Importance of women's political empowerement - Gurmai Zita

CEE Network for Gender Issues
The CEE Network provided support to women politicians and those active in public life in the
region as early as 1994. The Bejing Conference in 1995 represented a major breakthrough for
women in the region – many women activists went to Bejing, collected experiences of others,
participated in joint activities, and came home emboldened to push the gender agenda forward.
Some chose to do this through NGO activities and others found their political vocation. The
CEE Network itself realised that it could assist this process through a two-pronged approach by:
Strengthening women’s organizations within political parties and engaging social-democratic
and socialist politicians, parties and regional conglomerations in the discourse on gender
equality establishing ties between and among women politicians and women’s NGO groups and
leaders to foster dialogue and joint action in the promotion of gender equality.
Foundation for European Progressive Studies
Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) is the European progressive political
foundation. Close to the Party of European Socialists (PES) but nevertheless independent,
FEPS embodies a new way of thinking on the social democratic, socialist and labour scene in
Europe. FEPS establishes an intellectual crossroad between social democracy and the
European project, putting fresh thinking at the core of its action. As a platform for ideas, FEPS
works in close collaboration with social democratic organisations, and in particular national
foundations and think tanks, to tackle the challenges that Europe faces today.
Being a progressive European think tank, next to essential issues like the Next Left research
project, research on sustainable economy or creating new global solidarities, we are convinced
that gender issues also play a significant role in the creation of a fairer and more solidaritybased
society. Several successful initiatives - including the annual transatlantic meeting on
gender issues and the “Clara Zetkin could do it. So can we!” platform for discussion - have been
launched within the gender, diversity and democracy research project. This aims to give an
impetus to the debate on the notion of inclusive society, by focusing on issues like gender
equality, migration, minorities and active democracy. Currently these areas are far too often
addressed in a populist, simplistic and incoherent way in the political debate, with many
discrepancies between vision and policies realised. Therefore, there is a need for reflection on
long-term vision with adequate policies, as well as establishing communication strategies on
these highly emotional issues.
For further information please, have a look at the FEPS website, www.feps-europe.eu, or
contact Ernst Stetter, FEPS Secretary General (ernst.stetter@feps-europe.eu) or Judit
Tánczos, FEPS Policy Advsior (judit.tanczos@feps-europe.eu).