WOMEN ARE still very under-represented in economic and political decision-making positions, and yet, they represent 59 per cent of all new university graduates.
According to s new Eurobarometer, three out of four Cypriot women, along with most other European women, agree that politics are too male-dominate.
The results show that 77 per cent of women in Cyprus and the EU27 believe that politics are male-dominated, while only 23 per cent in Cyprus and 22 per cent in the EU27 disagree with this opinion.
With regard to prospects for increasing the presence of women in the European Parliament, 60 per cent in Cyprus and 53 per cent in the EU27 believe that the most effective way to increase the ratio of women MEPs is to encourage the participation of women in politics.
Furthermore, 14 per cent said this could be done with the voluntary commitment of political parties, while 13 per cent said through obligatory quotas.
People appeared divided when asked if their interests were satisfactorily represented by the EU, since 47 per cent said they were and 43 per cent said they were not.
Regarding gender equality in family life, the survey indicated that 39 per cent of Cypriot women believe that the next European Parliament should give priority to providing adequate facilities for children’s day-care, while 20 per cent supported safeguarding joint custody of children in divorce cases.
When it came to guaranteeing gender equality in society, 27 per cent of Cypriot women said the next European Parliament should give priority to equal employment opportunities and 23 per cent to the struggle against violence and the trafficking of women.
Results showed that the governors of the central banks of all 27 EU Member States are men, and in six Member States – Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Slovenia – and in Turkey, the decision-making bodies of the central banks are comprised entirely ofl men.
Nearly 90 per cent of board members in leading companies across Europe are men, with the exception of 43 per cent women in Norway, where a legal quota has forced companies to take action to implement gender equality at the board level.
Only one in four ministers in national governments across Europe are women. In smaller countries the gender imbalance is even greater, illustrated by Malta and Cyprus, which have only five and six MEPs respectively, and are the only countries to have all-male representation in the European Parliament. In contrast, the Netherlands, France and Sweden all have more than 45 per cent female MEPs, while Poland and Italy have less than 20 per cent female MEPs.
It was not until the 1960s that Cyprus gave women the right to vote, followed only by Portugal and Liechtenstein in the 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Among the presidential elections held in 2008 across Europe, only Cyprus, Serbia and the Czech Republic had no option but to elect, or re-elect, a male president. Interestingly, since WWII only eight women have ever been elected or appointed as the head of state of a European country, three of those being the current presidents of Ireland, Germany and Finland.
By contrast, Nicosia is among just four of the 27 EU capitals with women as their mayors, the others being Copenhagen, Dublin and Warsaw, while the majority of the EU countries have no major cities run by a woman mayor.
The poll included 35,000 women and 5,500 men in the 27 EU member states.
In Cyprus, 1,289 women participated in the survey.
