Elisa Ferreira's Message

I am very proud to be part of a Commission in which gender parity is a reality: 12 women commissioners to 14 men under the leadership of the first woman president of the institution. I am myself the first woman appointed Portuguese Commissioner.

I am very conscious of the hard road we had to travel to get here. From the struggle of the right to vote and be elected throughout the 20th century, to the high-level positions that women have been holding at the national and European levels, as well as in international organisations in the last 20 to 30 years.

However, the EU overall situation is still very far from perfect: national parliaments and governments only account for 32 % of women members. The situation is slightly better in the European Parliament where 39 % of MEPs elected in 2019 are women, against 37% in 2014. Women represent only 29 % of members in regional assemblies (in EU 28). And if we look at the mayors of the capital cities in the EU Member States, only 6 are women (in Paris, Stockholm, Sofia, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Dublin).

But the insufficient level of women participation in politics is both in the image of the society and an explanation of why so much remains to be done to ensure gender equality and fight violence against women.

We see how too many stereotypes affect society and women in both their personal, professional and public lives. We see how violence against women kills, mutilate and harms. We see how women make their professional choices in order to make them compatible with their family life. We note the pay gap between men and women for the same job. We measure the imbalanced repartition of domestic and unpaid tasks between men and women.

The COVID-19 crisis has put a lot of additional pressure on women, whose jobs, in periods of economic crises are more at risk given the higher rate of part time and low paid jobs. Women are also expected to take more responsibility for family and child-care in times of social distancing and lockdown.

We need to revert this. This Commission is actively working for a Union in which equality between men and women is not only a principle, but translates into concrete and measurable improvements. 

This is why the Commission approved a year ago a gender equality strategy 2020-2025. It aims at a Union where women and men, girls and boys, in all their diversity, are free to pursue their chosen path in life, benefit from equal opportunities, and can equally participate in and lead our European society.

As one of the concrete deliverables of this strategy, the Commission adopted a proposal last week for binding pay transparency measures to contribute to fight against the pay gap between men and women.

Another concrete measure foreseen this year is a proposal to prevent and combat specific forms of violence against girls and women, whose present levels are simply not acceptable. The fight against this scourge must be a priority for all our societies.

More measures are in pipeline aiming at combating stereotypes; closing gender gaps in the labour market; achieving equal participation across different sectors of the economy; addressing pension gaps; closing the care gap and achieving gender balance in decision-making and in politics.

A lot remains to be done to secure that one’s aspirations are not frustrated because of gender and to ensure that women’s representation and participation in public life fully reflects their key role in the society.

So I wish every woman a very happy International Women’s Day! And I wish that all men and women actively engage for a gender equal society!!