Fostering the equal participation and representation of women and men in political decision making by developing and implementing national and European gender equality strategies.
Context
Since the conceptualisation of democracy, women have been systematically left out of the political domain until the 1800s when the women’s suffrage wave began. Throughout the 19th century, women have slowly gained voting and political rights and slight parliamentary representation as reflected in UN’s SDG Goal 5.5 focusing on ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making. In Europe, the Gender Equality Index (2021) shows how political power for women is currently at 58.5%. Relatively higher than in other parts of the globe, the score is still very variable within the continent, and it still does now show equality between men and women in the political sphere. Despite the fact we recognize the need for a structural change to take place for true access to happen for women and all underrepresented genders, it is also true that promoting and raising awareness of the participation in the political sphere of all people who identify themselves as women is a first and a very relevant step to narrow the gender gap.
Objectives
- To promote the equal participation and representation of women and men in political decision-making positions through the development of national and European strategies.
- To identify the barriers which perpetuate women’s low political participation and map out relevant strategies and policies that promote women political representation in each partner country.
- To create Gender Equality Strategies that will help to underpin women potential in politics.
- To build the capacity and awareness of gender equality bodies, public authorities and women and men voters/candidates.
- To set-up and promote FEM-ABLE political networks at the local and EU level.
- To raise awareness about the importance of boosting women participation in the political sphere.
Activities
- Conduction of a desk and field research to identify and assess existing gender equality strategies in national contexts and to determine gaps, needs and expectations of women involved in the political sphere and young women and men voters.
- Design of 7 FEM-ABLE National strategies and 1 European strategy to promote political participation among women.
- Delivery of FEM-ABLE National Strategy through workshops and other participatory activities involving participants with the potential to drive change around women political participation such as women and men voters/candidates, gender equality bodies, political parties, NGOs, public authorities, academic staff, etc.
- EU Final Conference.
Resources
- 1 policy toolkit composed by 7 National reports and 1 EU report of the current situation regarding gender equality in politics, based on the desk and field research in each partner country.
- 7 National and 1 EU gender-equality strategies to booster women’s political participation.
- EU gender equality platform with good practices.
Impact
- Better understanding of current barriers that keep women’s levels of political participation low.
- Provide concrete policies and procedures in order to increase women political participation.
- Improved skills of 490 participants in relation to gender-equality strategies to ensure a greater involvement of women in the world of politics.
- EU networking committed to actively work towards increasing the political participation of women through mutual learning, cooperation and exchange of good practices.
Partners
- COFAC – Lusófona University (Portugal, coordinator)
- Social Innovation Fund (SIF) (Lithuania)
- Woman do business (Greece)
- CESIE (Italy)
- La Xixa Teatre Association (Spain)
- Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) (Cyprus)
- UMEA University (Sweden)
