ЕВРОПСКА УНИЈА: РОД И ПОЛИТИКА
European Union: Gender and Politics

Summary/Abstract: Political representation is the central issue in contemporary debates on the level of democracy in political institutions and processes in the European Union. Underrepresentation of particular groups in political institutions, decision-making and policy-making processes is perceived as the problem of justice, legitimacy and effectiveness in democratic societies. In this paper, the author analyzes the gender aspects of democratic decision-making processes and political representation of women in the EU member states. The social, historical and political dimension of women’s efforts to obtain and promote their civil status and political rights have been the framework for developing the principle of gender equality as one of the founding EU principles. In the past hundred years, one of the most significant trends in politics has been the the expansion of formal political representation of women. Yet, even though it has been more than a hundered years since women won their political rights in the 19th and the 20th century (the right to vote and the right to be voted), gender differences in political rights are still a substantial part of debate. Today, women’s political representation is still inadequate and their political capacity and power have not been exercised to a sufficient extent (or proportionally) through their actual representation in parliament. In March 2012, the European Commisision published a report on gender equality in different areas of social life; the Eurobarometer survey shows that women are generally underrepresented in politics. In national parliaments, only one out of four MPs is a woman. In the European Parliament, three out of ten parliamentarians are women. The statistics shows a huge discrepancy among the EU Member States in terms of women’s representation in parliament (44.7% in Sweden as contrasted to 13.3% in Romania). The prevailing view in many studies is that post-industrial democracies are deficient as they have failed to provide for an adequate representation of women’s needs and interests. The legal standards on political equality of men and women have been incorporated into the international and regional legal frameworks. Yet, the international conventions, declarations, optional protocols, strategies, action plans and recommendations for policy-makers at different levels have not generated a significant change in the general attitude to political equality of men and women. Why is it so? Women are underrepresented whenever the number of women in the elected bodies of authority is unproportional to the total number of women in the general population; such exlusion of women from politics is unjust because it diminishes the quality of political debate and undermines the essence of democratic legitimacy. For the past ten years, the academic community has been involved in a debate on different aspects of women’s political representation. Within the framework of feminist research on gender, politics and state, the discussions have focused on the following issues: what are the benefits of increasing the number of women in politics; will the increase of female MPs in parliament change the nature of politics (given that it may be a chance to articulate women’s perspective and discuss women’s problems and interests); do women MPs make a difference in political life (and, if so, in what circumstances); and what kind of changes may be expected from their participation in politics? Most discussions have focused on establishing and analyzing the mutial relations between the descriptive and substantive women’s representation in politics, primarily concerning the issue whether the increase in the number of female MPs contributes to increasing their interest in representing women’s political interests. The quota system, which has been applied in the EU counties as a response to the problem of women’s underrepresentation in politics, and the introduction of women’s policy agencies (aimed at supporting and promoting the gender equality policy) have proven to be examples of good practice in addressing the “democratic deficit” in the modern Western European societies.

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