WUNRN
European Women's Lobby - EWL:
Direct Link to European Commission
Text:
[European Commission,
The update of the European
Commission’s database includes a quarterly update of data on political
decision-making at European, national level and regional level (for those
regions where there have been elections). Data were collected between 14 and 28
February 2011 and reflect changes since the last update in autumn 2010.
The gender imbalance in national
parliaments around the EU is unchanged at 24% women and 76% men. In the only
national election to take place over the period, the share of women members in
the Senate of the
Two changes amongst those
nominated to lead their respective houses of parliament (single, lower or upper
houses) resulted in the share of women presidents/speakers in the EU rising
from 20% to 25%.
Women account for 26% of senior
ministers (those with a seat on the cabinet) in governments across the EU-27
countries, 22% of junior ministers and 24% overall. Apart from minor
fluctuations, the share of women in government has changed little over the past
four years.
A number of government reshuffles
took place:
Regional elections took place in
seven countries; Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Greece, Spain (Catalunya region),
Austria (Vienna and Steiermark regions), and in the Czech Republic (Prague
region). Women now account for 31% of the members of regional assemblies and
32% of regional executives though only 15% of assemblies and 11% of executives
are led by women. Across the EU as a whole, the gender imbalance in regional
assemblies has hardly changed since 2004.