PES Manifesto

1. But why? par lazett le lundi 23 juin 2008 à 15h19

You are right Rikke, women should be more proeminent in policy. I wonder what is behind that: lack of initiative? aren't they trying hard enough? are men pushing them down so they can't reach the top level?

and will this initiative, although it is a starting point, be enough to tackle the problem? as from my part i'm already on that facebook group and I encourage others to spread the word and encourage this "female movement" to move forward!

2. Is Gender an issue ? par chourka le lundi 23 juin 2008 à 15h40

The European Parliament had a female President several times (last one was Nicole Fontaine PPE-DE, F). And it is not a surprise as this european institution, the "House of the People" is close to 50-50 in the representation between men and women.

For the others, ask the voters! If there is so many suits, it's mainly because there is no elected Prime minister or Head of State. But, you won't convince if the question is just male/female.

So, who are candidate? Margot Wallström, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Anna Colombo, Zita Gurmai? Having such an abstract campaign is useless if there is no concret names —and moreover strong political committments— to confort it.

3. Late reply!! :-) par rikkeindenmark le jeudi 26 juin 2008 à 06h49

Hi both, thanks for your comments and sorry for the late reply! I'll first comment on why a campaign like this is interesting: I completely agree with the point that people base their political choices on the specific candidate and his/her opinions and not just the gender (I will still have to insist that gender does matter to the voter, perhaps not consciously, but more subconsciously, since most people are subject to gender stereotypes). STILL, a campaign like this is highly relevant. Why? Because it raises awareness and sends a signal to prospective women candidates that they will have support; it encourages them to run.

 Yesterday I saw an article on the issue in a Danish women's magazine. It was one of these mags that write mostly about beauty, fashion and help-yourself-books and - believe it or not!! - they too brought up the topic of women top leaders in the EU! This is what I mean with awareness: when a discussion about women in politics reach fora where such things are not usually debated, it's a very positive development. 

When I was readin yesterday (seated comfortably at a Copenhagenish café :-), I thought of Chourka's question about candidates. The mag actually proposed a list of possible candidates - which I thought was a funny coincidence. I wrote down the names, so here goes: Neelie Kores, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Angela Merkel, Tarja Harlonen, Segolene Royal, Ursula Plassnik, Emma Bonino, Brigita Schmögnerova, Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega and Mary Robinson. Anyone you favour from these, Chourka?

Regarding why women are not running for political top posts (or just top posts in general) the answer is a complex one! Major factors are - in my view - the so-called glass ceiling and a lack of role models. Further, I have seen research concluding that women are often in politics for other reasons than men: they want to solve problems and are not - to the same extent as men - motivated by power itself. Therefore, women are less keen on playing many of the 'political games' (we could also call it intrigues :-)) that are part of the way to the top. With this in mind one could say that women, in a way, lacks the will to go for top posts - I would rather say that we need to make some changes to the game, so women will be more motivated to take part. And one significant way of facilitating these changes would be to have more women in top posts and in politics in general....