Getting women more involved in European politics

The Parliament needs to connect more with women voters as research shows them to be trapped in a vicious circle, being under-represented in the EP and EU politics in general and, therefore, less interested and less involved than men. On Tuesday 2 March a panel of MEPs and experts analysed the links between women and the EU concluding that greater female participation in politics is essential, especially in view of the 2014 EP elections, but will not be easy to achieve.

The hearing was organised by the Greek MEP Rodi Kratsa Tsagaropoulou (EPP), German Liberal Silvana Koch-Mehrin and Portuguese Socialist Edite Estrela.

The panel heard from researchers who had looked at why women were less represented. They noted that a significantly higher percentage of women consistently declared themselves less informed and less interested in the EU and in politics and had a less positive image of the Union.

Just over one-third female candidates

According to figures provided by Susan Balducci of the  University of Exeter, in the 2009 European elections women made up 35% of candidates, 34% in the top 3rd of party lists (Greece and Denmark being the exception), 34% of MEPs elected, but got 19% of media coverage, falling to single figures in some countries.

Hence the vicious circle that needs to be broken: reduced visibility of women in politics leads to reduced interest of women in politics and vice-versa.

Social issues to boost female interest

Among the solutions is a greater female presence in politics which, could lead to greater female engagement in the issues. Edite Estrela said a quota system would be one way to ensure greater female participation. In the discussions the importance of working through political parties to try and get more women involved was stressed.

In terms of policy, several MEPs said that the Parliament and the EU generally should put greater emphasis on “social” issues that seem to be of greater interest to women voters thus making the Union more relevant to women in order to increase their interest for a greater participation in the elections.