Importance of women's political empowerement - Gurmai Zita

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Sylvie Guillaume Women’s empowerment Importance of women's political empowerment "When will equality for women in politics be achieved?" That is the question that remains unanswered in the 21st century. Women leading a country today in the world can still be counted on the fingers of the hand. Though they are now most often voters and eligible, few of them are ultimately elected. On this point the French situation is very illustrative of a long-lasting phenomenon that still continues and against which affirmative action must finally be implemented, a challenge with all the more acutely on the eve of important dates in France and hope to see the left regaining power after too many years of domination of the right. If new laws to move towards political equality have helped to make progress... At this stage, and despite progress in the last 50 years, France is ranked 18th largest in the EU 27 and in 65th place worldwide for the proportion of women MPs, behind some countries, however, considered more macho, less democratic and less developed. At this rate, parity would be reached in the Assemblée nationale in a quarter century! Indeed, if all women became voters, they are still too few to be elected or to hold high political mandates. Thus, inequalities remain, despite the constitutional reform made in 1999 by Lionnel Jospin's government, under which "the law favours equal access of women and men to electoral mandates and elective functions", followed since 2000 by legislation aiming at implementing the parity principle for candidacies. This includes, for all elections by ballot, for municipalities with more than 3500 inhabitants, 50% of candidates of each sex. Regarding general elections, the law provides for financially penalizing political parties that have not submitted the same proportion of male and female candidates. However, the results expected from the introduction of parity in politics are still very theoretical, while some do not hesitate to flout these rules. This is the case with the UMP candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, who presented himself in 2007 as women's rights defender, and it is this very same party that in 2012, certainly gripped by a fantasmatic fear of seeing his female candidates fail much more than his male candidates, that takes the risk of being sanctioned for non-compliance with the parity rules in the legislative elections with only 28% of nominations given to women, which could earn him a particularly salty addition to around 4 million euro. 21
22 Women’s empowerment More generally, it perfectly illustrates the bitter observation of a serious failure of the right wing, with women working five times more than men in part-time, with pay gaps of 10% at a level of equal skill and working time, and who are disproportionately represented in poorly paid and low skilled jobs. Women have certainly taken their place in the economy, but French society remains strongly marked by a patriarchal mentality that makes the feminist struggle even more necessary than one could have imagined. So far, it has been asked to women to become "men like the others", mainly by adopting rules of domination. But this can absolutely not be considered as the true achievement of real equality between women and men. ... we must go further to demonstrate greater political will and help mentalities changing Yet there are alternatives to ensure a real political equality and enable women in practise - and not virtually anymore - to participating actively in political decision-making, without family life constituting an obstacle in achieving this goal. But to reach this objective, a political voluntarism is needed, that voluntarism is embodied today for French citizens by our Socialist candidate, François Hollande. In the name of equality he has committed in the Charter for equality to suspend funding of parties that would not present 50% of female candidates at elections. Other measures could also help us in achieving this political equality soon. These would include changes in voting procedures. Indeed, France is characterized, unlike its European neighbours, with a broad resort to plurality voting in two rounds, a system that ultimately results in indirect discrimination against women because it encourages local leaders and incumbents. The proportional ballot of list values clearly more parity in compliance with a strict alternation between men and women and this is why it should be more widely used, especially for elections like those of the Assemblée nationale or Sénat. Another interesting approach would be that of non-overlapping mandates and functions, mainly monopolized by men, and their time limitation, to make room for a renewal of the political class that would bring out not only women but also young people and people from ethnic minorities, also victims of a severe under-representation. In the end, behind the political equality we defend, it is for us, socialist women and men, to work for gender equality in general. Without these changes in political representation, how can the way we look now on the public, economic, social or domestic sphere be changed? More women in politics are certainly a guarantee of increased attention to workplace equality, a revised task sharing or a greater fight against gender stereotypes from an early age.
Page 1 and 2: Importance of women’s political e
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Page 5 and 6: 4 Contents Rovana PLUMB Importance
Page 8 and 9: Daša Šašić Šilović Foreword o
Page 10: Zita Gurmai Member of the European
Page 13 and 14: 12 Foreword of the publisher backla
Page 16 and 17: Besima Boric Importance of women's
Page 18: Importance of women's political emp
Page 28 and 29: Zita Gurmai Importance of women's p
Page 30 and 31: Importance of women's political emp
Page 32: Edit Herczog Member of the European
Page 35 and 36: 34 Political empowerment of women t
Page 38 and 39: Mija Javornik Importance of women's
Page 44 and 45: Sonja Lokar Importance of women's p
Page 46 and 47: Importance of women's political emp
Page 48: Sanja Major Adviser, City Office fo
Page 51 and 52: 50 Being a young woman in Croatia t
Page 54 and 55: Thomas Maes Importance of women's p
Page 60 and 61: Kaysa Penny Importance of women's p
Page 62: Rovana Plumb Member of the European
Page 65 and 66: 64 Importance of women's political
Page 68: Professor Dr.h.c.Christa Randzio-Pl
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70 Women in Politics political solu
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Brigita Schmögnerová former Vice
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76 Women’s voice to be heard The
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Judit Tánczos Policy Advisor, Foun
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82 Forever assistants? Challenges o
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Patrizia Toia Member of the Europea
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88 Greater equality for all If we a
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Britta Thomsen Member of the Europe
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94 The importance of political empo
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Attila Benedek - Márta Bonifert Im
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Importance of women's political emp
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Closing remarks Importance of women
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Annex Importance of women's politic
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Dan JØRGENSEN Denmark Socialdemokr
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António Fernando CORREIA DE CAMPOS
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Richard HOWITT United Kingdom Labou
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Annex II Charts and figures Women i
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Republic of Korea Importance of wom
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Gender quotas in the EU Source: Der
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CEE Network for Gender Issues The C
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