Democracy: European Women in Government

Overall women in government is still a rarity around the world today; however, in comparison to other countries like Rwanda, where women make up a little less than fifty percent in the lower house, and Cuba which has received harsh criticism from the U.S. Department for its human rights record even have women holding thirty-six percent of its seat in single-chamber parliament, France falls sharply in comparison with women surprisingly only holding only twelve percent of the National Assembly.

What I found even more surprising was I thought other European countries like Belarus also known as the “last dictatorship in Europe” would have women holding a smaller percentage in government than other more democratic countries European countries like France. However, the opposite was true and unlike France, women in Belarus hold thirty percent in both the upper and lower house.

Fortunately less than a year ago, France recognized their very low percentage of women politicians, and the French cabinet made a proposal to promote more women into politics. This proposal aims to ensure that women are represented in local and regional governments. Therefore, the future for women politicians in Europe is looking brighter, and in fact there was even a woman running for the French Presidential Election—Segolene Royal the Socialists’ Candidate. The government hopes that as a result of these changes in the law it will help boost the number of women politicians, so that there will be four thousand more women politicians.

{A Homemade Video Clip of Segolene Royal during the 2007 French Presidential Election}



Since European women are generally under-represented in the government, other women who are young, disabled, lesbian, migrant, or of an ethnic minority face even more discrimination in the “area of political decision making”.

One issue that The European Women’s Lobby is actively promoting is equal representation of men and women in decision-making positions in the government since women are so under-represented in government, and the argument that The European Women’s Lobby is making is that women aren’t a minority but half the population in Europe.

Although it’s possible to argue that there’s a lack of democracy in Europe and particularly France because the percentage of women politicians is so low, I feel that democracy is still nonetheless evident in Europe today because countries. For example European countries such as France recognize that their percentage of women politicians are low, and are trying to make changes in their law to promote and encourage more women to become politicians in the future.

Bibliography:
1) http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/03/62d9ffd6-acab-4617-860b-fc6784d50df8.html
2) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6192864.stm
3) http://www.womenlobby.org/site/1abstract.asp?DocID=183&v1ID=&RevID=&namePage=&pageParent=&DocID_sousmenu
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcaYZOrC-Jw&feature=related