Women still struggling to win top jobs

Date: 25/02/1999

By Gareth Harding

YOU do not have to wear a suit and tie to get a top job in the European Commission, but it certainly helps.

The latest figures reveal that despite the institution's commitment to equality, only 5% of director-generals and 10% of directors are women. Although they make up almost half the institution's 16,000 workforce, women hold less than one-fifth of decision-making posts.

Finnish Green MEP Heidi Hautala, who chairs the European Parliament's women's committee, insists that "the time has now come for quotas to raise the number of women in top posts in the Commission".

She is also warning that when the new members of the Commission are nominated by EU governments later this year, a greater proportion will have to be women. Only one quarter of the current team is female.

In a bid to shrug off its image as a body run by middle-aged men, the Commission adopted a programme in 1997 aimed at boosting the number of women in the institution. This requires director-generals to draw up action plans to promote equality in their departments. For the last four years, the institution has also set annual targets for increasing the number of women in top positions.

The strategy appears to be bearing fruit. Between 1995 and the end of last year,

the proportion of women in A-grade posts increased from 14% to 19%, and more than 40% of new administrators recruited were female.

The Commission intends to step up its efforts to increase the number of women in top posts. Last week, Social Affairs Commissioner Padraig Flynn said he planned to withdraw proposals aimed at promoting women in professional life after criticism from the Parliament and EU governments. Hautala says the "door is now open for an improved Commission proposal".