REPORT on women in political decision-making – quality and equality

3.2.2012 - (2011/2295(INI))

Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality
Rapporteur: Sirpa Pietikäinen

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

on women in political decision-making – quality and equality

(2011/2295(INI))

The European Parliament,

–   having regard to the Treaty on European Union, in particular Articles 2 and 3(3) thereof,

–   having regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular Articles 21 and 23 thereof,

–   having regard to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

–   having regard to the 1979 UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),

–   having regard to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women on 15 September 1995 and to the subsequent outcome documents adopted at the United Nations Beijing+5 (2000), Beijing +10 (2005) and Beijing +15 (2010) special sessions,

–   having regard to the Agreed Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women of 2006 on ‘Equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels’,

–   having regard to the Commission on the Status of Women Agreed Conclusions 1997/2 on the Critical Areas of Concern of the Beijing Platform for Action 1996-1999,

–   having regard to UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/58/142 on women and political participation,

–   having regard to the European Pact for Gender Equality (2011-2020), adopted by the European Council in March 2011[1],

–   having regard to the Commission Communication entitled ‘Strategy for equality between women and men 2010-2015’ (COM(2010)0491),

–   having regard to the Commission Decision of 19 June 2000 relating to gender balance within the committees and expert groups established by it[2],

–   having regard to the Council Recommendation of 2 December 1996 on the balanced participation of women and men in the decision-making process (96/694/EC)[3],

–   having regard to the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Rec (2003)3 on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making, adopted on 12 March 2003, and the results of the two rounds of monitoring of the progress made in the implementation of this Recommendation Rec (2003)3, based on a questionnaire on gender-segregated data on the participation of women and men in political and public decision-making, completed in 2005 and 2008 respectively,

–   having regard to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Resolution (PACE) 1079 (1996), on the increased representation of women in the PACE, Recommendation 1413 (1999) on equal representation in political life, Resolution 1348 (2003) on gender-balanced representation in the PACE, Recommendation 1665 (2004), on women’s participation in elections and Resolution 303 (2010) on achieving sustainable gender equality in local and regional political life,

–   having regard to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe Resolution 85 (1999), Recommendation 68 (1999) on women’s participation in political life in the regions of Europe and Recommendation 111 (2002) on women's individual voting rights and democratic requirements,

–   having regard to the Declaration on Women’s participation in elections adopted by the European Commission for Democracy through Law (‘Venice Commission’),

–   having regard to the handbook ‘Gender budgeting: practical implementation’ prepared by the Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe (April 2009),

–   having regard to Recommendation 1899(2010) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system, adopted on 27 January 2010,

–   having regard to its resolution of 2 March 2000 on women in decision-making[4],

–   having regard to Rule 48 of its Rules of Procedure,

–   having regard to the report of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (A7-0029/2012),

A. whereas there is an imbalance in participation by women and men in political and public decision-making and clear under-representation of women in elected and nominated political positions at the level of the European Union and in its Member States; whereas there is an alarming under-representation of women in the mid-term elections within the European Parliament;

B.  whereas the participation of women in political decision-making and the methods, strategies and cultural attitudes and tools to combat discrepancies vary greatly at national level within the EU and among its Member States, political parties and social partners;

C. whereas women’s representation in the European Parliament has increased to 35% but has not yet reached parity; whereas women are even more under-represented in leading positions in committees and political groups; whereas the representation of women in the European Commission is stagnating at one third, and the Commission has never been chaired by a woman;

D. whereas, according to statistics and despite the numerous actions undertaken, an absence of parity prevails, and women’s representation in political decision-making has stagnated in recent years instead of displaying linear improvement, the gender balance in national parliaments across the EU remaining unchanged at 24 % women and 76 % men, with women accounting for only 23 % of ministers overall[5];

E.  whereas today an informal system of quotas is de facto in play, where men are privileged over women and where men choose men for decision-making positions, which is not a formalised system but nevertheless a systematic and very real deep-rooted culture of positive treatment of men;

F.  whereas equal representation of women and men in political decision-making is a matter of human rights and social justice and a vital requirement for the functioning of a democratic society; whereas the persistent under-representation of women is a democratic deficit that undermines the legitimacy of decision-making at both EU and national level;

G. whereas decision-making is based on administrative preparations and thus the number of women in administrative positions, especially in leadership, is a matter of equality and ensures that gender aspects are taken into account in the preparation of all policies;

H. whereas the European elections to be held in 2014, followed by the appointment of the next European Commission and the nominations for the EU ‘Top Jobs’, is a chance to move toward parity-based democracy at the EU level and for the EU to be a role model in this area; 

I.   whereas the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women states, inter alia, that State parties should take all appropriate measures, including positive measures, to eliminate discrimination against women in political and public life;

J.   whereas the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe encourages:

     - reforms in electoral systems to make them more favourable to women’s representation;

     - gender-based anti-discrimination provisions in constitutions and electoral laws, with the necessary exception of allowing positive discrimination measures for the under-represented sex;

     - gender-sensitive civic education and elimination of gender stereotypes and ‘built-in’ bias against women candidates, especially within political parties but also in the media;

K. whereas the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on women in power and decision-making underlines the fact that equal participation is a necessary condition for women’s interests to be taken into account and is needed in order to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning; whereas it reaffirms also that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy;

L.  whereas owing to persisting gender stereotypes there is still a severe segregation in key political decision-making positions, with care and distributive tasks such as health, social welfare and the environment being entrusted more to women, while men are assigned powerful, resource-related tasks such as economic and monetary affairs, trade, budget, defence and foreign affairs, which distorts the power structure and resource allocation;

M. whereas political parties, which bear responsibility for selecting, ranking and nominating candidates for leading positions, have a central role in guaranteeing the equal representation of women and men in politics and should therefore endorse good practices such as voluntary party quotas for elections, which have already been introduced by some political parties in 13 EU Member States;

N. whereas the World Bank’s 2008 study on ‘Corruption and Women in Government’ concludes that lower levels of government corruption are found where there are higher levels of female participation, because, according to the findings of this research, women have higher ethical behaviour standards and show themselves to be more concerned with the ‘common good’;

O. whereas comprehensive multifaceted strategies are needed, consisting of non-binding measures such as targets and voluntary party quotas, enabling measures such as gender education, mentoring and awareness-raising campaigns and legally binding measures such as electoral gender quotas, bearing in mind that legally binding measures, which are compatible with the institutional and electoral system and which entail rank-order rules, monitoring and effective sanctions for non-compliance, have proved most effective in achieving gender balance in politics;

P.  whereas women’s access to electoral campaign funding is often more restricted, owing to discrimination within political parties, women’s exclusion from moneyed networks and their lower income and savings;

Q. whereas procedures in electoral systems, political institutions and political parties play a decisive role and have a serious impact on the effectiveness of strategies applied and on the extent to which gender balance is achieved in politics;

R.  whereas women’s participation and leadership in political decision-making is still affected by various obstacles such as the absence of enabling supportive environments in political institutions and in society’s welfare structures, the persistence of gender-based stereotypes and the consequences of the recent economic crisis and its negative repercussions on gender equality issues;

S.  whereas the low level of participation of women in decision-making and governance is highly attributable to problems in reconciling work and family life, the unequal distribution of family responsibilities, which lie heavily on women’s shoulders, and the persisting discrimination at work and in occupational training;

Women’s representation in elected positions

1.  Invites the Council, the Commission and the Member States to design and implement effective gender equality policies and multifaceted strategies for achieving parity in participation in political decision-making and leadership at all levels, especially in the areas of macro-economic policy, trade, labour, budgets, defence and foreign affairs, assessing the impact and making it available to the public by means of appropriate equality indicators, ensuring quantified targets, clear action plans and regular monitoring mechanisms followed up with binding corrective actions and their monitoring where the set targets are not met by the deadlines;

2.  Welcomes the parity systems/gender quotas for elections introduced by legislation in some Member States; calls on the Member States to consider introducing legislative measures, such as positive action measures, to make progress toward parity and ensure the efficiency of these measures, when compatible with the electoral system and when the political parties are in charge of the composition of the electoral list, through zipper systems, monitoring and effective sanctions in order to facilitate more balanced participation of women and men in political decision-making;

3.  Invites, moreover, the Council, the Commission and the Member States to enforce parity at all levels by sending clear anti-discrimination messages, by providing appropriate resources, by using specific tools and by promoting necessary training for civil servants responsible for preparing budgets in gender budgeting;

4.  Calls on the Member States and the Commission to pay special attention to gender educational programmes aimed at civil society and young people in particular, starting from an early age, acknowledging that women’s rights are human rights and parity is essential in political life; 

5.  Calls on the Commission and Member States to launch a pledge to be endorsed by all political parties at European, national and regional level to take measures to encourage women’s active participation and involvement in political life and in elections, to achieve real parity in their internal decision-making, in their nominations for elected office and in party electoral lists through the introduction of quotas and, when compatible with the electoral system and when the political parties are in charge of the composition of the electoral list, to pay attention to the position of women candidates on these lists;

6.  Acknowledges the role of political parties as key factors in the promotion of gender parity; calls in consequence for the Member States to require national parties, when compatible with the electoral system and when the political parties are in charge of the composition of the electoral list, to set up and implement quota systems and other types of positive action, to apply rank-ordering rules to electoral candidate lists for regional, national and EU elections, and to define and enforce effective sanctions for non-compliance; calls on the Member States to link and set targets based on parity between sexes for the political parties as a prerequisite for funding;

7.  Calls on political parties across Europe to introduce a quota system for candidate lists for party organs and elections, when compatible with the electoral system and when the political parties are in charge of the composition of the electoral list, especially as regards the lists for the 2014 European elections; regards the procedure for drawing up electoral lists whereby women candidates alternate with men at the top of the list as the best way of improving women’s participation in politics;

8.  Emphasises the need for concrete steps designed to achieve parity in elected offices in the national parliaments and the European Parliament (such as those of the President, Vice-Presidents, Chairs and Vice-Chairs), for instance by setting a target of 50 % representation of men and women in each of those offices;

9.  Welcomes the Commission’s intention of encouraging participation of women in the next European Parliament elections through the financial programmes ‘Fundamental Rights and Citizenship’ and ‘Europe for Citizens’; calls on the Commission to ensure in its relevant annual work programmes that enough funding is available in 2013-2014 for financing, inter alia, appropriate awareness-raising campaigns in the media to encourage the election of women and to ensure that this funding is easily accessible to national parties and to civil society organisations for project initiatives aimed at increasing women’s participation in decision-making;

10. Calls on the Commission to encourage and fund actions related to promoting parity in decision-making positions and political activities when programming the next funding period, 2014-2020, for the abovementioned programmes or their successors, as well as when planning actions for the planned European Year of Citizens 2013;

11. Calls on the Commission to launch parity-targeting campaigns for the electoral lists for the European Parliament at least two years ahead of each election announcement and to encourage Member States to carry out similar actions in their local and regional elections;

Women’s representation in nominated positions

12. Calls on the Member States to support parity by proposing a woman and a man as their candidates for the office of European Commissioner; calls on the President of the Commission to achieve parity when forming the Commission; calls on the Commission to publicly support this procedure; recalls that Parliament should have particular regard to gender balance in this procedure and reiterates the importance of taking the equal representation of women and men into account when giving its consent to the new Commission, in accordance with Rule 106;

13. Calls on the Commission and the Council to commit to meeting the target of parity in all their decision-making bodies, by establishing and implementing quota systems and other types of positive action when recruiting high-level officials; calls on the national governments to nominate both women and men to high-level positions at EU level;

14. Takes note of the Commission commitment expressed in its Strategy for Equality between Women and Men – 2010-2015 to monitor progress towards the aim of 40 % of members of one sex in its committees and expert groups, and calls on the EU institutions, bodies and agencies to take concrete action and set up strategies with the aim of achieving balanced participation in their decision-making processes;

15. Calls on the Member States to promote positive action measures, including binding legislative measures, with a view to ensuring parity in all governing bodies and public appointments and to develop tools for gender monitoring of nominations and elections;

Measures to promote women’s participation in political life

16. Encourages the Commission and the Member States to implement positive action measures, such as preferential treatment, when a gender is under-represented;

17. Calls on the Member States to make the selection procedures for nominating men and women for appointment to decision-making bodies transparent, including by publicly requesting curricula vitae and basing selection on merit, competence and representativeness;

18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to increase measures supporting women’s organisations, including by providing them with adequate funding and creating platforms for cooperation and gender campaigning in elections;

19. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to facilitate women’s networks and to promote mentoring, adequate training and exchange of good practices and programmes, with a special emphasis on women policy-makers in their early careers;

20. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that women have access, if necessary by preferential treatment, to leadership training and positions of leadership as part of career promotion in order to enhance women’s leadership skills and experience;

21. Acknowledges the other actors as a relevant part of the wider democratic process and thus invites the Council, the Commission and the Member States to promote and welcome the efforts of employers’ organisations and trade unions, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and all organisations that normally form part of advisory councils related to government to achieve equality of women and men in their ranks, including equal participation in decision-making;

22. Calls on the Council, Commission and Member States to enable women and men to take an active part in political decision-making by promoting reconciliation and a balance between family life and working life by means of measures such as sharing the costs of parenthood equally between both parents’ employers and ensuring accessible and adequate services for e.g. child and elderly care and calls on the Commission to support equal access to services, minimum income and freedom from gender-based violence by appropriate legislative proposals in the form of directives;

23. Recalls the importance of preferential treatment and special measures in promoting the representation of people from different backgrounds and disadvantaged groups, such as people with disabilities, migrant women and members of ethnic and sexual minorities, in decision-making positions;

24. Takes note of the importance of media and education in promoting women’s participation in politics and in reforming societal attitudes; underlines the importance of raising the awareness of the media, and of public broadcasters in particular, of the need to ensure fair and balanced coverage of men and women candidates during elections and of monitoring the media to identify gender bias and means to address it and thus to promote efforts to eliminate stereotypes and encourage the portrayal of positive images of women as leaders, including women politicians as role models, at national, regional and European level;

25. Urges the Member States, the Council and the Commission, by strengthening the role and resources of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and by facilitating cooperation with women’s non-governmental organisations, to promote and exchange good practices that contribute to achieving gender balance in decision-making positions;

26. Invites the Member States and the Commission, especially through the involvement of the EIGE where appropriate, to collect, analyse and disseminate data broken down by sex for the purpose of monitoring gender equality in decision-making in all sectors (public and private) and at all hierarchical levels and as a basis for further measures if the set targets are not met; calls on the Commission to continue to collect and disseminate comparable data at EU level through the use of its database on women and men in decision-making positions and to develop this observatory towards a European map of gender balance that includes the annual variations experienced at EU, state and regional levels with regard to gender balance, on the basis of common indicators;

considers that this map should include, at least:

-    the objectives for promotion of gender balance, expressed as a percentage of representation, that are incorporated in the legislation of Member States and of European regions with legislative powers to regulate their electoral processes;

-    the percentages of representation of each sex in the European, state and regional parliaments and in local institutions;

-    the percentage of representation of each sex in the executive bodies elected or controlled by the above-mentioned legislative institutions;

27. Calls on the Commission to submit a yearly report to the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality on the progress of gender equality in decision-making in the European Union;

28. Calls on the Commission and Member States to assess the impact of the various electoral systems at national, local and European levels, and also of the measures and good practice implemented at the various levels, on the balance of women’s representation;

Promotion of gender-balanced representation in politics in external relations

29. Recalls its demand for gender parity at all levels in the appointment of staff of the European External Action Service (EEAS); calls on the EEAS to promote women’s participation in decision-making in the external relations of the European Union and to ensure that all delegations representing the EU respect the principle of gender parity as regards their composition and that there is balance in speaking time allocated to women and men in these contexts; points out the need to increase the number of women serving as mediators and chief negotiators in processes to observe the situation with regard to human rights and prevention of corruption and in peace building as well as in other negotiation processes such as international trade and environment negotiations;

30. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that adequate financial and technical assistance is provided for special programmes focusing on enhancing women’s participation in electoral processes through training, civic education and media mobilisation and the involvement of local NGOs, in addition to funding general education programmes promoting gender-sensitive civic awareness, elimination of gender stereotypes and ‘built-in’ bias against women;

31. Calls on the Commission and the EEAS to take measures to promote balanced representation of women at all levels in political life in multinational organisations such as the UN, in governments and in national parliaments as well as at regional and local level and in local authorities and to increase cooperation with other actors at the international level, such as UN WOMEN and the Inter-parliamentary Union, in order to promote these goals;

32. Calls on its policy departments to ensure that briefing notes for delegations always include a gender perspective and highlight issues of importance for gender equality;

33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments of the Member States.EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Background

The equal participation of women and men in power and decision-making is strongly promoted at international level by the articles 7 and 8 of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which commits States Parties to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and public life and by Article 4 that allows for the adoption of ‘temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women’.

‘Women in power and decision-making’ is also one of the twelve critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action of 1995. According to the Joint Statement of 19 September 2011 on ‘Advancing Women’s Political Participation’ made during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly in New York ‘women’s political participation is fundamental to democracy and essential to the achievement of sustainable development and peace’. Also, this statement reaffirms that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy.

The Council of Europe recommendation on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making adopted on 12 March 2003 puts forward a set of measures, including positive action measures to facilitate a more balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision-making. In Recommendation 1899(2010), entitled ‘Increasing women’s representation in politics through the electoral system’, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe encourages its member states to increase women’s representation by introducing quotas.

At European Union level, the Strategy for equality between women and men – 2010–2015 underlines that the Commission will ‘consider targeted initiatives to improve the gender balance in decision making’; ‘monitor progress towards the aim of 40% of members of one sex in committees and expert groups established by the Commission’ and ‘support efforts to promote greater participation by women in European Parliament elections including as candidates.’

Gender equality in decision making is a question of quality and equality. More balanced gender participation contributes to more diversified and thus better decisions. Gender balance is also matter of equality which is guaranteed in the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights. Decision-making is based on administrative preparations and thus the number of women in administrative positions, especially in leadership, ensures that gender aspects are taken into account in preparation of all policies.

Women’s representation in elected positions

Women are still under-represented in political decision-making assemblies across the European member states. Today, women constitute 24 % of the members in national parliaments[6].

At the regional level women account for 31% of the members of regional assemblies and 32% of regional executives. However, only 15% of assemblies and 11% of executives are led by women. Across the EU as a whole, the gender balance in regional assemblies has hardly changed since 2004.The Nordic countries have the highest level of women representation in national parliaments, 42.3%[7].

The European Parliament has the most gender balanced composition, 35% women and 65% men.

The rapporteur underlines the fact that the percentages are stagnating and no positive trend can be noticed. This could be explained also by the traditional barriers that women face, such as lack of financial resources, predominantly male culture, stereotypes, difficulties in managing family and political life. One of the measures envisaged is designing and implementing effective multifaceted strategies at EU and national level for increasing women’s engagement and participation in decision-making and leadership, through quantified targets, regular monitoring mechanisms and clear action plans;

In countries with proportional representation electoral systems, candidate quotas are most often used for the party lists, either voluntarily by the political parties or compulsorily by legal requirement. Among the EU member states the quota provision varies from 25% up to 50%. In countries with majority or plurality electoral systems the parties only select one candidate per party and electoral district, and, consequently, it is not possible to introduce both men and women at the same time, as in a PR system. .

The political parties are vital in the promotion of women in politics. The power to recruit, select and nominate candidates in the hands of political parties, whatever the electoral system. It is therefore necessary that attempts to address the issue of women’s under-representation in politics, target the political parties and their views ad strategies on more inclusive decision-making assemblies. As a consequence, this report encourages national parties to envisage measures to increase women’s participation, setting also, when applicable, quotas and rank-ordering rules to their candidate lists for national and EU elections and defining sanctions for non-compliance. One sort of incentive for the political parties could be the use of parity targets as a prerequisite for party funding;

Women’s representation in nominated positions

In governments of the EU Member States women account for 24% of senior ministers (those with a seat on the cabinet) in governments across the EU-27 countries, 22% of junior ministers and 23% overall[8]. Apart from minor fluctuations, the share of women in government has changed little over the past four years.

The European Commission have 33% female commissioners and 67% male commissioners. In the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) 21% of the positions are occupied by women and 79% by men[9].

The rapporteur considers that active and concrete measures should be promoted at national level in order to ensure gender balance in all governing bodies and public appointments. The report advocates for the goal of parity as regards candidates for the future Commission and high level positions at EU level. As regards EU institutions, the report underlines that concrete actions and strategies are needed in order to achieve a balanced participation in their decision-making process.

Measures to promote women’s participation in political life

In order to enhance women’s political participation there is a need to address structural barriers that prevent women from participating in politics. To create an enabling environment for women to take part in political life at all levels is another required measure. Reconciliation of work, private and family life is recognised at the EU level as an important priority for achieving gender equality and to facilitate women’s possibilities to take part in political life.

In the view of the rapporteur it is important to promote the presence of women from different backgrounds in decision-making positions. Women from ethnic minorities are an underrepresented group in European political assemblies, and they often suffer from a combination of gendered and ethnic forms of political exclusion. Special measures may be needed to redress this problem. To better promote young women’s participation in political and public life in some Member States mentoring programmes have been introduced as an effective and innovative method. Mentoring, adequate training and exchange programmes are also some of the measures that are recommended in this part of the report as a means to achieve gender balance in politics.

Other supportive measures include funding and share of information. Member States and the Commission have to ensure that women and men have equal opportunities during election campaigns by providing public funding and access to the state media. The Member States and the Commission, including through the involvement of the EIGE, as appropriate, should strengthen collection, analyse and dissemination of data broken down by sex for monitoring gender equality in decision-making. Also, there should be clear further measures if the set targets are unmet. The rapporteur would like to see the Commission to continue the reporting on gender equality development. As an additional measure, a yearly report from the Commission to the Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Right and Gender Equality on the progress of gender equality in decision-making in the European Union would be highly welcomed.

The importance of media and education in encouraging women to participate in politics needs to be highlighted. It is important to monitor media coverage of women in decision-making to identify gender bias and means to address it, and thus promote efforts to eliminate stereotypes and encourage the portrayal of positive images of women as leaders in all areas of life.

Whereas political parties serve as gatekeepers for women in decision-making, also the role of other actors should be acknowledged as relevant part of the wider democratic process. The efforts of trade unions, the private sector and non-governmental organisations to achieve equality of women and men in their ranks, are valuable.

Promotion of gender balanced representation in politics in external relations is one of the aims of this report, as a condition for stable and transparent democracies. Fighting against marginalisation of women in political life should be one of the aspects to be taken into account in the external relations of the EU, in cooperation with other international stakeholders operating in this field and complemented by an adequate financial and technical support.

• [1]       Annex to Council Conclusions of 7 March 2011.
• [2]       OJ L 154, 27.6.2000, p.34.
• [3]       OJ L 319, 10.12.1996, p. 11.
• [4]       OJ C 346, 4.12.2000, p.82.
• [5]  See the quarterly update of the European Commission’s database on women and men in decision-making.
• [6]  See the quarterly update of the European Commission’s database on women and men in decision
  making (1st quarter 2011);
• [7]  See statistics from the Inter Parliamentarian Union (IPU) (<hhtp://ipu.org>).
• [8]  See the quarterly update of the European Commission’s database on women and men in decision
  making.
• [9]  See the quarterly update of the European Commission’s database.

RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE

Date adopted	25.1.2012
Result of final vote	+: –: 0:	26 3 2
Members present for the final vote	Regina Bastos, Emine Bozkurt, Andrea Češková, Marije Cornelissen, Iratxe García Pérez, Mikael Gustafsson, Mary Honeyball, Lívia Járóka, Teresa Jiménez-Becerril Barrio, Nicole Kiil-Nielsen, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Constance Le Grip, Astrid Lulling, Barbara Matera, Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, Antonyia Parvanova, Raül Romeva i Rueda, Joanna Senyszyn, Marc Tarabella, Angelika Werthmann, Marina Yannakoudakis
Substitute(s) present for the final vote	Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, Anne Delvaux, Christa Klaß, Mariya Nedelcheva, Katarína Neveďalová, Antigoni Papadopoulou, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Rovana Plumb
Substitute(s) under Rule 187(2) present for the final vote	William (The Earl of) Dartmouth