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Project “More Women in European Politics – More Women in 2014” Agreement Number: JUST/2012/FRAC/AG/2695

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Project “More Women in European Politics – More Women in 2014” Agreement Number: JUST/2012/FRAC/AG/2695 Project “More Women in European Politics – More Women in 2014” Agreement number: JUST/2012/FRAC/AG/2695 Final Report With financial support from the “Fundamental Rights and Citizenship” Programme of the European Union Acknowledgements This report has benefitted from inputs from several experts: Dr. Rosie Campbell, Mel Herdon, Ian Poitier, Sian McLachlan, Katri Lamesoo, Kairi Kasearu,J. Juodyté,Augustus Cicelis, Vladislav Sotirovic,V. Pilinkaite, Mario Ionescu,Constantin Barlos, Oana Nestiam, Tedorina Mihai, Latnijas Bernu, Renata Pepicelli, Sonia Sabelli, Vincenza Perilli, Elisabetta Hagos, Beatrice da Vela and Gergely Vaskuti. Preface This report relates to the project “More Women in European Politics- More Women in 2014”. The report is arranged in five parts. Part One is an introduction of the project as follows: Project aims and objectives The policy and context underlying the project The partnership Part Two is specifically looking at the key activities undertaken at transnational level to realise the project objectives: Steering Group Meetings Transnational Workshop 1 Transnational Workshop 2 Online programme Dissemination Events Part Three presents the Local Actions undertaken by partners Part Four provides some conclusions and recommendations. Part Five consists of a number of appendices: Appendix One provides an overview of the Local Action Groups established by partners. Appendix Two provides documentation related to the project steering group meetings. Appendix Three provides documentation linked to the transnational events Appendix Four provides documentation relating to Local Actions Appendix Five provides copies of other reports produced Appendix Six provides links to useful resources Appendix Seven provides feedback and evaluations undertaken during the life of the project Appendix Eight provides and inventory and examples of the promotional materials produced. Appendix Nine provides an overview of how many women stood in the EP elections in the members states represented in the project. 2 PART ONE: INTRODUCTION This report constitutes the final report of the project “More Women In politics”. It provides a summary of the activities undertaken during the project period and some of the issues emerging from it. The report has been produced as an “online” document and as such contains links to a wide range of documents and reports produced by the project as well as those in the public domain. The aim is to enable users to get access to information easily where their needs require. 1. PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The overall aim of this project was to support more women, particularly younger women, to vote in the EP elections and becoming candidates. To realise the above overall goal, the project had the following objectives/actions: The creation of a common marketing logo/image and flyer. The aim was ensure a really wide European impact as this would create a “brand image” linked to the EP elections.The flyer in particular, made clear that the campaign is not linked to any political message. No party logo’s were permitted on any of the project material. A transnational facebook and twitter group was established as 75% of the target group use Facebook and nearly 40% use twitter. Two transnational workshops were held.The first focused on ecahnge of experince arising from the base line studies that each partner produced and the second enabled partners to share their local campaign strategies and thus provide an opportunity for peer learning. An online programme was undertaken. This consisted of 5-6 online small video conferences.These were designed to address specific issues that were flagged up by partners in the course of undertaking their local actions. An extensive programme of dissemination was undertaken which consisted of a series of three events targetted at members states not involved in the project and a final transnational workshop in Brussels. 3 Each partner established a local More Women in Politics group. These groups brought together women who had experince of being involved in politics alongside reserchers and women who were interested in politics.These local groups were the backbone of the project in that they undertook a number of key actions: o Firstly, they produced a base line study report which highlighted the current profile of women in politics in eah of the 13 Member Sates involved in the project. o Underatking actions to identify what detracts and would attract women to vote and become candidates in the EP elections in 2014. o Identify a group of women who were interested in politics and develop a capacity building programme o Undertake a camapign of activities to raise the issue of women in politics linked to the EP and national/local elections. 2. POLICY AND PRACTICE Introduction Equality between women and men in politics has grown substantially in the past fifty years. More women are running for and being elected to national parliaments than ever before, and a record number of women hold executive positions within their nations’ government. However, there remains considerable disagreement within the research literature about a) the nature of the gender gap in political participation and b) the significance of the gender gap. Thus, some researchers argue that women engage, overall, less than men in politics and political activity, others argue that the range of activities against which this difference is assessed is too narrow and misses important ways that women do act politically. Women and men turnout for elections and chose political parties in similar ways but differences continue to exist in political knowledge and interest. However, there is widespread consensus that despite progress, the gender gap in political representation persists and ‘narrows at a very slow pace’. 4 Feminist theorists have used a sharply feminist-critical lens to explore what it means to talk about gendered politics, the implications of men’s dominance in and of the political sphere, how (and if) women politicians can and do influence both policy and political processes and how democracy could be transformed by the greater involvement of women in both formal and informal politics. This body of work has generated a set of theoretical concepts and definitions and developed a more nuanced analysis of the very meaning of politics, democracy, and citizenship. Disentangling sex (biology) from gender (social construction) and differentiating between institutions (organisations which make decisions), processes (how decisions are made) and policies (outcomes of decision- making) enable a clearer view to be taken on where women fit into the larger socio-political schema and, importantly, reveals inequalities between men and women. Identifying the logic of politics demonstrates how an absence at one end, that is, the lack of women at the institutional level (as elected representatives) is very likely to have consequences at the other end, that is, that the concerns of women citizens were less likely to be reflected in the policy agenda. However, contained within that appeal for more women to be elected as politicians are two competing and contradictory rationales. On the one hand, the ‘equity’ argument says that similar numbers of women and men should be elected representatives on the grounds of fairness and proportionality, on the other, that women should represent the interests of other women, that is, the ‘difference’ argument. Childs (2008) thoughtfully discusses these tensions and distinguishes between women politicians acting for women and acting as women, arguing that political ideology as well as sex influences the extent to which women behave in either or both of these modes. These contradictory expectations have also been described as differences between women’s descriptive and substantive political representation. The key arguments for women’s ‘substantive’ as well as ‘descriptive’ representation are: (i) Women politicians act as role models for aspiring women candidates; (ii) Equal representation of women and men in parliaments (parity) is a sign of justice; (iii) Only women are positioned to represent women’s interests; (iv) Women’s political representation revitalises democracy; 5 (v) Women’s political representation is necessary for women to put their confidence in political institutions; and (vi) The presence of women representatives increases the legitimacy of democratic institutions Indeed, the first ‘role model’ argument, is supported in other research identified in this report which demonstrates greater voting turnout and political interest among young women in areas where the candidate was female so that women representatives create a ‘virtuous circle’ of female political engagement. The EU policy context1 EU Policy recognises that gender equality is a fundamental human right. According to Article 8 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, ‘in all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities and to promote equality, between men and women. “The 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 is generally considered as crucial in recognizing gender inequality existing throughout the world, including the EU, and in stimulating a global debate on and commitment to addressing the unequal participation of women and men in practically all spheres of economic, social, and political activity”2. The Conference aimed at ‘removing all obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making.’ As a basic document for all gender equality work at international level, noted that gender equality is a human right and a prerequisite for equality, development and peace. The European Union annually reviews the progress made to achieve the targets that were set in 1995. “The Beijing Conference also stimulated the creation of a strategic agenda for change known as the Beijing Platform for 1 This section draws in part on two reports produced by the EP: Actions for gender balance in the European Parliament-EP Elections 2014-Workshop 20/6/2013 and Women in decision making: the role of the new media for increased political participation.
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