Gender Sensitive Parliaments:
A framework for advancing the equalities agenda in the European Parliament
30 January 2019
European Parliament, Brussels
At 16.30-18.30
(Room: A5E-3)
A seminar organised by the European Research Council (ERC) funded research project EUGenDem (University of Tampere, Finland) with MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP)
“A gender sensitive parliament is one that responds to the needs and interests of both women and men in its structures, operations, methods and its work. Gender sensitive parliaments remove the barriers to women full participation and offer a positive example or model to society at large.”
Is the European Parliament gender-sensitive in this respect? If not, how can it become one?
The European Parliament is facing questions about gender balance in EU’s top positions as well as non-sexist institutional culture, which does not permit any forms of discrimination or harassment.
The gender sensitive parliaments framework developed by the Interparliamentary Union (IPU) and has travelled different national parliaments – often with the help of academic researchers – and resulted in exciting findings and research about parliamentary gender equality practices, policies and work. Ahead of the European elections 2019, it is time to bring this framework to the European Parliament.
This seminar brings leading academic experts on the topic into a dialogue with the European Parliament around the notion of gender sensitive parliaments. Topics discussed in the seminar range from political participation in elections and in their aftermath; to political groups and committees in the EP; mainstreaming gender into policy formation; to parliamentary cultures and infrastructures.
Opening
Representative of the European Parliament (TBC)
Professor Johanna Kantola, University of Tampere Finland: Researching the European Parliament from an equality perspective
Keynote speakers:
Professor Sarah Childs, Birkbeck, University of London: “Drafting and Implementing The Good Parliament Report in the UK”
Dr. Josefina Erikson, Uppsala University: “How to make parliaments more gender equal? Lessons from Sweden”
Senior Policy Advisor Essa Reijmers, European Women’s Lobby: “HerNetHerRights: forms and impact of digital violence against women”
Roundtable: Towards a gender sensitive European Parliament: State of play and ways forward
Chair: Professor Johanna Kantola, University of Tampere, Finland
Participants:
Zita Gurmai (PES-Women, Chair)
Zeina Hilal (Interparliamentary Union, IPU)
Angelika Mlinar (MEP, ALDE)
Sirpa Pietikäinen (MEP, EPP)
Jeanne Ponte (Founder of the #MeTooEP campaign)
*More participants to be confirmed
* Sign up for the seminar by 23th January:
https://elomake.uta.fi/lomakkeet/22568/lomake.html
*For more information about the research project, please see: https://research.uta.fi/eugendem
Download the seminar poster from here
