Gender inequality is more pronounced in areas considered "serious," such as foreign affairs or economics, according to an expert from the European Women's Lobby.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The European Parliament, elected in June, is the first ever to have less women as MEPs.
00:07But how does it affect the people who lead the different committees and how are women
00:12represented there?
00:14According to the European Women's Lobby, even the committees are mostly made up of men.
00:20Portfolios that matter, like what we call hard portfolios, where you have money, where
00:24you have power, like foreign affairs, for instance, budget, economy, usually go to men
00:29in terms of heading the committees, just like the proportion of members in these committees
00:34also is highly male-dominated.
00:37So that's unfortunately still a reality in terms of having women chairs, vice-chairs, etc.
00:45This difference is not directly linked to the rise of the far right seen in these elections,
00:50but some experts believe that women elected for those parties do not necessarily defend
00:56women's rights.
00:59What is a bit concerning, though, is that the far right parties or groups in the European
01:07Parliament do have quite a substantial representation of women for some of them, but then it's also
01:13groups that are not known to support women's rights.
01:16They're quite hostile to women's rights.
01:18So it's also a new challenge for us in that sense that we are going to have to identify
01:23who is going to support us, who is going to champion women's rights.
01:27The EU has, over the past five years, passed some important legislation.
01:32It includes the first law to prevent violence against women.
01:36Analysts and experts, however, are asking for more.
01:40Something we want to see is also having dedicated budgets to women's rights, maybe having conditionalities
01:47when it comes to, you know, like, tenders and attribution of budget linked to women's
01:51rights and gender equalities.
01:54The European Women's Lobby says it is aiming for parity in the College of Commissioners,
01:59something that the president, Ursula von der Leyen, is also pushing for.