“50/50 Campaign for Democracy”

The “50/50 Campaign for Democracy” led by the European Women’s Lobby, and officially launched today, seeks to ensure equal representation of women in the European Parliament to be elected in June 2009 and the new European Commission, which will be confirmed in November 2009. 

Less than one third of the members of the European Parliament are women, but there are big disparities between the statistics between Member States and political groups. Women are in average even less represented in national parliaments of the EU member states: only 22% of the members of national parliaments are women.

Women are also under-represented in the business world.  According to a new study by EuropeanPWN, the top 3001 European companies have only 9.7% of women on their boards. There has been slight progress, from 8.5% in 2006 and 8% in 2004. An important part of the overall progress can be credited to the European champion, Norway, which jumped to having 44.2% women on boards as a result of quota legislation.

Nevertheless women represent the 51% of the European population.

2009 will be a crucial year for European citizens; a new European Parliament will be elected by the citizens of the 27 countries in June, the next European Commission will be appointed in November.

The Campaign, which is endorsed by prominent personalities across Europe such as Vice President of the European Commission Margot Wallström, Nobel Price winner Orhan Pamuk, Prime Minister of Belgium Yves Leterme and former President of the European Parliament Simone Veil. The Campaign will run from 16 September 2009 until the European Parliament elections and the appointment of the European Commission in 2009.

One goal of the EWL 50/50 Campaign is to push decision-makers to improve European democracy and the representation of women in European decision-making bodies. To do so, everybody is invited to participate in lobbying action, targeting decision-makers at national level and European levels.

There could be no democracy without gender equality, simply because the democracy principle states that the population has to be fairly and equally represented. But, there will be no gender equality in Europe if women do not let their voice be heard and take action actively in our society.

You can join the 50/50 Campaign for Democracy: www.5050democracy.eu  

 

For further information on European data and policies on gender equality:  

Report “Women and men in decision-making 2007. Analysis of the situation and trends”:  
Database on women in decision-making:
Commission’s Roadmap for Equality between women and men (2006-2010):