Women’s role in European political life little changed since goal set

Little progress has been made since targets were set by the Council of Europe 14 years ago to expand the involvement of women in political life and offices of state, a new report has found.

The report, published by the Council of Europe’s Gender Equality Commission, examined the progress made by 46 countries towards having at least 40 per cent of both men and women taking part in different aspects of political and public life. The 40 per cent goal was set by the council in 2003.

The third monitoring round, which compiled data for 2016, reflects little real progress, with Ireland’s scores coming in close to European averages.

Only two of the 46 countries – Finland and Sweden – reached the 40 per cent minimum target for women’s participation in lower or single houses of parliament last year. The average figure across Europe was 25.6 per cent – in Ireland it was 22 per cent, up 8.3 percentage points on a decade ago.

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Irish progress

Ireland scored well in the ranks of the senior judiciary, with women comprising 40 per cent of judges in the High and Supreme Courts in 2016, compared to a Europe-wide average of 33 per cent.

In the diplomatic service, 16.7 per cent of Irish Ambassadors were women in 2016, compared to a Europe-wide average of 13 per cent.

The report noted a number of countries introduced gender quota legislation or parity systems between 2005 and 2016. Five countries reported having them for national elections in 2005, but the figure had increased to 17 last year.

Including gender equality principles in legal frameworks for political parties, or in laws on the public funding of political parties, did not seem to automatically lead to significantly better results.

The Strasbourg-based, 47-member-state Council of Europe is Europe’s main human rights standards-setting body. It is also home to the European Court of Human Rights.