By Filipe Rufino - 6th March 2007
As the EU approaches its 50th anniversary, women’s rights advocates are calling for heads of governement to step up efforts to close the gender gap.
The move comes ahead of international women’s day, which coincides with the spring summit of EU leaders to be chaired by German chancellor Angela Merkel.
In an article for the latest issue of Parliament Magazine, Anna Zaborska, the head of parliament's committee for women’s rights, argues that European society is losing out from persisting gender inequalities.
“When they use their talents to the full, women can make a world of difference to the way in which citizens learn from each other and organize themselves”, she wrote.
"We should pool all of our strengths to make people understand that the future of new Europe is linked to the situation of women, particularly women who are destitute and those who risk being excluded from society."
Domestic violence, employment laws and access to power are the three main areas where inequality between sexes persists, argues the socialist MEP Lissy Gröner.
Women in Europe earn on average 17 per cent less than men per hour of work, in spite of the EU treaty stressing the principle of equal pay for equal work.
"The tennis championships at Wimbledon have finally come into the 21st century by giving equal prize money for men and women players," Gröner says.
"Now more everyday industries need to do the same.”
Laws on domestic violence still contain loopholes in some EU countries - Gröner argues that the latest Spanish legislation on the subject is the most advanced.
On access to power, a majority of EU heads of state and government continue to be men, despite being elected by nearly equal amount of woman and men voters.
But while the EU has yet to achieve gender parity, progress during the 50 years of its existence is an historic reality that has set an example for elsewhere in the world.
Writing in the latest issue of Parliament Magazine, Dutch MEP Emine Bozkurt, who has followed woman’s rights issues in Turkey, argues that “many solutions for woman in Turkey lie within the process of becoming member of the EU”.
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