InVisible Women in Political and Civic Life in Slovakia

1
(In)Visible Women in Political and Civic Life in
Slovakia

• Alexandra Bitusikova
• EGG Project
• SERD-2003-00033
• Prague, 20 June 2005

2
Do not poke your noses into politics!

• The sentence adressed to women reflects an
  opinion of majority of the Slovak society on
  womens participation in decision-making.

3
Introduction

• Female visibility (WP2) objective Analysis of
  womens civic and political engagement pre- and
  post-1989
  
• Equality institutions in Slovakia
• - Coordinating Committee for Womens
  Issues (government advisory body)
  
• - Parliamentary Committee for Human
  Rights, Ethnic Minorities and the
  
• Status of Women
• - Dpt for Family and Gender Policy
  (Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and
  
• Family)
• Equality legislation and documents
• - Constitution of the Slovak Republic
• - Labour Code
• - Anti-Discriminatory Act
• - National Action Plan for Women in the
  Slovak Republic National Plan for
  
• Employment in the Slovak Republic
• - Concept of Equal Opportunities for Men
  and Women
  

4
Statistical Data on Womens Political
Representation in Slovakia

• National Council (Parliament)
• Pre-1989 27 - 29
• 1990s 12 - 15,3
• 2002-2006 14,66 / 19 (after changes in
  the Parliament)
  
• Goverment
• Pre-1989 no women
• 1990s 0 14,8
• 2002-present no women
• President
• In 1999 1 female candidate (unsuccessful)
  
  
• European Parliament
• 14 Slovak MEPs, 5 women 35 (1 Chairwoman
  of Committee on Womens Rights)
  

5
Women in Municipal Politics

• Slovakia transition from three-grade
  territorial administration (regions, districts
  and local municipalities) to two-grade
  administration (regions called higher territorial
  units and local municipalities).
• Womens representation in higher positions at
  regional and district level low (no woman is a
  chair of regional government in 8 regional
  cities) lack of statistical data
• Participation of women in local politics
  increasing with every election (1994 15.2
  1998 17.5 2002 19.4)
  
• Women are mayors in smaller municipalities, men
  in bigger municipalities.
  
• 25.6 of men and 42.1 of women consider womens
  participation in local politics insufficient.

6
Women in Municipal Politics (cont.)

• Why are women more successful in local politics?
• 1. Local governments have less power and less
  money, and therefore they attract fewer men
  
• 2. Women in local politics can better
  combine their work duties with family duties
  
• 3. Women prefer to work on familiar local
  issues. They consider their work as a service for
  others, community service and mission.
  
• 4. Most women consider politics a male and
  dirty business. Affiliation to a political party
  is much less important in local politics than in
  high politics. Many female candidates for
  mayors of villages in Slovakia run as independent
  candidates.
• These tendencies appeared in all studied
  countries.

7
From the interviews with female mayors

• I like this work. I love meeting people, I love
  working in the field. I always was a leader, even
  at school I had to be head of the classroom.
  
• I became a mayor because I wanted to help my
  village. I had experience in working with the
  people, I have always done it. And I have social
  feelings. It is economically difficult in small
  villages, and I wanted to help.
• We have a tradition of female mayors here. But in
  the neighbouring little town, it is different.
  Conditions there are not comparable with ours. It
  is all about money in bigger places. They had
  several women candidates there, but they have
  never been successful. It is always a male mayor
  who wins there.

8
Women in Trade Unions

• Pre-1989 Revolutionary Trade Union Movement
  controlled by the Communist Party.
  
• Womens committees at all levels aim  to
  achieve an actual implementation of equal rights
  for women as employees, mothers and citizens  
  (1984). No women in trade union leadership.
• Post-1989 Confederation of Trade Unions
• Decline of membership (from 2.4 million in
  1990 to 750,000 in 2000).
  
• More than 50 are female members
• No women in top leadership
• Commission for Equal Opportunities for Women and
  Men (since 1991) advisory body

9
Women in NGOs

• More than 70 womens organisations in Slovakia
  key players in keeping gender agenda alive and
  lobbying
  
• Types of organisations professional
  associations, charities, womens rights groups,
  interest groups, political parties organisations,
  international organisations.
• Topics violence and trafficing, womens rights,
  reproductive rights, women in decision-making,
  education, culture, charity, health, social
  problems, Roma minority.
• Awareness and understanding of womens issues
  higher in NGOs than among female politicians.
  
• International cooperation low
• We can learn from experience of other EU member
  states. But that requires certain conditions to
  know what we want to achieve, to know environment
  where we want to achieve it, to get inspired by
  good examples, but not to copy them

10
From Opinion Polls

• 32 of women and 41 of men participate in some
  community or NGO activity
  
• 78 of women and 83 of men would like to
  participate more
  
• 3.5 of men and 5.4 of women know about
  activities of womens organisations
  
• 5.5 of women are active in womens
  organisations
  
• Age, education and urban-rural division are
  important factors in active womens
  participation younger, educated women in larger
  cities tend to be more active and positive
  towards womens civic and political participation
  than older ones in small villages and towns

11
Strategies and recommendations for increasing
womens civic and political participation

• Quotas (or zipping) support for quotas has been
  slowly increasing (public dabate and awareness
  raising before elections in 2002) age and
  education gap low support among female
  politicains
• Raising awareness as a long-term strategy
  despite campaigns and media coverage, gender
  mainstreaming at all levels is still formal and
  not considered a serious problem. More debates
  and media reports needed! More gender-aware
  journalists needed!
• Education is a key factor in fighting gender
  stereotypes (education of teachers, education of
  children, review of textbooks)
  
• Control and monitoring mechanisms need to be
  developed at all levels legislation itself is
  not enough
  
• Innovative practices and institutions in some
  countries (Czech Womens shadow cabinet call for
  Interministerial Commission on Gender Issues in
  Latvia etc.)

12
THANK YOU

• VERY MUCH