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Uploaded byErato Kozakou-Marcoullis
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BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING IN DECISION MAKING POSITIONS

Dr. Erato Kozakou Marcoullis presented insights on women's political participation in the EU at the WomenPower Fair, highlighting Cyprus's low ranking in decision-making roles compared to other EU nations. Although there has been progress in women's employment and education, representation in political positions remains unacceptably low, particularly in Cyprus, which ranks 107th globally. Recommendations include the adoption of legislative quotas to enhance women's participation in politics, emphasizing that full equality in decision-making is essential for economic and democratic development.

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PRESENTATION BY DR. ERATO KOZAKOU MARCOULLIS FORMER MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS “Breaking the glass ceiling in decision making positions” AT THE WOMENPOWER FAIR ORGANIZED BY THE WOMEN POWER PLATFORM AND THE INTERACTION AND TECHNOLOGY LAB OF THE MULTIMEDIA AND GRAPHIC ARTS DEPARTMENT OF TEPAK .
General Approach • Concentrate on European Union Countries • Focus on political participation and decision making positions • Cyprus is at the very bottom of the list compared with other EU countries • What are the best practices followed by other countries and how they achieved the change
General observations at the EU level • Significant progress during the last 20 years • Participation of women in employment in the EU has reached around 60% thus contributing significantly to economic development and competitiveness • 60% of University graduates in EU are women who have a higher level of education compared to men • Nevertheless, at the level of decision making participation of women remains generally at unacceptably at low levels, with glaring exceptions observed in the Nordic countries which all five have reached levels of near or full equality
Let us look first at some statistics HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE EU In The European Council only 5 from the 28 Member states are women: The President of Lituania Dalia Grybauskait, the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, The Prime Minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Prime Minister of Poland Ewa Kopacz and the Prime Minister of Latvia Laimdota Straujuma. The President of the European Council (Donald Tusk) is a man
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy is a woman, Federica Mogherini (Italy). There are three other women Foreign Ministers: Margot Wallström (Sweden), Vesna Pusić (Croatia), Keit Pentus-Rosimannus (Estonia).
EUROPEAN COMMISSION Only 9 women Commissioners in the 28 Member European Commission (32%) coming from Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark and Slovenia The President of the European Commission (Jean-Claude Juncker) is a man
European Parliament/ May 2014 elections 37% of the Members are women which shows an increase of about 2% from the 2009 elections The President of the European Parliament (Martin Schulz) is a man
Representation of women in the European Parliament 1979-2014
THE MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT OF TODAY AND TOMORROW Licia Ronzulli MEP from Italy takes part in a voting session in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and her daughter Victoria insisted on having her say too
SITUATION IN MEMBER STATES EMPOWERING WOMEN AT THE POLITICAL LEVEL WOMEN IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS Progress observed with women constituting an EU AVERAGE of 28% YET, THE GLASS CEILING IN SOME MEMBER STATES REMAINS UNBREAKABLE
Proportion of Women in National Parliaments and National Governments of the EU Member States November 20144
There is lack of uniformity regarding the participation of women in National Governments of member states • The largest proportion of women in Government is observed in FINLAND, with 59% • SWEDEN follows with 50% • FRANCE with 47% • ESTONIA with 43% • ITALY with 40% • The countries with the smallest proportion of women in Government are HUNGARY with 0%, SLOVAKIA with 6 %, MALTA with 7% and CYPRUS with 9.1%
GENERAL OBSERVATION REGARDING THE PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS OF MEMBER STATES • Progress has been observed during the last decade with an annual increase of 0.7%, yet the road to full equality is still long if one sees the low proportion of women in national governments of most of the member states . • Women Ministers usually assume responsibilities in the Socio-Cultural fields, while the so called basic Ministries, i.e. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior and Justice, as well as the Ministries relating to the Economy are represented usually by men • Today we have Women Ministers of Defense only in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. In previous years Finland, Sweden, Latvia, France, the Czech Republic, Spain, Slovenia, Lithuania, Denmark and Slovakia had Ministers of Defense
THE THREE MINISTERS OF DEFENSE OF MEMBER STATES 2012- Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, NETHERLANDS 2013- Ursula von der Leyen, GERMANY 2014- Sen. Roberta Pinotti ITALY
WOMEN IN POLITICS 2014Ι MAP OF THE INTERPARLIAMENTARY UNION SHOWING WOMEN IN NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS CYPRUS WITH 12.5% RANKS IN THE 107TH PLACE TURKEY WITH 14.4% IS IN THE 96TH PLACE
WOMEN IN NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS OF MEMBER STATES OF THE EU EU average of Women in Parliament is 28% . Compared to the 2009 EU average that stood at 22%, an annual increase at the level of 0.5% can be observed, WHICH IS NOT SATISFACTORY Member states with 45-23% • Sweden 44% • Finland 42% • Denmark 39% • Netherlands 39% • Belgium 39% • Spain 36% • Germany 36% • Austria 33% • Slovenia 32% • Italy 28% • Portugal 27% • Croatia 24% • Poland 24% • Lithuania 24% • Greece 23% • Luxembourg 23% Member states with 22-10% • UK 22% • Bulgaria 20% • Czech Republic 20% • Estonia 20% • Slovakia 19% • Latvia 18% • Ireland 15% • Malta 14% • Romania 13% • Malta 13% • Cyprus 12.5% • Hungary 10%
DISAPOINTING INEQUALITY IN POLITICAL DECISION MAKING
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS • The persisting inequality impacts on the democratic legitimacy of decision making and deprives European societies of increased economic development • It deprives the EU from improved efficiency and from better utilization of talents which is vital, especially at times of economic crisis.
What is the answer? What are the best practices? • How certain countries achieved to move speedily towards equality and reach the highest levels of representation of women in decision making positions? • The answer to a great extend is: • By the use of QUOTA
What is a Quota? • QUOTA: is a positive measure that establishes a fixed percentage or number for the representation of a specific category of persons There are Three types of Quota systems 1. Constitutional Quotas 2. Legislative Quotas 3. Voluntary Political Party Quotas
EXAMPLES OF COUNTRIES THAT HAVE ADOPTED QUOTAS • Constitutional quotas: Τhe Constitutions of France and Greece include provisions for adoption of positive measures for promoting equality and the equal access of men and women to elected positions • Legislative quotas: Countries like Belgium, France, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Slovenia and Poland have adopted legislative quotas for the elections to the National Parliament which range from 30-50%. • Voluntary Political Party quotas: have been adopted by political parties in 21 of the 28 member states, as for example in Austria, Croatia, Germany, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and UK. • The introduction of quotas has speeded up progress and has increased the participation of women in the political life of these countries in a short period of time
Three countries that have adopted quotas seen in this chart in five electoral periods- percentage of women before and after the introduction of quotas 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Election 5 (1995-6) Election 4 (1999-2000) Election 3 (2003-4) Last but one(2007-8) Latest (2010-11) Belgium 1999 Slovenia 2008 France 2002
Examples of countries with quotas • Spain Legislative quota according to which candidates from the two genders should constitute at least 40% of the total number of candidates . In case of no compliance the list is rejected • Greece Legislative quota with at least 1/3 of the candidates in the electoral lists of the political parties to be from each gender • France: the electoral law provides that the difference between the candidates of each gender should not be greater than 2%. • Poland and Slovenia: at least 35% quota for each gender • Portugal : at least 33% quota for both genders.
CONCLUDING REMARKS • Our goal remains full equality, which means 50-50 % representation of women in political decision making • To achieve this goal what is required is the political will of governments and political parties to allow the necessary changes, legislative and otherwise. • Moreover women themselves should form a forceful pressure group to demand the societal changes • Until that time the struggle should continue at a global level. • Women, constituting 50+% of the population of our planet, demand what they are entitled to, i.e. at least 50% of decision making positions.
Proportion of women in the Cyprus House of Representatives at election years 0 0 0 2.8 2.8 5.4 5.4 10.8 14.3 12.5 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 1960 1970 1976 1981 1985 1991 1996 2001 2006 2011 % Women
What needs to be done for Cyprus • Cyprus is lagging behind (fourth from the bottom of the list in the EU) regarding the representation and participation of women in political life. • At a global level Cyprus ranks 107th, a shameful position for our country. • The pace of increase of women in the Parliament is extremely slow and between 2006 and 2011 a decrease of approximately 13.5% was observed. • We must move forward with the adoption of legislative quotas in order to achieve the effective participation of women in the Parliament. • All political parties should adopt quotas and ensure that women candidates are placed in electable positions.
House of Representatives 2014 Men 49 - Women 7 (12.5%)
Swedish Parliament 2014 Men 197 - Women 152 (44%)
IF OTHER COUNTRIES ACHIEVED EQUALITY WHY NOT CYPRUS