PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTER-PARLIAMENTARY UNION ON ROLE OF WOMEN LEADERS

Women now made up an all-time high of almost 17 per cent of parliamentarians worldwide, Anders B. Johnsson, Secretary-General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), said at Headquarters today, as he launched the latest world statistics on women in Parliament and the role of women leaders.

Another piece of good news was that 35 out of 262 officers presiding over Parliaments were women, he told correspondents at a press conference.  The number of female Heads of Government had more than doubled, with six of them having been elected last year.  Accompanying Mr. Johnsson were Barbara Prammer, Speaker of the Parliament of Austria, and Margareth Mensah-Williams, Vice-President of IPU’s Executive Committee and Vice-Chairperson of the National Council of Namibia.

Mr. Johnsson said representation of women in the Gulf States and the Middle East in general had grown, noting that, in the United Arab Emirates, both women and men had contested elections and voted for the first time in that country’s history.  Nine women had entered Parliament, taking 22.5 per cent of the seats.  The Nordic countries continued to elect a high number of women parliamentarians, and their regional average had increased to 40.8 per cent.  Surprisingly, however, Latin America was the leading region in that respect, with women having taken further strides forward in some 20 elections held last year.  The region now ranked first, just ahead of Europe.  Women comprised 38.6 per cent of parliamentarian in Costa Rica, ranking third after Rwanda and Sweden.

The bad news, however, was that the progress made in 2006 had been slower than that of the preceding year, he said, adding: “If we are aiming for equality in Parliament -– roughly 50 per cent men and 50 per cent women -– then we will wait until the year 2077 to celebrate that event.”  It was also discouraging that, reversing earlier trends, countries emerging from conflict had shown a decrease in the number of women parliamentarians, a trend that could be due to a failure to establish quota systems in such countries as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti.

Regarding the role of women leaders, Ms. Prammer, one of the world’s 35 female parliamentary Speakers, said they should not only act as role models but also try to bring others into positions of power, adding that one of her first actions as Speaker had been to evaluate the chances of female staffers to rise “to the top”.

The next step would be to advance a gender-balanced budget, she said, noting that, while the Austrian Parliament had a budget of some €120 million, there was no guarantee at the moment that it was gender-balanced.  Measures to enforce the advancement of women must be considered carefully.

Ms. Mensah-Williams said women changed the way policies were made and their participation was key to the work of IPU, which had organized two major events in connection with the current session of the Commission on the Status of Women: today’s event on the role of Parliaments in combating violence and discrimination against the girl child; and tomorrow’s third annual meeting of female parliamentary Speakers, entitled “Caring for Future Generations: Women in Leadership Positions and the Girl Child”.

A correspondent said the rise in the proportion of female parliamentarians from 11 to 17 per cent in the last 12 years was “a pretty sorry status”, and asked IPU to address stereotyping and discrimination, which contributed to the underrepresentation of women.

Ms. Prammer agreed that those figures were not really positive and underscored the difficulty of bringing women into politics.  The gender architecture should be addressed, not only in the Commission on the Status of Women, but in all forums and at all levels.  Women in leadership positions had special responsibilities in that regard.

Ms. Mensah-Williams called upon the media to combat stereotypes and promote a better understanding of women’s issues.  IPU, seeking to mainstream women’s issues around the globe, was cooperating with journalists, working on legislation to promote women’s participation and lobbying for the election of women parliamentarians worldwide.

Mr. Johnsson, acknowledging the negative role of stereotyping and discrimination, stressed the importance of changing the mindsets of both men and women, so as to promote real change.  His native Sweden, for example, was perceived as discrimination-free, with almost 50 per cent of parliamentary seats held by women, but it had taken almost 80 years of conscious policy, education and other efforts for the country to get there.  In fact, the organizers of a survey on vestigial gender discrimination conducted among parliamentarians two years ago had been “quite horrified by the results”.

A 10-point programme had now been instituted to eliminate gender discrimination in Parliament, he said, adding: “That’s Sweden, which is at the top of the list.”  It was important first to address areas where change could be achieved quickly through affirmative action and quotas to “kick-start” the advancement of women.

Asked about the IPU approach to climate change from a woman’s perspective, Ms. Prammer said her experience showed that most activists who fought against climate change were women, who were more aware of the dangers involved and seemed to feel a greater responsibility to future generations.

Mr. Johnsson agreed that women brought an awareness of social issues that was different from that of men.  Among other things, it manifested itself in a much greater awareness of the need to protect the environment.  IPU had also been trying for a long time to raise awareness of climate change and environmental issues, and was currently preparing a summit to be held in Indonesia next month on the theme of global warming and climate change.

Ms. Mensah-Williams added that environment-related issues were among the thematic areas discussed in last year’s session of the Commission on the Status of Women, giving rise to many proposals because women were naturally environmentalists.  If more women were Environment Ministers, the world would be a better place to live in.

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For information media • not an official record