(Translations available here.)
OUR CALLWe want a Europe where women and girls in all their diversity enjoy equal rights and participation in every area and across all levels of society and where they are free from all forms of oppression and exploitation.
That is why we call on: > Candidates - to address the diversity of women’s and girls’ real life concerns in their campaigns and keep women’s rights high on the political agenda once elected!
> Voters - to engage, assess candidates' track records and commitment to women’s rights and to vote for feminist leaders!
> The media - to provide voters with unbiased, independent, complete information and a comprehensive view of their options, by giving an equal platform to both female and male candidates; to increase coverage of women’s rights topics and dismiss once and for all gender stereotypes and the objectification of women! Find out our concrete policy asks and how you can contribute in our manifesto.WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
Despite significant wins for women’s and girls’ rights in Europe, the recent challenges have shown again that crises impact women, girls and women’s rights organisations disproportionately.
- In the EU, 1 in 3 women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence and 1 in 2 women have experienced sexual harassment since the age of 15;
- Only 33,4% of Ministers in the EU are women;
- The average gender gap in pensions in Europe is 30%.
Europe has started to embark on an appalling backward trend. Gender stereotypes and patriarchal values are still thriving in our societies. Women are being relegated to unpaid or underpaid and non-recognised care roles, rampant sexism deprives women of equal opportunities and empowerment in all areas of life. Some of the most fundamental and hardest won women’s and girls’ rights have been revoked; in present-day Europe women are still dying from lack of access to abortion or killed by their intimate partners or family members!
HOW WOULD EQUALITY BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN BENEFIT US ALL?
Achieving equality between women and men would result in:
- The growing legitimacy and representativeness of European institutions;
- Increased wealth: improved gender equality would lead to an increase of 6.1 to 9.6 percentage points in EU GDP per capita by 2050, which amounts to €1.95 to €3.15 trillion;
- Boosted employment rate: equal opportunities in STEM education and in the labour market would trigger a growth of EU employment rate by 2.1 to 3.5 percentage points by 2050.
Europe is at a crossroads, the 2024 EU elections will be a turning point for women and girls in Europe, for the European project of peace, democracy, inclusion, equality and solidarity - let’s all take our responsibility!
SIGN THE PLEDGE!
#EUelections2024 #FeministEurope
**DATA PROTECTION**
At EWL, we are working to comply with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which came into effect on 25 May 2018. We can confirm that the information you provide us in the registration form is only intended to be used in the framework of this pledge. The information you provide us will be kept safe at EWL. For any questions about this, you can email us at
ewl@womenlobby.org.
