The path to gender parity in politics
The EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 places equality at the centre of the EU political agenda. The gender mainstreaming perspective of the Strategy aims at strengthening gender equality in and through all the EU’s policies and key actions in 2020-2025, including equal leadership for women and men in all spheres.
According to the 2019 Gender Equality Index, the domain of power is the most concerning area in terms of gender inequalities. In the European political sphere today, there are 1 million local and regional elected officials, but only some 30% of those are women. At the current rate of progress, it will take 94.5 years to close the gender gap in political empowerment and representation. As indicated by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions study on women in politics, only 29% of local councillors in Europe are women and the proportion of women mayors is only about half that, at 15%. At the regional level, there are much fewer women leading regional assemblies (18%) than women members of regional assemblies (31%).
Local and regional authorities have a crucial role to play and can be key actors in addressing gender equality through their specific competences. In October, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) will present its official Opinion on the new European Equality Strategy, which follows the adoption of the "Strategy for a gender balance in Members' participation in the CoR" by the CoR Bureau in 2019, which aims at improving gender balance in the appointment of CoR Members.
How do we tackle the barriers to entering politics women face and the discrimination and unique challenges they have to deal with once in office?
How are EU Institutions and our politicians actively engaging in this matter?
The workshop will present the key points of the CoR Opinion and the latest figures on women’s participation in politics. The necessary steps and ideas for action to close the gender gap will be discussed. Young Elected Politicians (YEPs) will share their experiences at the local and regional level in addressing gender equality and parity democracy.
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