Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-03-12-Speech-1-100-000"
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"en.20120312.17.1-100-000"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, I welcome the fact that we are having a debate on an annual report on equality. It is important that we focus our attention on what needs to be done. There is a great deal more that we need to do, and we still have a long way to go.
However, I regret the fact that the debate has to a certain extent been hijacked by family policy, which is not something that should be dealt with at EU level. We must respect different cultures, traditions and religions. It is best for us to do that at national level.
What we can and should do is increase our commitment to enabling the participation of women in leading positions. I really appreciate Commissioner Reding’s commitment with regard to the position of women, but I do not believe that legislation on quotas at EU level is the right approach to take. Women should progress on their own merits, on the basis of their skills and knowledge. It is important to put pressure on the business sector to continue the debate, but not to legislate. It is not only listed companies that we are concerned with here. We want women in leadership positions in all sectors of society. Why should women not be heads of schools or universities, directors of hospitals or hold other important positions? What is important, in fact, is to acknowledge that women are an advantage both in the business sector and in politics.
The way forward must also be based on freedom of choice. We must not force women into a particular model. Instead, we women must be able to choose our own path and to decide what we want to do and how we want to do it. We must make things easier for women and facilitate this, but we must not dictate from above.
We must make the Member States aware of this and urge them to take measures to make it easier to solve the family dilemma, for example. Financial independence is one of the good alternative routes to equality. It needs to be easy to start and run a company. I am pleased that the report draws attention to women’s entrepreneurship as a way forward. It is essentially a question of changing culture, mentality and attitudes. It should be normal for women to be in leadership positions. That is something we must teach our children.
Facilitating access to the labour market for immigrant women is also an obvious way to improve equality. I will finish by saying that when we are endeavouring to break the glass ceiling we need to focus on vulnerable women. Violence against women, domestic violence against women and sexual abuse of women are still increasing. If we compare this with the debate on quotas, then the quotas debate becomes a luxury. I am hoping for a proper fight in the future, most importantly against violence against women."@en1
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