Euro MPs says more women in top political jobs - but more needed

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Brussels (dpa) - Europe is still a man's world. Although an increasing number of women are grabbing top political posts across the continent, female politicians and decision-makers are still much too rare, European Union lawmakers said Thursday.

"The visibility of women has increased in recent years," said Portuguese Euro MP Ana Gomes at a conference held in Brussels.

"However, a closer look at today's figures for female political representation does not give much ground to rejoice," she said.

Gomes complained that although European governments had made gender equality a key priority, women still had to struggle to win political recognition.

"The glass ceiling might be melting but it is not breaking," she said.

To correct the situation, national governments must put female candidates forward for high positions and ensure that electoral systems do not discriminate against women, Gomes insisted.

She also demanded that political parties support female politicians by setting up special quotas for women.

One way to boost young women's participation in European political life was to conduct information campaigns to make women aware of their political rights and duties, suggested Italian Professor Pia Baccari.

But the biggest obstacle for women trying to enter the world of politics was the challenge of combining home and work, Baccari underlined.

The lack of women in Europe's political corridors of power meant the bloc was losing out on key skills, said participants.

Women gave greater priority to social issues than their male counterparts and were also born conflict-negotiators, said Spanish Euro MP Teresa Riera Madurell.

Backing this view, Lena Sundh, ambassador and advisor at Sweden's foreign affairs ministry said that since in some societies women can only be reached by other women "it is absolutely essential to involve women in peace missions and conflict resolution."

Sundh was especially insistent that EU leaders "must practice what they preach."

While most say they are committed to gender equality in government and business, EU summits are all-boy affairs, with only Germany's Angela Merkel a member and Finnish President Tarja Halonen occasionally attending.

The EU's institutions are not setting a good example: six out of 25 commissioners are women, and only 30 per cent of EU lawmakers are female.

However, there is some room for hope. This week's EU-US summit saw three leading women - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and European Union External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner - taking centre stage.

In France, Socialist Segolene Royal is seen as clear frontrunner to be her party's candidate in next year's presidential elections.

Several strong women leaders have emerged in the past five years in other parts of the world. Chile's President Michelle Bachelet and Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf are the latest of a new generation of women claiming power.

In the United States, the prospect of a woman succeeding President George W Bush seems more and more likely with both Democrat Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice seen as strong contenders for the post.

But among the 190 members of the United Nations, only seven have a women as head of state and eight as head of government.

And only one-fifth of parliamentarians elected worldwide in 2005 were women, bringing the average of women in parliament in 187 countries to 16.3 per cent from 15.7 per cent in 2004.

In Europe, only Spain, Sweden and Norway have parity in the government, and Austria is the only EU member with more women than men as senior ministers.