In a world in turmoil that faces major political, social and environmental challenges, our Assemblies play an essential role in moving our societies forward, improving the representation of our fellow citizens and enhancing our legislation towards greater equality between men and women.
In 2024, in France, we will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of the 1944 decree that gave French women the right to vote and stand for election which was the culmination of a long internal and universal struggle for women’s rights. Today, against this highly symbolic backdrop, and on the eve of International Women’s Rights Day, the Women Speakers’ Summit is a groundbreaking act of feminist and parliamentary diplomacy, bringing together in Paris the women Speakers of Assemblies. Three years after Mexico and France organised the Generation Equality Forum to mark the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration at the
4th World Conference on Women, this Summit aims to build on international initiatives and commitments to women’s rights by highlighting the role of national Parliaments and their women Speakers.
The two round tables organised are at the heart of this event and mark the commitment of the Women Speakers of Assemblies to:
• education in equality, health and the fight against violence;
• gender equality and parity in politics and the affirmation of female role models.
SCHEDULE
The Presidents will be invited to take part in two round tables on Thursday 7 March in Salle (Room) Lamartine. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
10 :30 - 11 :45 AM • ROUND TABLE 1
Education in equality, health and the fight against violence
Opening by Ms. Valérie Rabault, First Vice-President of the National Assembly
Keynote speakers : Mrs Eliane Tillieux [Belgium], Mrs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula [South Africa] 5 minutes each.
Education is the cornerstone of development, and represents the primary condition for the economic emancipation of women and their access to equality in all areas. Although the gap in school enrolment between girls and boys has narrowed considerably over the last twenty years, two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women, and some countries are currently experiencing worrying setbacks. In Afghanistan, for example, girls have been banned from secondary and higher education since 2022. Moreover, in countries where there are as many women as men in higher education, there is a clear under-representation of women in the so-called «future» fields, such as technological or scientific innovation.
More broadly, education is a vehicle for equality because, from the earliest age, it enables us to combat discrimination of all kinds and sexist stereotypes that can be reproduced later in the professional, social and private spheres. This means raising awareness of gender-based violence and protecting sexual health, but also promoting the same type of professional career for girls and boys, which is essential if young people are to be able to envisage an egalitarian future.
Women’s access to health and the protection of their sexual and reproductive rights is another major challenge in terms of equality. Defined as fundamental women’s rights at the 1995 Beijing Conference, they include access to quality sexual and reproductive health services, safe access to abortion and the fight against violent practices that are harmful to women, such as female circumcision. Women’s access to sexual and reproductive health, which is an emblematic struggle of feminist movements, depends on their freedom to control their bodies and their sexuality, a freedom that is currently very unevenly guaranteed throughout the world. According to the WHO, 45% of abortions carried out worldwide each year are unsafe, and a third of these are carried out in extremely dangerous conditions. France is now one of the leading countries in the diplomatic defence of sexual and reproductive rights (€400 million of funding over 5 years) and is preparing to enshrine the freedom to have an abortion in its Constitution. More recently, the fight against menstrual insecurity has become a priority in several countries in terms of reducing gender inequalities and access to healthcare.
Nonetheless, women’s access to health is not limited to the sexual and gynaecological spheres: cardiovascular diseases are now the leading cause of death for women, and their symptoms are less well identified by the medical community than those of men. Women are also more affected than men by mental health problems, whatever their age may be.
Combating violence against women remains a priority at both an international and national level. This represented the first action coalition of the Generation Equality Forum to be held in Mexico and Paris in 2021. Violence against women is a major violation of their rights, with physical and psychological repercussions that can even lead to death. Worldwide, one in three women is a victim of physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, and five women die every hour as a result of domestic violence. Women with disabilities are twice as likely as others to be victims of verbal, physical and sexual violence, an issue that is very unequally addressed around the world. Female genital mutilation and forced marriages are also part of the violence and attacks on integrity to which women are still too often victims. Women also represent more than 70% of victims of people trafficking worldwide, mainly for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution.
Women are also more exposed than men to cyber violence and economic violence. Despite global awareness and legislative progress in many countries, women’s effective access to their rights to protection against violence remains haphazard. Fighting violence against women is a major issue for cooperation between public services such as health, justice and the police, and can only make progress if it is fully integrated into education from the earliest age.
Areas for discussion
• the transformation of educational models to ensure gender equality, and access for young girls to the sectors of the future;
• progress and resistance in the area of sexual and reproductive health, the role of national Parliaments in strengthening rights and ensuring their effectiveness;
• legislative advances to curb violence against women, successful models for preventing and dealing with violence.
11 :45 - 12 :45 PM • ROUND TABLE 2
Gender equality and parity in politics and the affirmation of female role models.
Keynote speakers: Mrs Barbel Bas [Germany] and Mrs Marcela Guerra Castillo [Mexico] 5 minutes each.
Equal representation of women in elected office, and more broadly in positions of responsibility in both the public and private sectors, is a priority which we embody on a daily basis. Although equal access to elected office exists in law in all national parliaments, its effectiveness is far from guaranteed and varies greatly from country to country.
Only 28 countries in the world are led by a female Head of State or Government. The ministerial portfolios where women are most numerous remain those of the Family, Social Protection and Minority Rights. At national parliamentary level, 26 % of M.P.s are women, and in 2023 only 6 parliaments had achieved or surpassed gender parity. 19,6 % of parliaments are headed by a woman speaker. UN Women estimates that at the current rate of progress, gender parity in national legislative bodies will not be achieved before 2063.
Ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal access to leadership roles at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life is one of the targets of the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for achieving gender equality.
Various binding or incentive instruments exist to encourage the representation of women in positions of responsibility. This is highly linked to the ability of employers to propose a genuine and inclusive policy to women in the world of work, which involves supporting parenthood, facilitation of work-life balance, and fighting against gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace.
The assertion of female role models goes far beyond the political sector, and the world of work as a whole must gain ground to enable women to take leading roles. Across the world, women are more likely to work in informal jobs and in jobs that are precarious, poorly paid or undervalued. Women’s access to project financing and financial services is also subject to deep-seated gender inequalities that too often prevent women from engaging in activities such as entrepreneurship.
Areas for discussion
• legal tools to promote the representation of women in politics and the exchange of goodpractices to advance feminist diplomacy;
• the role of national parliaments as employers in improving the inclusion of women and supporting their careers;
• the prospects for, and obstacles to, the assertion of female role models in the world of work.