Gender mainstreaming in the work of committees and delegations

The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality adopted an own-initiative report drawn up by Anna ZÁBORSKÁ (EPP-ED, SK) on gender mainstreaming in the work of its committees and delegations.

The report recalls the steady increase in the percentage of female Members of the European Parliament from 17.5% in 1979 to 31.08% in 2009. It notes that women are over-represented in Parliament’s Directorates-General for Internal Policies and External Policies, where they account for 66.5% and 66% of staff respectively. It also stresses the major increase in the percentage of women in senior administrative posts (for example, in 2005 the percentage of female heads of unit rose from 5% to 30%).

The majority of parliamentary committees generally attach importance to gender mainstreaming (for example in the context of their legislative activity, their institutional relations with the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, the drawing up of a programme of action for equality, etc.), although a minority of committees rarely or never take an interest in the matter.

On this basis, the committee reiterates the need to adopt and apply a gender mainstreaming strategy incorporating specific targets in all Community policies which fall with the purview of parliamentary committees and delegations. MEPs stress the importance of the task of the High-Level Group on Gender Equality and Diversity and calls on it to continue to encourage and promote this process throughout Parliament, in its relations with the Commission, the Council and other institutions and in cooperation with them.

The report encourages the Secretary-General to prioritise training in gender mainstreaming for officials working at every level in parliamentary committees and delegations. In this context, all Members of Parliament should be provided with equal opportunity training from the beginning of the next Parliament. Moreover, the Secretary-General is called upon to continue to implement the integrated strategy for combining life in the family and at the workplace and to facilitate the career development of female employees.

MEPs stress the need for the parliamentary committees and delegations to have at their disposal appropriate means of gaining a sound understanding of gender mainstreaming, including indicators, data and statistics broken down by gender, and for budgetary resources to be allocated with an eye to ensuring equality between women and men. They also call for the committees and delegations to play an active role in the regular assessments carried out under the auspices of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality.

Lastly, the Parliament’s Bureau is called upon to stress, in its dealings with the parliaments of the Member States, the positive example set by the high level group on gender equality and diversity.