women

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, I asked four MEPs from Central-Eastern Europe what they think where we stand now on the issue of female political leadership in Europe. I was interested in what they consider the biggest obstacles for women pursuing a career in politics.

On October 22, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that abortions for fetal abnormalities violate the Constitution, effectively imposing a near-total ban on abortion. Tribunal’s president Julia Przyłębska said that allowing abortions in cases of fetal abnormality legalized “eugenic practices“.

The human rights of women and children in Poland are at risk. The government is exploiting the fact that due to social distancing restrictions women are unable to protest against a barbaric legislation which was passed in its first reading in Sejm

While the vote-counting in Ukraine continues, it is already clear that President Volodymyr Zelensky has secured the power over legislative and, consequently, executive branches of the government. His political force, the Servant of the People party, has won a landslide victory in the snap parliamentary elections.

Analysts investigating the roots of the PiS\'s dominance agree that one of the strongest pillars of its success is a massive universal child benefit scheme called “Family 500+”, providing each and every Polish family with a monthly payment of PLN 500 (ca. EUR 115) for their second and every next underage child.

We, the Polish women, are mobilized enough and ready to take up the gauntlet and face the challenges that lie ahead. The forthcoming local election in Poland is the best opportunity for taking the matters into our own hands. If we do not do it ourselves, nobody will.

As far as gender equality, gender roles, and stereotypes are concerned, the Hungarian society is not as traditional as it might seem in the light of the communication of the current government. Contrary to expectations, it considers women to be far more competent to be politicians than the current leaders of the country.

Gendered violence is used as an act of power, tactic of torture, and weapon of desecration. Gendered and sexualized violence is not limited to isolated acts of individuals, but is used as a tool of oppression by both state functionaries and combatants to subjugate communities and silence dissent.

Only 10% of Hungarian members of parliament are women. This has been basically the case since the change of regime, despite the fact that the participation of women in politics is on the rise all around Europe and the world. And while complete gender equality in political representation is still not feasible in most countries, Hungary is usually at the end of all equality ratings.

Integrity Lab looked into the attitudes of the Hungarian society towards female politicians by a nation-wide representative research in order to better understand this phenomenon with special regard to the differences between voters of right and left-liberal parties.