This year, PES Women hold its Annual Conference in Madrid on 29 November, in partnership with PSOE. This event is the occasion for all PES Women members and interested parties to gather and discuss on major issues related to women’s rights and gender equality. Acknowledging the advanced policy of the Spanish government regarding gender equality, PES Women chose to focus on “Women in Politics”.
Figures on women in politics in Europe
"Europe through women's eyes" - the book
At the eve of the PES Council, of the launch of PES Manifesto, and of the European elections, the Annual Conference was well-timed for organizing a debate to link parity and democracy. More than 250 people from over 30 countries attended the event and 23 speakers contributed to a stimulating debate between PES Women members, Spanish PSOE activists, experts from NGOs, trade unionists, women leaders of European public institutions, and people active in the political world and civil society.
Zita Gurmai, PES Women President, together with Soledad Cabezon, PSOE Federal Secretary of Equality Issues, and Leire Pajin, PSOE Federal Secretary of Organization, opened the conference. They insisted on the need for women to participate in the political arena, in particular in light of the European elections.
Women’s participation in politics was questioned throughout three roundtables. The first panel discussed whether democracy is possible without parity. Then, contributors gave an overview of different European models towards parity (Norway, Austria, Spain, France and Belgium). The third panel highlighted women’s strategies in getting to high-level positions through an interactive session.
Equality Minister of the Spanish government, Bibiana Aido, together with Soledad Cabezon and Zita Gurmai, closed this fruitful day by calling on women’s unity and complicity to foster their individual and collective rights and build a fairer world.
This enriching conference shows several main results to be taken into account in the forthcoming work of PES Women and all PES member parties. Solidarity is the key word of the day: between women, between women and men, including feminist men such as Zapatero to strengthen women’s work. Besides solidarity, communication is a crucial instrument to let people know what women do and achieve, but also what social democrats have achieved for women’s rights and what they plan for further progress.
Talking about electoral systems to reach gender equality in the political field, Zita Gurmai insisted on the need for quota, agreed on as being a good tool to foster women’s participation, but which has to be complemented with real empowerment and real political engagement: women have to be given the chance to deal with all kinds of issues, not only gender equality, once they have got the power. Also young political engaged women underlined the need to strengthen common work between women of different ages.
Finally, PES Women Annual Conference launched the book “Europe through women’s eyes”, distributed for the first time at the PES Council in Madrid on 1 December. A compilation of 35 contributions, this PES Women publication shows what social democratic women have achieved and will do at European level. It is a valuable tool to make women’s voice heard all over Europe during the European election campaign.
