Women and Politics Prof. Małgorzata Fuszara Warsaw, October 21, 2008

Women in Lower House of Parliament  Poland is on the 55 th position out of 188 countries on the Inter-Parliamentary Union list showing women's participation in the world’s parliaments (data from 30 September 2008)  Percentage of women among Polish members of parliament:  %  %  %  %  %  %  %

Questions  The percentage of women in the Lower House increased in 2001, and hasn't augmented since this time.  How was the growth achieved in 2001? What were the conditions?  Why hasn’t the growth occured since 2001?  What ways of increasing the number of women in the parliament and the local authorities are the most effective? How to introduce them?  What ways of increasiong women’s participation in the parliament and the local authorities will be used by parties in the upcoming elections?

Women in the Upper House of Parliament  In regard to the Upper House, the women’s participation in it is even lower – Poland is 62 nd out of 72 countries where upper houses exist.  The percentage of women – senators in Poland:  %  %  %  %  %  %  %  Poland is the only country in the UE where the participation of women in the Upper House has reduced during last 10 years. Why has it happen? What can be done to overcome this trend?

Women among the Eurodeputies  Poland has a very far, 25 th position, in relation to women’s participation in the European Parliament (out of 27 countries). Currently, there are 8 women among Polish deputies in the European Parliament, which comprises 14,8% of total; while among the Swedish eurodeputies women represent over 50%, Lithuanian, Dutch, French and Slovenian – over 40%.  Why is that happening? What can be done not to let the situation repeat during next elections?

Quotas  About 45 countries have already introduced quotas to their constitutions and election law.  In over 50 other countries some of political parties have introduced the quotas on the electoral registers.  From 12 countries of the highest percentage of women in the parliaments, only in two (Finland and Danmark) the quotas system doesn’t exist. (Source: A global overview:Drude Dahlerup (ed): “Women, Quotas and Politics”. Routledge  What is your opinion on the quotas and the possibility of their introduction in Poland?

Barriers in Being a Women & Parlamentarian  In numerous reserach (the recent research by FEMCIT) women and men pointed at the particular barriers that parlamentarian women are encountering. Do you notice those special barriers for women? What kind of barriers? How to deal with them?

Barriers in the Women’s Interests Representation  In a great deal of research (the recent research by FEMCIT) women indicate the particular difficulties with the representation of their interests, and propose the introduction of the solutions favourable to women. Do you notice these particular difficulties? What are they like? How to deal with them?  What problems of a great importance for women have recently been successfully resolved?  What matters, fundamental for women, cannot be resolved and what are the most essential obstacles which make impossible their solution ?

Cooperation between Women’s Organisations  The experiences of many countries show that the actions taken in favour of women are effective only if there exist a cooperation between the women in parliament, government and women’s NGOs.  Does this cooperation exist in Poland? If doesn’t - why?

Government and Parliament  Are the government’s and the parliament’s actions in favour of women and gender quality sufficient?