Bettina Hahne is Soroptimist International of Europe’s Representative to the Council of Europe. She attended the CSW62 as a member of the SIE Delegation.
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Which event would you like to tell us about?
I would like to talk about an event which focused on the political empowerment of women and women’s access to political responsibilities. The title of the conference was “Let’s break the glass ceiling“. It took place on Monday March 12 at the UN Headquarters, and the organizers were the French and Swedish Coordination of the European Women’s Lobby, as well as the Fondation Jean Jaurès, co-Sponsored by the governments of France and Sweden.
What were the main issues discussed during this talk?
The talk focused on the difficulty for women to take part in politics, and the resistance of society and political parties to gender-equal representation in politics. In France, parties have preferred to pay fines instead of fulfilling the obligation of having an equal number of female and male candidates for elections.
The media treatment of women in politics is very different to that of men. On average, women are much more criticized and the media are more interested in their private life than their achievements! In addition, whenever a woman makes a mistake it is extrapolated to all women… It is difficult to keep women in positions of responsibility when every single move they make is scrutinized and commented upon. In these conditions, it is much more stressful for women to be in political positions than for men.
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In addition, women are more exposed to political violence and physical harassment. When women stand up for themselves and speak publicly, the backlash can be violent. And this is true all around the world. In Bolivia, the harvests of women in politics are burnt. In Sweden, they are harassed on the internet. In Ivory Coast, men have used traditional customs to eliminate women from winning elections. Most Ivorian women don’t have the money for electoral campaigns, and sometimes think that politics is only for men.
The French Secretary of State in charge of Equality between Women and Men Marlène Schiappa said: “When women are in politics it is looked upon as if society does them a favor. It is the contrary: women do a favour to society when they go into politics.” It was comforting to learn that the fact that women are ridiculed, harassed, not listened to in politics it is not acceptable any more! As the Assistant Secretary General of the UN Yannick Glemarec said: “ If the representation of the people is not representative, how could politics be in line with women’s needs?”
What are your reflections on the outcome and suggestions for future opportunities to promote the SIE agenda?
It was clearer than ever that in order to achieve change, we first have to change the mindset! I can only repeat: without advocacy, we cannot change the situation of women in general. We do not only have to stand up for women, we also have to speak up for women!
My suggestions to other Soroptimists would be to be more aware of how women in politics are represented in the press. We could talk or write to the media about it. Soroptimists could encourage and back up female politicians and raise awareness about the gender-related difficulties they encounter. And most importantly, we need to ask ourselves if we don’t carry the same prejudices. We have to work on changing our own mindset first!