who are pregnant, have recently given birth or are breast-feeding, as part of the Commission's work-life balance package. The measure is opposed by right wing MEPs and BusinessEurope, but supported by MEPs of the left and ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation), who also pointed out the need to deal with paternity leave as well. A meeting will take place in Strasbourg on 9th March, and amendments to the report can be added until 17th March
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/FindByProcnum.do?lang=2&procnum=COD/2008/0193
In February, the Women's Rights Committee held a public hearing on anonymous childbirths and the difficult balance to be found between the mother's rights and children's rights, especially those to do with information, and the differences in laws and cultures in the EU.
Harriet Harman gave a presentation on her analysis on the different impacts on men and women of the recent financial and economic crisis. She will input gender equality perspectives at the G20 summit in April as she is convinced that women's voice must be heard and taken into account.
The lack of women in leading post in the EC and its external relations delegations was raised an AFET committee workshop on gender mainstreaming.
There was a lunch debate organised by the EU Civil Society Contact Group on gender budgeting with a strong contribution from the EWL: European Women's Lobby.
EU documents of interest:
How has the EU improved gender equality in the past 30 years?
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/public/story_page/014-50228-068-03-11-902-20090223STO50152-2009-09-03-2009/default_en.htm
Celebration of the International Women's Day 2009
Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality
"Women and European elections"
Thursday, 5 March 2009 from 9.00 to 12.30
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/document/activities/cont/200902/20090219ATT50038/20090219ATT50038EN.pdf.
European Roundup January, 2009
PES Women held its Annual Conference in Madrid on 29 November, in partnership with PSOE, the Spanish Socialist Party This event is an occasion for PES Women members and interested parties to gather and discuss major issues related to women's rights and gender equality. Acknowledging the advanced policy of the Spanish government regarding gender equality, PES Women chose to focus on "Women in Politics".
On the eve of the PES Council, the launch of PES Manifesto, and of the European elections, the Annual Conference was well-timed for organizing a debate to link parity and democracy. More than 250 people from over 30 countries attended the event and 23 speakers contributed to a stimulating debate between PES Women members, Spanish PSOE activists, experts from NGOs, trade unionists, women leaders of European public institutions, and people active in the political world and civil society.
One of the invited speakers was Thérèse Murphy, former Chair of the NWCI, and Vice President of the European Women's Lobby. She was one of the speakers on the topic "Is Democracy Possible Without Parity".
The session of most relevance to us was
Towards Parity in Europe: Different European Models.
Talking about electoral systems to reach gender equality in the political field, there was an insistence on the need for quotas, whether voluntary or statutory, but they have to be complemented with real empowerment and real political engagement: women have to be given the chance to deal with all kinds of issues, not only gender equality, once they have got the power. Young political engaged women underlined the need to strengthen community of purpose between women of different ages.
The buzz phrase of the conference was very much Parity Democracy.
The booklet- What Europe Means to Me - that Ivana Bacik contributed to is now, at last, available and was launched in Madrid. Contact is you want a copy.
Activists Training Day. This was sandwiched between the PES Women conference and the PES Council, so I decided to attend. Other PES Activists from Ireland were there. It was organised and funded by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS). The session that I found most interesting was on "How do the PES and PES Groups work?".
Because of our lack of strong regional assemblies the profile of the Committee of the Regions in Ireland is almost non-existent, which is a pity as they do very good work a local level, close to the citizen.
The day finished with a political city tour and a reception in the centre of Madrid
PES Council. The main purpose of the meeting was the adoption and launch of the Manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections. The manifesto now has 6 themes
1. Relaunching the economy and preventing new financial crises
2. New social Europe - giving people a fairer deal
3. Transforming Europe into the leading global force against climate change
4. Championing gender equality in Europe
5. Developing an effective European migration policy
6. Enhancing Europe's role as a partner for peace, security and development
as you can see PES Women were successful in our campaign to have a theme on gender equality, and it not tagged on as no. 6!
The current Czech Presidency has created concern by its proposal to open debate about the relevance of EU child care targets. This is contained in a discussion paper due to be considered at an informal meeting of EU Family Ministers on 5 February in Prague. The PES Women Executive issued a statement this week saying they "strongly oppose any watering down of the EU child care targets."
PES Women Activities and Meetings
19th February PES Head Quarters, Brussels - Statutory meeting from 2.00 pm to 6.00 pm.
4th March European Parliament, Brussels from 17.00 pm to 19.00 pm - Joint debate PES Women and PES Group Women Committee -
7-8th March, Budapest, Hungary, PES Action Day
28th April PES Head Quarters, Brussels - Statutory meeting from 2.30 pm to 18.00 pm
PES Manifesto 2009 :Championing gender equality in Europe
Significant progress has been made towards achieving genuine equality between women and men in
recent years, largely thanks to the efforts of socialists, social democrats and democratic progressives
in partnership with progressive women's organisations.
There are, however, lingering inequalities: women still earn, on average, 15% less than men for doing
the same work; they are much more likely to be unemployed, discouraged from entering the labour
market by the lack of decent jobs, or in lower-paid, low-quality or part-time jobs.
Millions of women around the world still face exploitation and rights violations, in the form of human
trafficking, domestic violence and other abuses.
There are still too few women in politics over half a century after gaining the right to vote and stand for
election across Europe.
In some parts of Europe, men have hardly any rights to parental leave when their children are born.
Women often have to choose between having children and pursuing the career they want. Working
families find it hard to balance their professional and personal responsibilities. We can change this:
those European countries which have done most to increase women's rights and opportunities now
have the highest proportion of women in the workforce and the highest birth rates. We have also
campaigned relentlessly at local, regional and national levels to increase childcare places.
We will continue to fight gender stereotypes and believe that strengthening women's rights and
opportunities will bring significant economic, social and democratic benefits for all Europe's citizens.
Making gender equality a reality for all:
36. We propose to create a European Women's Rights Charter, to improve women's
rights and opportunities and to promote mechanisms to achieve gender equality in
all aspects of social, economic and political life.
37. We propose to introduce improved parental leave rights for men and women
across Europe up to the highest standards in Europe.
38. We will campaign for equal political representation of women and men in all
decision-making bodies at European level. We will campaign for a gender-equal
European Commission and a gender-equal European Parliament, and will call for
the creation of a European Commissioner for Gender Equality.
39. We will work to support parents so that they can balance their caring
responsibilities with their professional responsibilities. To support this goal, we
propose that member states achieve the existing EU target of 33% childcare
coverage for 0-3 year olds and 90% coverage for children from 3-school age, and
adopt complementary EU qualitative targets for childcare.
40. We will lead the fight to close the gender pay gap, which is vital to improve living
standards, fight poverty and increase economic growth.
41. We will encourage and support women entrepreneurs, scientists and researchers
to broaden their opportunities.
42. We will ensure and promote women's sexual and reproductive health rights
throughout the EU.
43. We propose to step up European efforts to eradicate human trafficking and sexual
exploitation through closer judicial and police cooperation.
44. We propose to encourage and support the EU and its Member States in their
efforts to stop domestic and gender-specific violence, including that perpetrated
against women of ethnic minorities, through all appropriate EU programmes and
funds.
A new European progressive reform agenda is essential to continue the work we have already
done in spearheading gender equality initiatives that help both women and men.
We can build a fairer society by putting people's first.
Let's take Europe in a new direction in June 2009.
High level women decision-makers gathering in Brussels support new Campaign to improve democracy and reach equality
Key European and national women decision makers met in Brussels on 16th September at the invitation of the European Women's Lobby for the launch event of the Campaign "50/50 No Modern European Democracy without Gender Equality".
During the event, Bibiana Aido, Spanish Minister for Equality stressed the need to correct structural inequalities between women and men: "We have to take into account that we come from different places: men have been socialised to take power, but women have been socialised not to take power!"
Asked whether more women in politics would make a difference, MEP Zita Gurmai (Hungary) answered: "Of course! I strongly believe that gender balance could make a difference, including in the type of politics and the subjects that are tackled, as men and women have complementary qualities in approaching subjects."
Speakers also discussed what they intended to do to change the situation. Emma Bonino, Vice President of the Italian Senate stated: "I don't think there is any miracle solution, but we need to start with political parties, challenge them and go vocal before they make their lists for the European elections".
Diana Wallis, Vice President of the European Parliament added: "We need symbols at the top of Europe to encourage the participation of more women. The idea is that there will be 4 top posts to be nominated at European level next year, at least 2 of those should be to women." In her supporting message, French Minister for Solidarity Valérie Létard also stressed: "When making their nominations for the European Commission, Member States should put forward more women".
Kirsti Kolthoff, President of the European Women's Lobby concluded: "Our Campaign aims at improving democracy and our members across Europe will be active to have our voice heard at different levels until the European elections. We want to reach parity in numbers, but we also want to make sure that the issues that matter to people, including equality, social justice and sustainable development are at the core of European politics".
In order to encourage action and participation, a new website was inaugurated during the event: www.5050democracy.eu, where people can express their support to the 50/50 Campaign.
While closing the event, Margot Wallström, European Commission Vice President stated "I was delighted to attend the launch of the EWL campaign and I fully endorse its objectives. There can indeed be no real European democracy if the make-up of our society is not reflected in the composition of our decision-makers"
European Roundup September, 2008
1. The booklet 'What Europe Means to Me' which Senator Ivana Bacik contributed to is now, at last, in the final stages of production and will be launched at the annual conference in November.
Conference will be held c.19-20 November at time of the Council.
2. PES backs more women at the top campaign
The PES has an entry on its Activists site encouraging them and member parties to support the European Women's Lobby 50/50 campaign for more women at the top of European politics http://www.5050democracy.eu
Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women and great supporter of the European Women's Lobby campaign, said: "It gives me great pleasure to support the European Women's Lobby 50/50 campaign. We need more women at every level of European politics, including at the top. It has been a disgrace to see how few women were ever mentioned in all that talk about people supposedly in the frame for top EU jobs. I think it made people realize that something needed to be done to promote the involvement of women. The EU is not a men's club."
For more info http://www.pes.org
3. 2009 European Parliament Elections. The Manifesto Process - the open consultation is now over, but the blog site is still open
http://manifesto2009.pes.org/
At the meeting on 9th October, PES Women will be agreeing our final amendments.
4. The PES condemned the jailing of Zakia Dhifaoui for taking part in a peaceful demonstration in Tunisia, and called for her immediate release.
The President of PES Women, Zita Gurmai, said "Zakia Dhifaoui is one of thousands of Tunisians making a peaceful case for freedom, democracy and social justice. She should never have been detained and never have been condemned to a prison sentence."
She is a member of the Democratic Forum for Work and Freedom, and was jailed for four and a half months following her arrest in July.
5. PES Women meeting in Ljubljana, 16th May. The meeting adopted the following 5 priorities for the 2009-2014 EU election programme:
1) Quality jobs and economic independence
2) Work-life balance - care for all
3) Parity in all decision-making
4) Campaign on trafficking, sex industry and violence
against women and children
5) Sexual and reproductive health and rights
Zita Gurmai also informed PES Women members about the PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen's, idea to have 5 priorities for the Manifesto and the campaign, which he will present as 5 flowers.
- Zita Gurmai's aim is to have gender equality as one of the 5 flowers.
During debate on the 2009 Manifesto papers, the meeting also discussed parity within member parties.
Regarding women's participation in member parties,
"PES Women members expressed their concern about the reality of parity rules in member parties. There should be measures/sanctions from a superior body, such as the PES, for parties that do not comply with parity rules and secure that such mechanisms function. Parity should be applicable at all levels; local, regional and national. Parity rules should also imply eligible places for women on the list. Once good legislation is in place, actions with NGOs, Trade Unions and even cross-party movements should be organised.
Taking into consideration the aging population and falling birth-rate, a better legislative framework should be put into place for women to combine work and private life, including for women in political careers.
6. Women's rights in Europe
Zitagave an overview of the current situation regarding women's rights and gender equality in Europe.
Europe is often considered as the catalyst for gender equality legislation at European and national level and this thanks to socialist input and efforts.
However, despite the achievements such as the Gender Roadmap, the Gender Pact and the agreement to establish the Gender Institute, there is a slow and very subtle conservative backlash.
To prevent this further development of the conservative backlash, action and political engagement needs to be taken.
a) The Gender Institute is still not operational despite the fact that it was supposed to be functional from January 2008. The President will meet Commissioner Spidla to discuss the issue and put on pressure.
b) Anti-discrimination Directive. In 2004, Commission President Barroso promised to deliver a Horizontal directive to cover anti-discrimination outside the working place based on Article 13.
However, the Commission seems to have shifted its approach and is planning on presenting a directive covering only disability. PES Women will write a joint letter with PSE Members of the FEMM Committee to Commissioner Barroso. The letter will be signed by Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women, and Lissy Gröner, PSE Coordinator for FEMM Committee. Commissioner Wallström should equally be informed about the letter.
c) Women's Rights issues and Committees;
There seems to be a danger of bringing Gender Equality issues back to National level, under subsidiarity, which will regress all progress made so far.
d) Due to the weak position of the present FEMM Committee, there is a danger of the Committee disappearing during the next mandate.
E) Zita underlined the need to keep the issue of Gender Equality as a social democratic theme, especially during the European Elections.
4. Charter of Women's Rights in the EU
The "Most favoured European Women's Clause", is a project of Gisèle Halimi, whose aim is to bring together the best practice of Women's Rights throughout Europe. This is to create a charter of women's rights based on the the best legislations/practices on women's rights of each member country.
As this dovetails perfectly with social democratic priorities, PES Women members agreed to take this issue up. The documentation will be circulated to all PES Women Members.
*Gisèle Halimi has devoted her entire life to championing the cause of women. A fight she began alongside Simone De Beauvoir, and marked by such media events as the Bobigny trial in 1972, as well as by less high-profile work in more recent times, such as her commitment to Choisir, an association founded in 1973, and whose magazine has today reached its 101st issue.
Back in 1980, issue 47 of Choisir published a Charter for Women in Europe and proposed a " clause for the most favoured European woman ", one which would refer on to the most go-ahead of European laws in the fight for women's rights. Issue 47 featured eight headings, including the right for women to choose to give birth, the right to work and to economic independence, etc.
27 years on from this call, Gisèle Halimi returns to the attack with a European clause which has moved on and been expanded by a study of the most advanced European legislation, for example Spain's Domestic Violence Act and Sweden's Prostitution Act. Gisèle Halimi has held meetings with commissioners Frattini and Spidla and comes to the European Parliament both confident in her convictions and fortified by her research and international encounters.
(From Socialist Group news)
European Women's Lobby launches campaign "50/50: No democracy without gender equality"
Brussels, 15/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Women's Lobby (EWL) launches its European campaign "50/50: no democracy without gender equality" on Tuesday 16 September with the aim of increasing the presence of women at the highest European political levels and encouraging women to vote in the upcoming European elections. The Vice President of the European Commission, Margot Wallström, will lead a discussion in which the Spanish Equality Minister Bibiana Aido, the Vice-President of the Italian Senate and former European Commissioner Emma Bonino and MEPs Zita Gurmai and Diana Wallis will participate.
Participants will attempt to respond to the following questions: why do the majority of political decision-makers wear a suit and tie?How is this linked to the democratic deficit? What is the experience of women who have reached the upper echelons? What would change in the EU if we had 50% women in power?
The campaign will be officially launched by the President of the EWL Kirsti Kolthoff and the Secretary General Myria Vassiliadou. More than 100 European figures, including Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, former Irish President Mary Robinson, Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk and former President of the European Parliament Simone Veil, have already lent their support to the campaign. Members of the public are invited to express their support by adding their name to the campaign's website (from 16 September 2009): www.5050democracy.eu
PES SUPPORTS 50/50 CAMPAIGN FOR MORE WOMEN AT THE TOP
The Party of European Socialists today underlined its full support for the European Women's Lobby 50/50 campaign for more women at the top of European politics.
Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women and who is taking part in the European Women's Lobby campaign launch today, said "It gives me great pleasure to support the European Women's Lobby 50/50 campaign. We need more women at every level of European politics, including at the top. It has been a disgrace to see how few women were ever mentioned in all that talk about people supposedly in the frame for top EU jobs. I think it made people realize that something needed to be done to promote the involvement of women. The EU is not a men's club."
PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said "Equal representation of women and men in political life is an important principle for socialists and social democrats. The PES is doing all it can to promote women in politics - as we are to achieve broader equality between women and men. There is still a long way to go, including within our own movement. We must, and we will, make progress towards equal representation of women and men in European politics."
PES 50/50 facts
* Its statutes commit the PES to "seek internal equality and equal representation of men and women in our bodies and meetings"
* The Spanish Socialist Government has a majority of women, and 10 out of 25 members of the British Labour Government are women
* Half the candidates chosen by the UK Labour Party for the 2009 European elections are women
* In Italian elections this year 30 per cent of those elected for the new Partito Democratico were women.
* The focus of this year's PES Women's Conference - taking place in Madrid on November 29 - is Women in Politics.
The PES encourages its activists and member parties to support the campaign by adding their names to the campaign.
Lisbon Treaty Referendum Research - what did women think about Lisbon?
Research has been conducted on why the Irish voted they way they did when asked to back the Lisbon Treaty. Women were one of the groups who voted 'No' in great numbers. Among the younger non-voter female focus group, many were not at all well informed on political issues, with some struggling to even name the main political parties. They felt they had "no political role model and politics had very little relevance to their lives generally".
"When I lived at home it wasn't a big thing, my family weren't too fond of watching the news either, I don't mind watching the news but when it comes to the stuff on politics and all that you do get a bit bored, the government giving out about something." - Non-Voter, Female -
Link for full report:
Lisbon Treaty Referendum Research Findings www.dfa.ie
European Roundup June 2008
Katherine Dunne, Labour Women's Communications Officer, attended the Socialist International Women XIX Congress in Athens at the end of June. The theme of the congress was 'Women's Rights are Human Rights' and women's rights to a Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Development, Gender Equality, Freedom of Movement, Peace, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Education and Security were discussed.
A resolution calling for action on these issues by governments and SI member parties was passed and a new SIW executive committee was elected. Marlène Haas of the Dutch Labour Party was re-elected to the position of Secretary General in a contest with Anne Sofie Allarp of the Social Democratic Party of Denmark. Pia Locatelli of the Italian Socialist Party remains as President. The Vice-President for Western Europe remains as Barbara Prammer of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. Barbara is the first female National Council President of Austria.
European Roundup April, 2008
1. 2009 European Parliament Elections. The Manifesto Process - is continuing. I had explained that in Ireland we were concentrating more, at the moment on the Lisbon Treaty referendum. There will be further discussion at the PES Women meeting in May.
The booklet on Europe Through Women should be ready by then, including our contribution.
2. Lisbon Treaty Referendum. LW have organised two events, and have been asked by various women's and community groups to attend discussion and information meetings that they are holding.
3. We now have the dates and venue for the Socialist International Women Congress which will be in Athens 27th - 28th June, just before the Socialist International Congress. Pia Locatelli, the outgoing President is the only nominee for that position. There will be an election for the position of General Secretary, with nominations for both Marlene Haas the outgoing General Secretary and Anne-Sophie Allarp International Secretary of the Social Democrats of Denmark. Barbara Prammer, the Speaker in the Austrian Parliament, is going forward unopposed as Vice-President for the Western Europe region to which Ireland belongs.
Manifesto 2009
Take part in the open consultation by the Party of European Socialists on priorities and progressive policies for our common manifesto for the European elections in June 2009.
PES 'YourSpace' opportunity to have an input to the European Policy manfesto.
European Roundup, March 2008
1. International Women's Day. The PES Women focus is on cultural diversity, as 2008 is the European Year for Intercultural Dialogue. To highlight the message that all women, no matter what cultural background, have the same human rights, the slogan is "The Same Rights - the Same Fights". To mark the day, the European Parliament will have a debate from 4:30 - 6:30 with a contribution from the President of Pan-African Parliament Gertrude Mongella and the Women's Rights Committee organised two conferences on 6 March.
"The role of women in Intercultural Dialogue" and
"Gender mainstreaming in parliamentary work"
Socialist International Women marked the day with a reaffirmation of the importance of IWD internationally, and the role of SIW in founding it.
2. 2009 European Parliament Elections. The Manifesto Process - the drafts and amendments to the policy documents will be circulated for further comment by 16th April.
Of relevance to this, there was a presentation by the web-editor of the Activists site, open to contributions from all members of PES member parties. About half the activity is by women members, which is encouraging. We need to publicise the site among our members.
4. There is a proposal for joint PES Women / ECOSY training for prospective MEP candidates and their support workers.
PES Women will have the issue of the implementation of the Party Statutes on gender balance for candidates for the 2009 elections raised at the next Leaders' Meeting .
5. PES Women meeting in Ljubljana, 16th May. The committee meeting will be in the morning, followed by a public meeting in the afternoon on the topic of Women and Economic Independence.
The Annual Conference will be held in November in Madrid to coincide with the PES Council meeting.
Women are now leaders of 5 of the PES member parties - Sweden, Denmark, Flemish Socialist, Netherlands and Iceland, and PES Women will try to organise a meeting of them, but this may be difficult because of time constraints.
6. During a discussion on policy priorities, it became clear that in the Nordic countries there is a surprising lack of sensibility to domestic violence and killing, and it is not seen as a political or law enforcement priority. This is mirrored in many other countries, which is why there has been so much support for the strong actions by the Socialist government in Spain. There is also a risk, that as Sweden and Finland have policies criminalising the users of prostitution, Denmark will become the red-light district for the region.
7. Socialist International Women. The next full Congress of the Socialist International will be held in June, at a date and venue yet to be notified. There will be SIW Congress as well, with elections for the SIW Executive Committee.
European Roundup, February 2008
Mary Flynn International Officer reports :
Things are picking up after a quiet start to the year.
PES Women are looking for input into the Manifesto for the 2009 European Parliament elections. They also intend to publish a booklet Europe Through Women's Eyes for the campaign
- 40 Contributions of 40 different women. Women should represent different geographical, social and professional background. If possible, appointed women should be a known or important figure in their field of expertise at national level. This may vary from politicians, to sports women, to NGO Presidents, to Businesswomen and artists.
- Each contributor should be appointed by one of the PES Women Member Organisation respecting the deadline of 15th February
There will be a PES Women meeting in Brussels on 28th February
The agenda includes
- planning for International Women's Day; meeting in Slovenia in May; annual conference in Madrid in November
- Publication mentioned above
- Report on SIW (Socialist International Women) - PES Women cooperation
- European Cervical Cancer Association
- Joint training courses ECOSY-PES Women
- Women's Rights Committee European Parliament
International Women's Day 2008
Conference on "The role of women in Intercultural Dialogue", on 6 March 2008 from 9.00 to 18.00, chaired by Anna Zàborská. Representatives of national parliaments will participate in the exchange of best practices on gender mainstreaming. Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, will open the conference.
Slovenian Presidency
On 30th January held a Conference Elimination of Gender Stereotypes: Mission (Im)Possible? addressing possible ways to eliminate traditional gender roles and gender stereotypes, especially in the areas of education, training, labour market, culture and media. The Conference is supported by the European Commission, and coincided with a meeting of the Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs
SIW
Socialist International Women (SIW) will attend the 52nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), to be held at the UN, New York, 25 February - 07 March 2008. This year the SIW is organising two parallel events.
Tuesday 26 February 2008 is entitled 'The First Hundred Years of the Socialist International Women'.
Contibutors:
- Pia Locatelli, MEP SIW President, Italy
- Marlène Haas, SIW Secretary General, The Netherlands
- Chantal Kambiwa, SIW Vice-President, Cameroon
- Margarita Zapata, SIW Vice-President, Mexico
Wednesday 27 February 2008 Co-hosted with the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations is entitled '100 Years of the Socialist International Women and the International Women's Day'.
Contibutors:
- Pia Locatelli
- Winnie Byanyima, Director of the UNDP Gender Team (TBC)
- Marlène Haas,
- Valeria Fedeli, Secretary General of the Italian General
Confederation of Labour, CGIL, Italy
EU Reform Treaty Referendum Campaign
I have been included in the membership of this committee, which has held its first meeting. The issue of women's opposition to the Treaty was raised. The arguments of PANA, and some of the other groups campaigning against the adoption of the treaty, that there will be a conscript European army are a strong influence, and counter arguments and possibly a pamphlet need to be drawn up.The timing is still uncertain.
__________________________________________
European Roundup, October 2007
PES Women
The last meeting of PES Women was on 12 June, in Berlin in the Willy Brandt Haus, headquarters of the SPD, coinciding with the EU Presidency of Germany.In the morning there was the usual Statutory meeting, followed by a special public meeting as part of the PES Childcare campaign.
Meeting had contributions from Elke Ferner, Chairwoman of Social-Democratic Women (ASF) of the SPD and Christel Hummel, MP, Spokesperson on Family, Pensioners, Women and Youth Issues, SPD.
Elke Ferner, spoke about the differences in the CDU and SPD coalition differences on childcare issues; CDU having a more traditional approach towards family issues and childcare services and she gave a historical overview of SPD / ASF and the development of gender equality policy.
Christel Humme spoke about the German Presidency of the EU and their programme on Gender Equality. The Trio-Presidency (Germany, Portugal and Slovenia) published a Declaration presenting the 18-month programme on Gender Equality issues
http://www.eu2007.de/en/News/download_docs/Mai/0515-BSGV/0515Erklaerung.pdf .
Note: The Trio-Presidency encourages continuity between Presidencies, and is made up of the past Presidency, the current holder, and the next one.
Christel Humme also reported on the German Presidency's initiative of the Alliance for Family.
She underlined the importance of going beyond demographic challenges (i.e. achieving higher birth rate when talking about family policies). In the European Union childcare and family support policies are discussed very much in the context of an aging population, and PES Women is to the forefront in challenging this approach and highlighting the gender equality issues. This was reflected in the discussion that followed, and at the public meeting held in the afternoon.
PES Women have adopted the practice in the past couple of years of holding some of our meetings to coincide with the location and date of meetings of the equality ministers, so as to increase visibility and relevance.
European Elections 2009
At the next meeting on 2nd and 3rd October there will be discussion on the elections in 2009.
Consultation for the PES Manifesto for the European elections 2009: There are several discussion papers available on the topics and we in LW need to debate them so as to have an input:
New Social Europe
European Democracy and Diversity
Europe in the world
Save our Planet
Socialist International Women (SIW)
100 Years at the Forefront of Gender Equality
Socialist International Women celebrated the centenary of its foundation in Stuttgart in August 1907. At that first meeting there were 58 delegates from 15 countries (including Japan and India). SIW now has 146 member parties from all over the world.
The meeting was addressed by a humbling group of women from the forefront of the contemporary struggle for the most basic rights:
Hussunbanu Ghazanfar, Minister for Women's Affairs of the Government of Afghanistan
And by video / audio cast
Shirin Ebadi of Iran, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner and winner of the 1990 elections
Rigoberta Menchu Guatemala, candidate in presidential election and Nobel Peace Prize winner
We were able to hear contributions from and talk with women from many other countries such as
Altai Dulbaagiin, Mongolian Democratic Socialist Women's Association
Chantal Kambiwa SIW Vice-Presidnet, SDF, Cameroon
And delegates from Kurdish parties in both Iraq and Iran
We also heard from women at the forefront of progressive political activity such as:
Teresa de la Vega First Vice-President of Spain who gave the keynote speech
Tarja Halonen, President of Finland,
Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand,
Barbara Prammer, President (Cathaoirleach) of the Austrian Parliament
The meeting passed a Declaration reconfirming our commitment to "fight for and achieve equal rights for women and men"
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Childcare News in Spain
Read 'Universal childcare in Spain'
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"Making the European Union Relevant for Women "
This booklet is the response of the Forum on Europe to several meetings it held around the country in the past year.It aims to clarify what the European Union actually does in relation to a number of issues that matter to women living in Ireland today. These include equal treatment of women and men at work, poverty, education and training, human rights, health, and women in decisionmaking. It also points out the areas in which the EU has no power to act - where it is up to the Member State.
Of particular interest to many community and campaigning groups, each chapter also highlights the existing funding programmes available.
"Making the European Union relevant to Women" Booklet
European Roundup, June 2007
PES Women : The next meeting of PES Women will be on 12 June, in Berlin in the Willy Brandt Haus, headquarters of the SPD. This is to coincide with the EU Presidency of Germany. In the morning there will be usual Statutory meeting, followed by a special public meeting as part of the PES Childcare campaign. The statutory meeting has a full agenda.International events to note are 8th September: Socialist International Women Centennial Celebrations in Stuttgart, where the first meeting was held, on 8th September, 2007 3-4th October: PES Women Statutory Meeting and Annual Conference on Women and Employability, Lisbon. We can send several participants to the conference.
General Election : During the general election campaign, following contacts made at the PES Congress last December in Lisbon, a number of PES Activists joined Labour in our campaign. They came from a number of countries - I met Activists from Hungary (a couple stayed with me for a few days), Portugal, Italy, Germany and Spain. They helped in several of our constituencies, including Meath East, Dublin Mid-West, Dublin North and Dublin South East. There was an interesting exchange of experiences of campaigning in different electoral systems. See Activist news on the PES website: http://www.pes.org/content/view/1084/1700092
Socialist International Women held a Regional meeting for Mediterranean East, Middle East, the Caucasus and Central and Eastern Europe, Yerevan, Armenia, 17 March 2007 on the topic Gender Dimensions of International Migration which passed a lengthy resolution with the final paragraph. Finally, Socialist International Women calls upon member parties of the Socialist International to advocate for parliamentary and governmental initiatives resulting in the implementation of laws and national action plans aimed at facilitating the integration of migrants with a special emphasis on gender
The next SIW Bureau meeting will be on 7th September, before the Centenary Celebration.
Meeting of PES Women Executive, 22nd February, 2007
PES Women in the PES office discussing PES Gender Pay Gap Campaign
The morning was devoted to usual business, with a meeting on the Gender Pay Gap in the afternoon and the launch of the .15% Salary Sale campaign.
Childcare Campaign. Presentation on the campaign, launched at the Congress in December by Patrick Lentz, of the PESSecretariat. They are willing to support campaigns as part of national elections.
The recent / forthcoming Presidencies of the EU have had / will have the following emphases on women's issues
Portugal Feminisation of Poverty
Austria Women in Science
Slovenia Girl child and stereotyping of education
Meeting on Gender Pay Gap - Just a Salary Issue
Ann Karamanou, Vice-President of PES Women and ex-chair of the EP Women's Rights Committee introduced the speakers. In her introductory comments she noted that for the first time the PES was influencing the national policies of the PES member parties and their governments, and because of the hard work of Zita Gurmai this influence includes PES Women.
This is seen in the major PES campaign on Childcare, which we had managed to amend and influence.
Marthe S. Lunde, Political Advisor to Ministry for Children and Equality, Norway, gave a brief presentation on the Norwegian model of setting gender quotas for the Boards of public limited companies.
The Act was passed in 2003, with 40% quota by end of 2006. Already 38.2% reached. While this was perceived as radical, in reality it was not groundbreaking for government to regulate companies. It has now become fashionable, and even companies that are not required to do so are appointing women to these senior positions. It is seen not just as a gender equality issue (only about 1,000 women affected) but about what kind of society is wanted and using the talents of all the population. There were the usual arguments - I don't want to be a quota woman, unqualified women will be appointed, etc. However Norway is used to using the law for social policy objectives. I asked about "flight of capital" - only about 10 foreign companies in the financial sector moved their head offices as a result.
Georgia Tsaklanganos. The Policy Officer of European Women's Lobby gave a presentation on "Mind the Gaps" on the occation of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and its equal pay provision. She pointed our that we are still committed to the male breadwinner lifecycle, which creates many gaps for women in their working lives and pension savings, with the economic and social .cost of care borne almost entirely by women.
Anne van Lancker, a Belgian MEP gave a lively presentation on an annual trade union Equal Pay Day campaign that she is involved in. (presentation available).
Commissioner Spidla, a Czech PES colleague, spoke to the meeting and reported on the Council of Social ministers that he just came from.
He was tackled by Saskia Duikes on the problem of legislating for part-time work without first addressing the male breadwinner model.
Sonja Lokar raised the issue of 40% quota for 2009 EP elections, and the support needed for gender work in the accession countries as the Stability Pact for the CEEC is being phased out. Georgia, from the EWL, tackled the Commissioner on the need for action on the issues she had raised, making the personal point that she was in the generation of young women that the EU wanted to reproduce so as to sustain the population, yet the EU and its member states did nothing to help women like her to lead a balanced, economically viable life.
PES Women Proposal for Childcare campaign actions
Type of actions
PES Women Executive suggested to organise 3 regional seminars,
each lead by one of the Vice-presidents, looking at best practices
in the region. At the end of the year there should be a conference
summarising the result of these 3 seminars.
Each seminar should identify a specific topic and encourage
debate and exchange of best practice.
After discussion with the PES Secretariat, it seems that joint
organisations with the PES for such seminars would be most
advantageous and productive. ECOSY and Committee of the
Regions are equally interested in this cooperation.
Procedure
First, PES Women should identify countries that are in favour of
organising seminars and actions to promote childcare.
Secondly, PES Women should look at how to bring a European
dimension to the campaign and the meetings it organises.
Thirdly, PES Women should try to involve the child carers, party
branches and MPs at local level. Try to avoid capitals and focus on
the regional aspect.
Fourthly, PES Women should identify potential hooks such as the
Spring Council, June Leaders meeting, Brussels Conference
regarding Barcelona Targets.
Timeframe
Suggestions for 3 dates for the seminars and the closing
conference. (March, June and October).
International Women's Day
Affordable childcare is the main theme for European Socialist Women this year. Privatisation of childcare is a concern. Women need affordable, quality childcare which enables them to work outside home and gives the child a good start in life.
Read PES Women and ECOSY joint Newsletter International Women's Day
Gender Pay Gap : Day of Action on 22nd February
22nd February marks the day when women's earnings for 2006 caught up with men's. Men stopped working at the end of 2006, but women had to keep working until now to earn what men earned. European Gender Pay Gap of 15% persists. In Ireland the gap has widened under FF/PD Government to 16%.
Read about Gender Pay Gap Day of Action
Read LW Press release
News : Segolene Royal selected socialist Presidential Candidate
Read about PES News
European Roundup, October 2006
Labour Women representative Mary Flynn attended the meeting of PES Women held in the Parliament Building in Helsinki on 7th October.
The date and venue of the meeting was arranged so as to dovetail with the Conference on Men and Gender Equality hosted by the Finnish government, who hold the EU Presidency, and the informal meeting of Ministers that followed it.
Zita Gurmai, the President of PES Women reported on the handing over to Mr Frattini, Commissioner for Freedom, Justice and Security, in June, of the signatures from our online petition on trafficking associated with the World Cup.
Major areas of discussion at the meeting were:
1) PES Childcare Campaign
Inger Segelström, Vice-president, presented the PES Childcare Campaign:
The ensuing debate underlined the importance for PES Women to actively and visibly participate in this campaign. While working on the campaign, we should also keep in mind the diverse approaches in the different member states and the growing trend of childcare privatisation and its consequences (to the detriment of quality and affordable childcare). PES Women members agreed to contribute towards the childcare campaign and would send their ideas as soon as possible. As soon as the proposal on Childcare is presented formally, it will be circulated
2) PES Women and the PES Congress in Portugal in December.
PES Women will be involved in three fringe meetings at the congress.
a) Meeting on Reproductive Rights and Abortion (the Portuguese are having a referendum on the issues. The report by Anne van Lancker to the Women' Rights Committee will be the basis of the meeting. We will draw up a fact sheet on the legislation in all the member states
b) Joint fringe meeting with ECOSY and SKN, the Nordic Social Democratic Women Network on trafficking. We agreed to include NGOs that work with prostitution and to have a speaker from one of the countries that have legalised, regulated prostitution and a speaker from one of the "countries of origin".
c) Joint fringe meeting with Committee of the Regions on representation of women's interests at local and regional level. Olga Fotinou, representative of PES Committee of the Regions addressed the meeting and she promised continued co-operation. Deadline for participations and suggestions is end of October. To be send to Olga directly.
PES Women elections will be held at Porto prior to the PES Congress (7-8 December). These are for the President, 3 Vice-Presidents and the Executive
The meeting also discussed the new PES Statutes with respect to equal representation within the delegations and agreed to underline and call on their own party delegations for equal representation.
3) Social Europe
Anna Karamanou, Vice-President, reported back from the closure conference on Social Europe in Paris on 21 September 2006. We welcomes the Social Europe Project and the importance given to gender equality. PES Women asks the support of PES on the Gender Pact as well as the Gender Roadmap 2006-2010.
There will be a separate meeting of the Congress,especially regarding these topics.
4) Informal Ministerial meeting on Gender Issue
Meg Munn, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality in the UK, reported on this. The Ministers discussed women and decisionmaking in the economic sector with a special focus on the Norwegian model regarding the introduction of quotas. She also mentioned the main points which the German Presidency will address; women and decision making and the balance of work and a family life, immigration and the creation of the Network of women in high decisionmaking positions.
5) Gender Equality Road Map 2006 - 2010:
Implementation of Gender Mainstreaming. Mr Spidla, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities briefed on the Ministerial meeting; women and decision-making in the economic sector. The participation of women is crucial and therefore elimination of stereotypes and change of mentality regarding the participation of men and women in social and professional life is essential.
Apart from the existing Roadmap and the upcoming Communication on the gender pay gap, the Commission is also working on Article 138 (EC Treaty) in order to enhance the reconciliation of work and family life.Mr Spidla encouraged an engagement in cooperation with the Trade Unions on the Communication from the Commission on the reconciliation of professional life, private life and family life.
Besides the economic growth and achieving the Lisbon strategy, Mr Spidla also believes that our priority for Gender Equality gives the European Union a specific characteristic on a global level.
In 2007, a network of women in high decision-making position will be established. He also mentioned the European Court case regarding unequal pay based on maternity leave: this is the second case since1999, based on working period performance and not of gender inequality. However, this system does not seem to be fair.
6) Gender Equality Legislation in Spain
Presentation by Maribel Montaño, Federal Secretary for Gender Equality of PSOE: The Organic Law for de facto Equality Between Women and Men in Spain.
Maribel informed PES Women about the content of the law as well as the time schedule. The gender equality legislation is not gender-oriented (i.e. only for women) but beneficial for all. It takes into consideration justice, strategic decisions for economic growth and takes advantage of all potentials available on the labour market. Hopefully this law as well as the electoral law will come into force in 2007.
We had an exchange of views on the Spanish law and decided that PES Women ask Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, PES President together with Prime Minister Zapatero to write a letter supporting such gender equality legislation, which is shown to be beneficial for all citizens in enhancing economic growth.
We will be informed about the development on this law (electronic link to the legislation in English).
7) Global Progressive Forum
Zita presented the proposal on Decent Work and Women in the context of the Global Progressive Forum. The aim is to launch the publication of the project in New York for the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in February 2006. PES Women members agreed to send contributions, concrete proposals or suggestions of people that should be contacted in order to develop the project. When covering the topic of informal economy, we should not only concentrate on developing countries but also on poorer regions and countries in the EU.
PES Women will present an intermediary document at the Congress in light of the Global Progressive Forum Fringe meeting at the PES Congress.
8) Forward planning for end 2006 - 2007
a) Zita Gurmai presented the draft resolution on violence against women. International day for the elimination of violence against women - 25 November
Several amendments were made, and the amended document will be circulated.
The amended resolution was adopted and it was agreed on sending the resolution out on 25 November 2006
b) 2007 Work Programme:
PES Women agreed to concentrate on the following points during 2007:
Migration and migrant women, based on the German presidency's programme,
Women and decision-making in light of 2009 European Parliament's elections
2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.
With the Commission's Communication on Pay-Gap planned for 2007, PES Women would like to launch a campaign (based on the Sp-a campaign) on the issue.
Based on article 138 (Labour Law) *, the reconciliation of work and family life.
c) Other business
Publications: Booklet on activities in the member parties on Women and Gender Issues. What has been done over the last two years? Sonja Lokar will prepare a questionnaire on the issue. This should happen within the next two weeks.
PES Women will present to the Presidium in November a letter calling on our member parties in the run up to national elections to have a strong representation of women in the government and urging the PES parties not trade off the Gender Equality Ministersin coalitions negotiaitons.
PES Women should receive more visibility by sending out Press Releases and
upload report of activities on our website.
The President asked Anna Karamanou, Vice-president, to send her candidacy for a position in the Advisory Board/Director of the Gender Institute. PES Women members support the President in this proposal.
Barbara Prammer, our Austrian colleague will become the (first female) President of the Parliament.
*Art. 138, EC Treaty (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12002E/htm/C_2002325EN.003301.html)
1. The Commission shall have the task of promoting the consultation of management and labour at Community level and shall
take any relevant measure to facilitate their dialogue by ensuring balanced support for the parties.
2. To this end, before submitting proposals in the social policy field, the Commission shall consult management and labour on
the possible direction of Community action.
3. If, after such consultation, the Commission considers Community action advisable, it shall consult management and labour
on the content of the envisaged proposal. Management and labour shall forward to the Commission an opinion or, where
appropriate, a recommendation.
4. On the occasion of such consultation, management and labour may inform the Commission of their wish to initiate the
process provided for in Article 139. The duration of the procedure shall not exceed nine months, unless the management and
labour concerned and the Commission decide jointly to extend it.
Socialist International Women
Centenary Celebration. 1st September 2007 in Stuttgart SIW meeting for their 100th birthday. The SIW was founded in Stuttgart in 1907.
PES Congress, Porto 7-8, December, 2006
PES Women are involved in the following fringe meetings at the PES Congress
PES Group in the Committee of the Regions (with PES Women)
Representation of women's interests at local and regional level: exchange of best practices
PES Women
Abortion, is it still taboo?
Panel:
- Edite Estrela, MEP (Portugal)
Situation in Portugal and the upcoming referendum on abortion
- Anne Van Lancker, MEP, Sp.a (Belgium)
Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights and the conservative backlash
- Vicky Claeys, Regional Director, IPPF
Overview on the situation and legislation on abortion in EU Member States
Topics:
-Legislation and best practices throughout the EU
-Situation in Portugal; since the last vote on abortion
-Conservative backlash; social, culture and religious influences
ECOSY - PES Women - SKN (Nordic Social Democratic Women Network)
Trafficking in Europe, Europe's Problem?
Panel:
- Dorit Otzen, Chairwoman of International Abolitionist Federation, leader of Redencrisis center for prostitutes and stop trafficking, Denmark
- Jorge Lacão, Secretary of State of the Ministry for the presidency of the Council of
Ministers, Portugal
- Judy Hooymeyer, President of Foundation Improvement and Monitoring Position of
Prostitutes in the Netherlands, PvdA , the Netherlands
Topics:
- Reasons (socio-economic) generating trafficking
- Reasons that lead women into becoming victims of trafficking
- The link with prostitution
- In tackling prostitution and the demand, can we tackle the problem of trafficking?
DRAFT
PES Women resolution on violence against women
Helsinki, 7 October 2006
PES Women from the 33 social and social democratic parties across the EU met on 7 October 2006 in Helsinki on the fringes of the conference on 'Men and Gender Equality' and the Informal Ministerial meeting on gender equality organised by the Finnish Presidency.
At the PES Women meeting, the members discussed the ongoing problem of violence against women and the need of greater commitment from Member States and the European Commission to eradicate violence against women in the EU. Violence against women is a breach of fundamental rights to dignity, freedom and safety and should therefore be a priority in all Member States.
In order to eradicate violence against women, legislation, prevention measures, support (practical and research-based) and exchange of best practice should be improved. In light of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - 25 November
2006 - PES Women calls on
1. The European Parliament and the Council to adopt their decision for establishing the 'Daphne III' programme for the period 2007- 2013 as soon as possible in order for the European Commission to publish the call for proposals for 2007. This will enhance the assistance and support of organisations working with women victims of violence as well as raising awareness on this issue.
2. The Council, the EU Governments and the Ministers for Gender Equality to adopt a decision on the location of the Gender Institute and the composition of the Advisory Board, in order to establish the Gender Institute as soon as possible in 2007. The Gender Institute should then conduct research and collect data on the situation and legislation of violence against women.
3. The Commission to create a network of organisations promoting prevention measures and elimination of violence against women.
4. The Member States, especially the Ministers for Gender Equality to take the Spanish legislation on violence against women as an example and encourage an exchange of views on best practices.
5. The European Commission and the Council to include the problem of trafficking in the debates and drafting of legislation on violence against women.
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European Roundup, May 2006
The Executive decided on future meeting for 2006, listed below. After the Executive meeting presentations were made by guests on gender pay gap, equal job opportunities/part-time working and gender stereotyping followed by a discussion.
Guests:
Mary McPhail. Secretary General, European Women's Lobby Catelene Passchier. Confederal Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation Jenny Watson. Chair, Equal Opportunities Commission (UK) Tijs Broeke. European and Public Affairs Manager, Equal Opportunities Commission (UK)
7th October Meeting.
The next meeting of PES Women will be held in Helsinki to coincide with the conference on Men and Gender Equality on 5-6 October organised by the Finnish Presidency of the EU and the informal ministerial meeting that will also take place. Our executive will have a meeting with PES Ministers of Gender Equality prior to this informal ministerial meeting. As requested, I sent the PES Secretariat the name and contact information of Frank Fahey, T.D. our Gender Equality Minister.
25th November Meeting
This is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
December Meeting
PES Congress, 7 - 8 December, Porto (Portugal) There will be a PES meeting in Oporto to coincide with the PES Congress. According to the PES Women Standing Orders, the posts of President, Vice-Presidents and Executive Members are elected every two and a half years. These elections will take place prior to the PES Congress, at the PES Women Statutory meeting on 7 December 2006 from 12:00 until 14:00 in Porto (Portugal).
Fringe meetings at PES Congress, 7 - 8 December, Porto (Portugal) :PES Women Executive will hold 3 fringe meetings :
1. 'Reproductive Rights and Abortion', on the proposal of Edite Estrela, PES Women Executive Member, given the importance of the issue and the upcoming referendum in Portugal.
2.'Trafficking' will be held in cooperation with ECOSY. This reflects the positive and close relationship between PES Women and ECOSY.
3. 'Representation of Women's Interests at Local and Regional Level'.
Farewell
Emma Reynolds, the senior PES Secretariat member who worked with PES Women has resigned to become an Advisor the European Affairs Minister in London. We thank for her huge contribution to the work and renewed organisation of PES Women since the changes to the status of the PES in 2004.
Socialist International Women
Next meeting will be the Regional meeting for Latin America and the Caribbean, Managua, Nicaragua, 23 September 2006, on the theme Women and the new challenges of the left in Latin America and the Caribbean.
PES Annual Conference 24th May 2006 Copenhagen
Women from 27 countries gathered to discuss 'Women, Religion and Culture : will women be the cultural battleground of Europe?' In clashes of cultures women become the pawns. Violence against women, harmful effects of extreme interpretations of religion and the role of Muslim women in their communities were topics being addressed. The Conference saw a need to focus on
- ensuring secular state
- embracing believers of different religions
- sustaining the struggle to reach gender equality
24th March Spring Summit of the Presidency of the Council
Adopted the Pact for Gender Equality (see below 23rd February)
PES Women International Women's Day Campaign and Petition 8March 2006
Celebrate the World Cup - Fight sexual slavery
PES Women launched an e-petition against trafficking to supply demand for the World Cup. Socialist politicians from all over Europe joined forces on 8th March to demand action to prevent the mass trafficking of women and girls into Germany for prostitution during the World Cup. Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women, said "Unless concerted action is taken by EU member states and neighbouring countries, thousands of women will fall victim to ruthless pimps and traffickers. Prostitution is legal in Germany but trafficking is a crime throughout Europe. It can and must be stopped." She added "PES Women want the World Cup to be a success - a celebration of people of different nations enjoying a great sporting event. Nobody wants it to be the scene of a major crime."
The petition is still open,
over 20,000 have already signed.
PES Women Committee Meeting 23 February 2006
The following reports were received:
- Roundtable Meeting with Commissioner Spidla (Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and & Equal Opportunities) and PES Women Executive, European Women' Lobby and European Trade Union Confederation. Main areas of discussion were
-Gender Equality Road Map 2006-2010
-Improving gender mainstreaming in the EUCommission and Directorate-Generals -Non-compliance of members states with equal treatment legislation
-EU Spring Summit Gender Pact (see below)
- In-depth study on the causes of the gender pay gap by Salimata Sissoko, Université Libre de Bruxelles
- Spring Summit - Gender Pact Inger Segelstrom MEP.
On 9th February, in advance of the European Spring Council of 23-24 March, six Member States of the European Union, across the political spectrum, (Sweden, France, Spain, Finland, the Czech Republic and Denmark) have proposed a new European Pact for Gender Equality to the Austrian Presidency of the EU. The Pact for Gender Equality should serve "to enhance women's participation in the labour market and to promote equality between women and men". Member States that proposed the Pact hope to see it included in the Conclusions of the Spring Council of March 2006, but in order for this to be achieved, the Pact needs to be endorsed by all Member States.
The meeting welcomed the election of 2 left-wing women as Presidents, and sent congratulations to Michelle Bachelet of Chile, first woman President of her country, and Tarja Halonen of Finland, reelected for a second term in a close fight.
PES Social Europe initiative
Philip Cordery, PES Secretary General Report back from PES Women representatives to Social Europe seminars
Other PES intiatives:
A People's Dialogue - join the debate
