European Commission president-elect Ursula Von der Leyen is the first woman to head up the commission. Photograph: Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters
The European Commission may no longer be an all-male club, but austerity risks undoing decades of progress
By Jane Dudman
November 6, 2019 - Back in 1992, when women’s rights campaigner Joanna Maycock first arrived in Brussels, she was appalled by the European decision-making and administrative bodies. “Brussels was all men. There was just one female commissioner,” she says.
Fast-forward 27 years, and Ursula von der Leyen is the European Commission’s first female president. When it was first announced, in September, the incoming commission was set to be the most gender-balanced in EU history, with 13 women and 14 men, but that has now changed to 11 women and 13 men so far confirmed, and three commissioners-designate still to be confirmed. Meanwhile, a record number of women are now European parliamentarians, with women holding 286 out of 751 seats (39%).
Извор: WUNRN – 16.11.2019
