Parliament urged to recruit more women

Date: 20/03/03

By Martin Banks

THE European Parliament's top civil servant has called for urgent measures to be taken to increase the number of women working for the assembly.

Secretary-General Julian Priestley admits that efforts so far to improve female under-representation have left a "great deal to be desired".

In particular, much is needed to be done to get women into "decision-making" posts, he said.

The Parliament receives an equal number of job applications from men and women, but males tend to be more successful in landing posts - a situation Priestley describes as "unacceptable".

He claimed that civil services in member states had been far more successful in addressing the issue: "The European Parliament can no longer allow a situation to be perpetuated in which the minimum standard applied elsewhere is not met," he added.

Measures aimed at tackling the problem include:

• Giving "systematic preference", in cases of equal merit, to female applicants for management posts;
• a more balanced gender representation on selection boards;
• encouraging more applications from women, and;
• ensuring that shortlists for senior jobs include female candidates.

The move follows a new report which reveals that the number of women employed by the Parliament has hardly changed in nearly five years.

Out of a 3,276-strong workforce, 1,770 are women, almost the same number as in 1998.

The report states that differences are most marked in the highest-grade jobs: out of 394 A-grade posts, only 88 - or 22.3 - are filled by women.

Nor have women fared much better when it comes to recent appointments: between 1 July 2000 and 15 December 2001, the Parliament appointed three directors-general - all of them men.

In addition, two out of the three directors appointed during this period were male, as were all of the 12 new heads of division.

Priestley has set a target of at least 25 of A-grade posts being filled by women by 2007.

For divisional heads, the target figure is 40 (currently 14); for directors 30 (26 at present) and for DGs, 20 (none).

Acknowledging that efforts to improve the imbalance have been "slow", Priestley emphasised that a better male-female balance "must be fostered".

Meanwhile, a separate report on the number of female MEPs puts Italy firmly at the bottom of the league.

Only ten of Italy's 87 deputies are women (11), the report by German Socialist MEP Lissy Gröner reveals.

Next from bottom is Greece, with just four female representatives among its 25 deputies (16), followed by Portugal, six out of 25 (24), and the UK, 21 out of 87 (also 24).

Officials point out that the situation is no worse than in member state parliaments, where women are also typically under-represented.

There are only four countries in which women account for more than one third of total members: Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden.

Women represent fewer than one in five of members in six countries, and in three - Greece, France and Italy - they represent only around one in ten or fewer.

The European Parliament's top civil servant, Secretary-General Julian Priestley, has called for urgent measures to be taken to increase the number of women working for the assembly.