Feminist News

The events in the past month showed us once again that the fight for women’s rights and equality is an everyday affair, going far beyond the symbolic actions and promises we’ve heard in March.

Stopping sexism, achieving equality at work, combatting sexual exploitation and ending all forms of violence against women and girls need an ongoing and comprehensive approach. Here are some of the ways we’ve tried to address these challenges throughout the month of April.

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Condemning Turkey’s recent decision and Poland’s announced intention to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, in a new report the European Women’s Lobby calls attention to the Treaty’s crucial role in protecting women and girls from male violence.

Simply put: the Istanbul Convention saves women’s lives.

Read the report here.

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On 6 April, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, met in Ankara with the President of the Turkish Government, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. However, in what seems to have been a deliberate diplomatic slight, there was no chair for her to sit at the official meeting.

Sadly, this is representative of the way in which deeply rooted sexist attitudes affect women in all areas of life: in politics, in the workplace and in the wider society.

Read our Statement and Recommendations regarding the prevention and fight against sexism in the EU here.

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An equal Europe is one where everyone, regardless of their sex, circumstance or background has access to the same opportunities and choices in life. This is the principle underpinning the new Her Future is Equal campaign, launched this month at an online eventhosted by the Brussels’ Call coalition.

Watch the event in full and visit brusselscall.eu for more information about the campaign.

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The European Women’s Lobby has over the years taken the position that sexism reinforced by gender stereotypes is one of the factors that runs counter to achieving gender equality and the full recognition of women’s rights. Despite the progress achieved in recent years, there is not a single country in the world where women are not exposed to the threat or reality of acts of male violence in every single area of their lives.

To raise awareness on sexism and begin the discussion on how to combat all forms of sexism in key sectors nine EWL members collaborated in the project “Mobilise Against Sexism”.

Read more about the project and the stories from our members.

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Between lost earnings, uneven distribution of the extra burden of childcare, the increase of violence against women and girls, “women are at a breaking point,” Joanna Maycock, secretary-general at the European Women’s Lobby told a recent EURACTIV event.

“Looking forward, we absolutely need to make sure that the recovery strategy coming out of COVID puts women and girls at its heart and make sure that women and girls do not pay the price of the long term socio-economic consequences,” Maycock added.

Read the full article on equality between women and men in the workplace here.

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On 7 May, Portugal hosted the EU ‘Social Summit’ – a meeting focused on setting the European agenda for the next decade “and ensuring that we face the challenges of the present and of the future leaving no one behind”.

The Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights (PpDM), the national coordination of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL), made public the Recommendations resulting from the initiative “Valuing the work of care as an engine of societies: recommendations for the present and the future”.

Learn more about the policy objectives and recommendations outlined in the document here and read our coverage of the Summit on Twitter.

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Together with Avrupa Kadin Lobisi Turkiye Koordinasyonu / EWL Coordination for Turkey and Kadın Koalisyonu / Women’s Coalition - Turkey, we will mark the 10th anniversary of the Istanbul Convention with a discussion on the progress and avenues to overcome obstacles to the ratification and implementation of this legal instrument which has proven to be crucial for the protection of women and girls around Europe.

Join the civil society representatives, women’s rights organisations, high-level decision-makers and Commissioner Helena Dalli on 12 May from 14h00 CET (streamed live on EWL Facebook and Twitter).