On 15 May 2017, the forum on “Political parties’ strategy on enhancement of women political participation” was held by the Ukrainian Parliamentary Sub-Committee on gender equality and non-discrimination in cooperation and with the support of the Council of Europe and the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

The forum opened with the presentation of Council of Europe´s Regional study on Women´s Political Representation in Eastern Partnership Countries, identifying key barriers for women in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. While balanced political representation is crucial for the political, economic and social wealth of a country, the study demonstrates that in Ukraine as well as in the other countries, women are less likely to run for political office and to be elected both to the national Parliaments and to local government bodies. Women hold less than 20% of seats in parliament in all the countries with the exception of Belarus where 30% of parliamentary seats are held by women. Stereotypical views, assumptions about the role women should play in society and the economic condition of women are among the major barriers for women to be political active. The legal framework and party policies are further factors which hinder women to take up a leading role in politics. Besides that, Olena Sotnyk, Member of Parliament, stated “For female politicians it is not enough to have professional skills, they need specific skills to deal with the harassment and discrimination they often face in the parliamentary work”.   

More than 70 participants including Members of Parliament of Ukraine, representatives of local councils, political parties, media community, NGOs, as well as independent gender experts, mainly women, took part in the forum and examined possible ways to improve legislative mechanisms to ensure women’s political participation, institutionalization of gender equality issues in political parties, good practice examples and possible strategies to support women-candidates and women-elected officials. The participants discussed also how to promote gender sensitivity in political parties and how to overcome gender stereotypes in society. Only few men joined the discussion, but several of them expressed their fully support to gender equality measures in the Ukrainian parliament. Concerning the intensively discussed implementation of a gender quota in party lists, most of the participants explained to be in favor of sanctions, if such quotas were not respected, otherwise this measure would not have the expected result.

The event was organized within the framework of the Council of Europe project “Reform of the electoral practice in Ukraine”.

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