Sad day for Italy

Oh, yet another!

Thanks to Jon Worth, blogging this week on Yourspace, for bringing my attention to another article 47-inspired petition. This time it's Greenpeace who is calling for a GMO-label.


Yesterday was also 'Gender Pay Gap Day' - check it out here.

Are members of the European Parliament never parents?

There's an interesting post on parental leave on Yourspace. Members of the European Parliament doesn't seem to have any!

Queens have a higher sucess rate

Here's a thought-provoking opinion seen in the NYT:

"A notable share of the great leaders in history have been women: Queen Hatshepsut and Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu Zetian of China, Isabella of Castile, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Maria Theresa of Austria. Granted, I’m neglecting the likes of Bloody Mary, but it’s still true that those women who climbed to power in monarchies had an astonishingly high success rate."

"I have a pet theory about what’s going on.

In monarchies, women who rose to the top dealt mostly with a narrow elite, so they could prove themselves and get on with governing. But in democracies in the television age, female leaders also have to navigate public prejudices — and these make democratic politics far more challenging for a woman than for a man."

"Women have often quipped that they have to be twice as good as men to get anywhere — but that, fortunately, is not difficult. In fact, it appears that it may be difficult after all. Modern democracies may empower deep prejudices and thus constrain female leaders in ways that ancient monarchies did not."

Read the article in full here

What's the European woman like?

Yesterday I was asked if I could come up with five words describing the 'European woman'. It's a challenging task since both 'European' and 'woman' are very broad concepts. What are characteristics that women in Europe share - if any at all? So as a pragmatic solution I decided to to look at my women friends and colleagues and consider what they're like. Then I came up with these five words:

Strong
Smart
Giving
Energetic
Passionate

Other suggestions?

Argh!

I hope to get around to comment on this another day. Argh!

Lego gets the message across

Silence. I know it's been quiet for some time here. Anyhow, I came across this poster which I wanted to show you. The message is pretty clear, huh? It's from the UN Refugee Council.This campaign is more than 10 years old, but still pretty cool. Check out the other posters here.

Bara Bröst - now in Denmark!

Some time ago I mentioned 'Bara Bröst', a Swedish campaign to 'de-sexualize' breasts and make it socially acceptable for women to have a naked upper body when they, for example, go to a swimming pool. Now the campaign has reached Denmark - yesterday a group of topless women took a dive in Copenhagen.

Way to go, Danes!

Guest post: Good to talk about dads for a change!

A friend of mine just wrote a great reply to the recent question about parental leave for men! He's agreed that I can post it here, since he doesn't have his own blog. I'm grateful for that, since I think it's an interesting and though-provoking piece! For or against paternal leave by law - I hope you'll enjoy reading this.

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Dads for a change...

Parental leave has been one of the important topics that I have been dealing with during one year of campaigning for more and better childcare in Europe. My conclusion is that the Icelandic model which forces dads by law to take a percentage of the parental leave is a first (good) solution. Even if generally I prefer non-legal solutions for this type of societal problems, I have to admit that the urgently needed changes in that area (change of culture) can in my opinion only be reached by forcing a little bit the change...as unfortunately in this kind of gender issues lines are moving to slowly and time is urging.

All fathers should see parental leave as a chance and by considering it as one of the most intense and important periods of their lives! This should help them to argument in front of their probably a little frustrated and "women-afraid colleagues" who should try to harass or ridicule them when taking parental leave. Men should try to imagine all the possible changes that would occur in their formerly very gender oriented vision of parenthood once they would agree to take their part of the active parent job as from the start on:

• Their partner would feel less isolated, less tired, less stressed, less only-mother and more-woman-like...I don't know if you can imagine what positive changes in the daily couple-life this will induce, but I can tell you, especially for the last argument it has been a terribly intense and funny period for us ;-)
• Giving birth certainly is a reserved women's domain, rising and educating children from birth on is certainly not a matter of gender, but much more a matter of discovering that both men and women can give and receive a lot when taking care of a young child.
• Building up a strong and “life-long-learning relationship” with your child is something that one should invest in from the very beginning on, as I am convinced this will make the most qualitatively high difference in the relationship with your child for the rest of your life.
• Acting and not reacting in the framework of "modern" fatherhood will be your very contribution to the achieving of gender balance and will allow you to be n positively constructing actor and not a victim of modern times, which will certainly help you to cope with this new situation without having the impression to loose your virility...

So fathers, if you don’t want to be harassed change your view on the basic things of life…we can discuss all the difficulties and traps being induced by the fact that only women take parental leave, and though the solution lies on the side of men…at least for half of it. So if you don’t want to do it for the sake of the person you chose to have children with, do it for your child and even for yourself...and never forget that women can be our strongest allies and our best enemies at the same time ;-)

Out of my personal experience I can only tell you that I have been missing hugs and a kind of special relationship with my father, which until the end of my teenage life was based on a very cold and patriarchal way of looking at the things of life…I don’t know that if he had taken parental leave it would have completely changed his way of dealing with it’s kids and wife, but at least he would have given me the chance to also influence his life of young father…it is all a matter of give and take…like with nearly all essential things in life!

So yes, the PES should push men to take their parental leave, because politics is all about changing society for the better - I am sure there could not be a better start for change than this!
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What happened to Anders Fogh's Facebook profile?

Is it still out there - and if not, does anyone know what happened to it?

Yes, dads would like to stay at home too

As mentioned earlier I'm trying to give my input to the 2009 manifesto for the Party of European Socialists (Danes, it's the English word for 'De Europæiske Socialdemokrater'). Today there's a really interesting topic for debate on the website; namely paternal leave.

As I have said before I am for when it comes to, by law, obliging fathers to take a certain percentage of the leave. Both to overcome the cultural barriers to men taking parental leave (it seems that it's difficult for some employers to understand that men has the right to a role in their children's life) and to ensure that the leave does not become a trap for women. As the PES manifesto website says: "Problems such as women’s lower wages and the fact that women advance less can easily be traced back to maternity leave and being absent from the workplace for many months – in some cases even years..."

In my opinion European legislation makes sense in this area. If there's cultural obstacles to men taking leave in Scandinavia - how is the outlook then for the rest of Europe? If I remember correctly, the Scandinavian countries have the lowest percentage of house wifes in the world. If we are to move forward with gender equality in Europe I certainly think it makes sense to begin here. So, PES Women, the answer to your question from Scratching the Surface is a clear 'yes!'

The naughty chess game

Now since I have closed my other blog, I will have to write about EU communication curiosities here. It seems like the European Commission has developed a sense of humour with the lauch of its YouTube channel, EUtube. I have written about it before.

Take a look at the safe sex campaign video:

Well - maybe naked breasts can be liberating!

Some time ago I did a post about how more bare skin in Muslim countries is unlikely to be a sign of women's liberation. The headline was 'showing cleavage is not liberation' - and now I might have to eat my own words!

In Sweden a group of feminists are trying to spark a debate about the social norms that discrimate the female body. They call themselves 'Bara Bröst' (naked breasts) and their activities include topless visits to public swimming pools. According to Bare Bröst it should be socially accepted for women to be naked in the same situation as men - it's simply wrong to consider breasts as a part of the female genitalia.

Read the manifesto of Bare Bröst here (scroll down for English) or join their Facebook group.

Is this feminism?

Is this a silly pop song or a feministic statement - or possibly both? I have no clue since I don't know a whole lot about French Yelle.

Here's the chorus translated (if it's not perfect then blame Google translate :-)):

I want to see you
In a pornographic film
In action with your cock
Shape potatoes or fries
To find out
About your anatomy
About your cousin Teki
And your accessories fetish

In Sofia!

Today's the big day! I am in Sofia for the PES Council. Besides reading this blog there are also other online activities that you can take part in:

You can watch PES TV - 'near live' streaming of the plenary debates and press conferences via pes.org (starting in 1-2 hours) or (!) you can take part in live blogging on the PES manifesto home page.

I wish you two pleasant PES Council days!

An excursion to Sofia - adding the feminist perspective!

Next week this blog will be on the road! Together with other PES activists I will be blogging from the PES Council in Sofia. You'll be able to read my reports here and on Yourspace, the manifesto consultation website.

For those of you who doesn't know the PES, maybe a few words on the party would be appropriate. 'PES' is short for 'Party of European Socialists' (or 'De Europæiske Socialdemokrater' in Danish), it's a European-level party which gathers Europe's socialist and social democratic parties. More than 150 delegates from the national parties will take part in this year's Council (party leaders, members of national parties, international secretaries, members of the European Parliament...) - and a lot of PES activists! And, oh yes, the Danes reading this might now the PES president, it's our former prime minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen!

The big topic of the Council will be the party's manifesto ('valgprogram' in Danish) for the 2009 European elections. As the first European party the PES has taken a button-up approach to writing its manifesto: right now the party is asking people in Europe what they think should be its priorities for the years to come. I really think this is an exciting project.

In Sofia there will be a number of sessions devoted to gender equality. One is a debate on women and leadership and I look very much forward to discussing what socialists and social democrats can do to ensure more women leaders - in all parts of Europe. My current stand is that a quota system (like in Norway) is desireable, but I will be open to other views. Given the Norwegian experiences I am convinced this model can work in Scandinavian countries, but I am curious to know what politicians and women rights activists from other parts of Europe think about this. Could it, for example, work in Italy or Bulgaria?

Without doubt the Council days will be busy, but I'm eager to spend some time on posting. Now I have a team of PES activist bloggers to motivate me, and I'm sure they'll keep me up on my promise.

"It doesn't really interest us"

If you're Danish and interested in gender women's rights and gender issues it seems quite obvious who not to vote for at the next national election. Denmark's soon-to-be parties in government do not have a whole lot to say on gender equality. The liberal party couldn't even bring itself to answer the questionnaire. Read the article here.

Go, left-wing!

Tonight's the night of the Danish national elections! Keep your fingers crossed!

It has, by the way, been very interesting to see that educational politics has been on the agenda of this election campaign. If the next elections will bring a debate of gender equality, I will never complain again about the monotony of topics!

Socialists of Europe, unite!

'Open source social democracy' is the slogan of a new initiative by the Party of European Socialists (or 'De Europæiske Socialdemokrater' in Danish'). Being generally enthusiastic about democracy and communication initiatives at the European level this campaign has certainly caught my attention.



The Party of European Socialists invites Europe's bloggers and political activists to give their five cents to a common manifesto for Europe's socialist and social democratic parties in the next European elections. The PES manifesto campaign has a home on the internet, Yourspace, and it is essentially a blog where people with an interest in European politics can sign up to post and comment.

What do you think should be on the agenda of socialists in Europe? My username is 'Asynjen' and I'm saying gender equality!

Showing cleavage is not liberation

I just read a really interesting diary entry at the European Tribune. I have taken the liberty of an extensive quote - but I suggest to read the post in full.

"...a lot of "Westerners" seem to have this idea that Arab women are all covered up and hidden from view. And in some places, yeah, they are.

But even in the most conservative, Islamist parts of the Arab world, there is this newfangled thing called television, and with satellite television comes the Rotana network, owned by a very wealthy member of the Saudi royal family. Rotana is one of a growing number of hugely popular MTV-like Arabic pop music video stations, populated largely by beeeeyuuuutiiifuul scantily clad women which Abu Aardvark (otherwise known as Professor Marc Lynch) has dubbed Pop Tarts, aka the Nancy-Haifa Culture Wars.





But the pop tarts don't just inspire hand-wringing and controversy among the conservatives. There are also Arab feminists and progressive Arab women who -- like many others who'd call themselves neither feminist nor progressive -- are deeply divided about whether these "video clips" are helping or hurting.

Because, you know, there's also that whole Orientalism thing, and as Ruby reminded us above, the Middle East is no stranger to that painful stereotype of the exotic, seductive female. And this centuries-old image has not brought with it much in the way of liberation."