Women still excluded from politics in Central and Eastern Europe, concludes project
'Increasing gender balance is a goal of the European Union, but women are still excluded, and this exclusion is more stark in Central and Eastern European countries [CEECs],' said Yvonne Galligan, coordinator or the EU funded Enlargement, Gender and Governance (EGG) project, presenting the results on 9 March. The project investigated women's involvement in politics in the eight CEECs within the European Union (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia), as well as Bulgaria and Romania. The working hypothesis was that women are underrepresented in representative institutions and associated groups (political parties, trade unions, non-governmental organisations and social movements) in these countries. The EGG researchers confirmed that this is indeed the case, and have new hypotheses that attempt to explain this phenomenon. The project also produced a number of recommendations that are intended to increase gender equality in politics. In 2005, women's average representation in the national parliaments of the EU countries stood at 25 per cent, but at 17 per cent in the CEE Member States. The gap between women's representation in the CEECs and the EU15 has been consistent throughout the last decade, and seems set to continue, said Dr Galligan. This is all the more surprising given that the CEECs are relatively new democracies, with new institutional arrangements. In 1990 there was a relatively level playing field in these countries and an opportunity arose for women. But the field soon became distorted, said Dr Gilligan. Previous research has shown that the birth of new democracies is usually the time when women begin to participate more actively in governance. The researchers found one of the reasons for this underrepresentation of women to be a strong preference for men as political leaders. Women who do enter politics are often seen as going against social norms, and are therefore regarded somewhat suspiciously. Women also tend to be given lower positions on party lists, and therefore do not acquire the political capital to support a career in politics. And women who are elected are often suspicious of feminist agendas and therefore fail to work together, aware that feminism is an election turn-off. 'Feminists have to shut their mouths during election campaigns, otherwise they won't be elected. They know that they have to campaign on any other issue,' said Eva Eberhardt, one of the EGG researchers. A final constraint affecting women is a lack of financial resources as well as time due to family commitments, said Dr Galligan. Recommendations include the development and implementation of legislative measures, which could include a change to electoral systems, temporary special measures or awareness raising campaigns; and the promotion of positive images of women by public authorities. For the EU, Dr Galligan had the following words: 'Grasp the nettle - require gender equality for the European Parliament elections'. Not all of those present at the EGG seminar were in agreement with all of the project's findings. While some agreed that women are disadvantaged by aggressive male-dominated political systems, others saw women themselves as partly to blame. Women tend to vote for men rather than women, and also are less inclined to get involved at a grass roots level. A show of hands in a room of between 30 and 40 people, mainly women, revealed that only four or five were members of a political party, and three of those present were or had been an MEP. No comparative experiment was however conducted in a room of men. The EGG project also investigated gender mainstreaming and the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. For gender mainstreaming, the main recommendations were that authorities must actually implement gender mainstreaming policies rather than just 'ticking the boxes', and at EU level, that the concept of gender mainstreaming should be better communicated. On trafficking, Dr Eberhardt concluded that the CEECs represent a 'region in denial', where the trafficking of women is rarely discussed. Her recommendations included more research on the root causes of trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women, as well as the predatory behaviour of men; a more coherent external policy on trafficking; and legislation for all forms of violence against women. The impact of the EGG project is likely to be far-reaching. In terms of the actual research, the consortium will produce a final report, as well as reports on each of the countries studied. The country reports will be presented at high-level seminars in each of the CEECs, and according to Dr Galligan, the reports will be presented at a time when there is new pressure to deliver on gender equality at national level. She also believes that there is currently an opening to discuss these issues within both the European Commission and the European Parliament. But the project will also have other impacts. Dr Galligan told CORDIS News that 'One of the most important things we have learnt in the project is how to do research together. In the group there really have been different cultures of research and of treating research questions.' The coordinator saw this as a very positive aspect of the project. Also, gender research is a fairly new topic in the CEECs, and most of the countries involved in the project had not previously conducted any research on gender in politics. EGG has therefore 'laid the seeds' for the study of women and politics in Central and Eastern Europe, said Dr Galligan.
Countries
Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia