Involving more Women in Europe

2012 was not an extraordinary year for women in Europe. No women were elected as Head of State or of a government, no women were appointed at the European Central Bank; a multitude of obstacles have been erected to undermine the European Commission's draft directive which aimed to achieve a 40% quota of women on company boards – inequality between men and women has continued to grow: there has been nothing to encourage our optimism.

Europe is still a male universe although the situation is slightly better in this part of the world than elsewhere. Women can only count on themselves if they are to be freed from the "confined" space that they have been granted or in which they have been restricted. They are not mistaken in this. After listening to decision makers' fine speeches, which are rarely followed by action, women have decided to organise.

Women's networks have grown. Not to swap interesting recipes or to talk house, but rather to define some strategies to disrupt the order established by men, which the latter guard jealously out of fear of being robbed of something. Women have done this mainly to show they exist, that they are worth as much as men and to let the latter know how to cohabit and share power.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background Information: Press Release: Report shows women still under-represented in EU research http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-report-shows-women-still-under-represented-in-eu-research/

ESO: Background Information: Women in Europe – do they have equal rights or not? http://www.europeansources.info/record/women-in-europe-do-they-have-equal-rights-or-not/

ESO: Background Information: Gender quotas: Bad for business or a ‘necessary evil’? http://www.europeansources.info/record/gender-quotas-bad-for-business-or-a-necessary-evil/

---