Women’s participation in politics

The European Green Party has been claiming for a long time the importance of women’s involvement in its decision-making processes. Firstly, women are half of the world’s population and secondly it is extremely important from a social and democratic perspective. Furthermore, women have potentials in knowledge, values and experiences that are of extreme importance for the debates and discussions. They add gender specific point of views which open new opportunities to make our lives better.

Unfortunately, as many international institutions have recognised, the involvement of women in the public domain and in political parties is still limited, and we still don’t have the necessary conditions to guarantee real equality between men and women. It is now time for political parties to assume their responsibilities in involving women in these institutions.

As far as the EGP is concerned, the debate on how to guarantee gender equality is still open. Nevertheless, the compromise to improve participation of women must be clear. The EGP has to show that gender issues are on the top of its agenda.

For all this, the Council asks the EGP:

That the member parties of the EGP work hard to improve the participation of women in their structures and decision-taking areas and in elected positions.

The EGP must be an example for all their member parties concerning this issue. The EGP must guarantee the involvement of women in all its bodies and especially in the decision-making ones.

The EGP and their member parties should guarantee the gender mainstreaming.

The Committee of the EGP and the member parties should co-operate actively with the European Gender Green Observatory (EGGO) of the EGP in its task to evaluate the participation of men and women in the green parties in Europe.

It is of an extreme importance to obtain information and figures about the participation of men and women in the Green parties. This task will be developed by EGGO but of course it will need the help of the EGP and its members.