Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-06-Speech-4-049"
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"en.20031106.3.4-049"2
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"Madam President, I share the concern expressed in Mrs Dybkjær’s excellent report regarding the under-representation of women in the European Parliament. It is unfortunately true that, as I look around now, there are noticeably few women here, particularly young women and women with families. As many have commented, in the light of statistics the situation seems even more alarming than before with regard to next year’s elections after enlargement. The proportion of women working in the national parliaments in the new Member States is not more than 30% at best and in more than half of the new Member States the proportion of women members of parliament hovers around the 10% mark. We must nevertheless remember that things could also be better in the current Member States, including my own country, Finland, although Finland can be considered one of the pioneers of equality between women and men.
Why are women not being voted for, then, if more than half of the electorate are women? The report identifies constituency parties and the selection mechanisms as the main reasons for the under-representation of women. Systems like the Finnish election procedure have guaranteed an equal representation of women and men. Here in the European Parliament almost half the Finnish delegation are women, so there is probably nothing wrong with the system. Instead of parties employing long and hierarchical systems of listing names, in the Finnish election system you vote for both the candidate and the party, and in practice the European Parliamentary elections have been to a large extent about electing an individual, with candidates given priority over parties, which stay very much in the background. In these conditions women have done well. Of course traditions and election culture also have an influential role to play. It nevertheless shows that women are voted for if they simply stand for election.
Why, however, are young women in particular not interested in politics? Why are women not encouraged to participate in the wielding of power to a greater extent? These I think are questions that furthermore give cause for introspection. Why is the EU not interesting? Women often see EU decision-making as too distant, abstract and highfalutin. Women are workaday heroines who like to stick to more concrete things. The work situation is often difficult, especially for women with families.
I myself have come to realise, whilst expecting my first child, how hard it has been to combine motherhood with the career of a Member of Parliament. The EU’s rules on maternity leave directly oppress young women. Maternity leave is not really a familiar concept and, for example, in Parliament it is put on a par with absence through sickness. There is much room for improvement in this matter and the situation is reflected in the situation regarding employment in Europe as a whole. Women are not sufficiently encouraged to establish a career and start a family. The result is that many women deliberately put off having children. The message coming from the EU should not be either career or motherhood."@en1
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