By Stellamaries Amuwa, Abuja
The European Union has stated that it must continue to do more to inspire and promote the inclusion of women in politics.
This was made known in a press release in commemoration of International Women’s Day.
To mark International Women’s Day, the European Commission and the High Representative/Vice-President make the following statement:
“Today, the percentage of women in politics is still far from being representative of our diverse societies. The overall proportion of female members in single or lower houses of parliament currently stands on average at 33% in EU Member States and 26.5% globally. We must continue to do more to inspire and promote the inclusion of women in politics.
“2024 is a landmark year for elections throughout the world, with over 4 billion people being asked to cast their votes, including more than 400 million EU citizens who will vote in June in the European Parliament elections. On this International Women’s Day, we recognise the courageous activism of European suffragettes who fought for the right to vote when it was the privilege of men, and to every woman in all their diversity who plays a part in shaping a fairer and more equal society.
“In many parts of the world, regrettably women are still prevented from taking part in public life and in some contexts are entirely excluded from decision-making and public space. Across all societies, women continue to face discrimination and are at increased risk of online and offline violence. This is particularly acute for women politicians, journalists, and activists, in particular human rights defenders.
In this year of elections, we encourage all women, including young women, everywhere to exercise their right to vote, to claim their space in society and to feel empowered to participate in political life.”
Meanwhile, the global theme of the 2024 International Women’s Day is “Inspire Inclusion”, which is in line with this year’s United Nations theme “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”. Women’s participation in society is of the essence, including in decision-making positions. On 6 March 2024, Vice-President Jourová opened the Commission’s “Women in public life” high-level event in Brussels, in the context of the forthcoming European Parliament elections. Different panels focused on challenges faced by women in politics, journalism, and civil society. Participants discussed why women decide to leave public-facing positions and identified concrete solutions to end this trend, including with the engagement of the media platforms, regulatory bodies, and political parties.
“Women continue to be underrepresented in politics. In 2023, only 6 Member States achieved a gender balance of greater than 40% in their members of parliament (MP), with 7 Member States having fewer than 25% female MPs. The European Parliament is close to a gender balance of members of 40% women and 60% men. As of January 2024, only 5 Member States out of 27 have female heads of state. Globally, women hold just 26.7% of parliamentary seats, 35.5% of local government seats and only 28.2% of management positions in the workplace. With the current slow pace of change, women’s share of workplace management positions will reach only 30% by 2050. The Commission will support Member States in developing and implementing more effective strategies to increase the number of women in decision-making positions, such as the introduction of gender balanced electoral lists that lead to better policies, to an anti-discrimination and anti-sexist culture and to stronger democracies that address the different social needs better.”
Today, the Commission also published its 2024 Report on Gender Equality in the EU, providing an overview of the progress made in implementing the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025.
