A bigger voice for women

Perhaps never as in recent years have women assumed a role of such particular importance in European political life. At last! – one might be prompted to say, given that if one looks backward in time for the leading female personalities who have contributed to European integration, one would look in vain: they are practically non-existent, with the single significant exception of the Frenchwoman Simone Veil, charismatic President of the European Parliament in the 1980s. To tell the truth, it was the “iron lady” Margaret Thatcher who in London inaugurated the era of women in power, even if speaking of a “European spirit” with reference to her would be forcing the evidence a bit. It is more fitting to cite two other women political leaders of our time, the former Irish President Mary Robinson and especially the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel, urged on more than one occasion by her closeness to the thought and action of two statesmen like Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl to place European interests before those of Germany herself (despite being in the midst of a socio-economic crisis).Trying not to succumb to the facile rhetoric of a certain kind of demodé feminism that would see even European construction as a misogynist project, one might make two observations of a general character. The first, self-evident, is that the relation between women and Europe has evolved in tandem with the relation between women and society: practically zero at the end of the 1960s, today it is in substance a relation of equality even if the reality does not always proceed pari passu with the legislation. The second observation is that – albeit in the absence of any “number ones” – women as “number twos” are now the rule, both in national governments and in the institutions of Brussels: influential ministers, vice-presidents, chairwomen of important committees, to which numerous key posts in the general directorates of the EU should be added.And it’s a fact that the first Parliamentary Committee for Equal Opportunities was established in Strasbourg.So much for politics. But the European constitution fortunately is not just a political project, nor is it only in or from the field of politics that women can and must make their own contribution to modern Europe. Civil society is far more female-oriented than might be imagined: NGOs, sectorial organizations, the world of communication and of information, volunteer services, entrepreneurship, and the medical, teaching and other professions are all fields in which women have risen to leading positions. Of course it’s not enough, and more needs to be done. And, last but not least, there is the silent daily work of millions of women as mothers of families. That’s a field of dedication that is not yet properly recognized – and here Europe must do more – but that contributes in a significant way to the construction, at all levels, of European society.The hope I wish to express is that the next European Parliament and the next European Commission may be able more fruitfully to turn to account the commitment and role of women in Europe.