The social space for womens political decisionmaking The European paradox, between vertical segregat

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The social space for womens political
decision-making The European paradox, between
vertical segregation and international image

• Claudia Colonnello - ASDO
• Athens, May 4th, 2006

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The project Women and politics

• PURPOSE
• Understand the reasons that keep women
• distant from the political arena,
• and subsequently formulate and test out proposed
  solutions to this problem

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THE REASONS OF THE PROJECT

• The paradox of womens denied representation in
  the more advanced societies...
• expecially if we consider the long battles, the
  enormous scientific output, the considerable
  investiments in positive actions and public
  policies, the topicality of this issue in the
  public debate!

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The international context(IPU, Women in
Politics, 2005)
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G8 countries are below average 15.9 (Lower or
single house IPU, Women in Politics, 2005)
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Not much better in Europe 16,9-19
(Lower/single house IPU, 2005)
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The 20 countries above 30. A simbolic overtaking
(Lower or single house IPU, 2005)

• Rwanda (48,8)
• Sweden (45,3)
• Norway (37,9)
• Finland (37,59
• Denmark (36,9)
• The Netherlands (36,7)
• Cuba (36)
• Spain (36)
• Costa Rica (35,1)
• Mozambique (34,8)

• Belgium (34,7)
• Austria (33,9)
• Argentina (33,7)
• South Africa (32,8)
• New Zealand (32,2)
• Germany (31,8)
• Iraq (31,5)
• Guyana (30,8)
• Burundi (30,5)
• Iceland (30,2)

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Italy before and after last political elections
substantially a confirmation

• BEFORE ELECTIONS
• Women elected in Parliament (9.8)
• 2 Women ministers
• LAST POLITICAL ELECTIONS (april 2006)
• Women elected to Senato (13,5)
• Women elected to Camera dei Deputati (17)

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Do women fare better at local level? Not in
Italy, neither in Europe
European average of women mayors (24 countries)
11,3 (Sweden only 20) Only 6 Provinces on 102
managed by women (in Italy)
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The ASDO Project (FSE/Equal)

• Duration 29 months
• Integrated Itinerary of
• RESEARCH ACTIVITIES (1st year and throughout the
  project)
• NETWORKING
• PUBLIC COMMUNICATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
• EXPERIMENTATION (6 micro-projects to tackle
  emerging problems)
• Final Guidelines

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THE RESEARCH First years activities

• STATISTICAL DATA collection on vertical
  segregation (the scandal)
• OBSERVATORY on 2006 Italian political elections
  (the gap between opinions and behaviours mass
  media monitoring and direct observation)
• REVIEW OF PREVIOUS RESEARCH (to make the most of
  accumulated scientific knowledge)
• INVENTORY of 174 phenomena
• A (PROVISIONAL) SYNTHETIC TAXONOMY of factors
  affecting womens access to politics
• SURVEY on 360 women engaged in politics and in
  the trade unions

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FIRST RESULTSThe Inventory of 174 phenomena

• 174 phenomena ordered on the various stages
• that lead to institutional political
  representation
• Political socialisation
• Political activism in parties
• Professional life as an access route to political
  militancy
• Selection for candidacy
• Access to political representation
• Actual exercising of political representation

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FIRST RESULTS A (provisional) synthetic
taxonomy 9 Factors

• Diffused vertical segregation
• Material constraints
• Ambiguity of public opinion consensus
• Normative and behavioural inertia
• Irresolution in promoting womens access
• Womens biographical knots and curricular
  diversity
• Discordance between the genders in the exercise
  of political power
• Fragmentary nature of mobilisation to promote
  womens leadership
• Women and movements

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The notion of diffused vertical segregation

• There is a systematic replications of womens
  segregation in different areas of social life
• Positions of monocratic power at any level are
  virtually unattainable
• 14 AREAS CONSIDERED

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The notion of diffused vertical segregation a
first check on 14 areas

• National Political Representation
• Regional Political Representation
• Local Political Representation city councils and
  provinces
• Parties
• Trade unions and employers' associations

• Judiciary
• Central and peripheral public administrations
• Professions
• National Health System
• University
• Enterprise
• Banks and insurances
• Mass communication
• Social movements

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Some examples Judiciary in Italy
Impressive female absence in top levels
positions, a growing feminisation process of the
sector notwithstanding (around 40)
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Some examples Judiciary in Europe

• Diffent situations about womens access
• To Judiciary
• HUNGARY (70)
• SLOVENIA (70,2)
• ROMANIA (68)
• ITALY (40)
• GERMANY (30)
• NORWAY (26,8)
• UNITED KINGDOM (15,6)
• IRELAND (16,4)
• Source UNECE statistical division database, 2001

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Women and Judiciary in Europe

• Women presiding supreme courts in 5 differents
  branches
• civil, penal, constitutional, accounting, and
  among
• general prosecutors
• On 31 considered countries
• 21 do not have any women in these positions
• 8 have only 1 woman (Austria, Cyprus, Spain,
  Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, The Nederlands,
  Turkey)
• only 2 (Czech Republic e Sweden) have 2 women on
  total positions

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Some examples Women and University in Italy
Climbing the university hierarchical ladder
womens presence - as usual - dissolve
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Women and University in Europe

• Womens presence among university researchers
• EUROPEAN AVERAGE (EU-25) 39,8
• ITALY 42,7
• Womens presence among full professor
• EUROPEAN AVERAGE (EU-25) 14
• ITALY 15,9
• SWEDEN 14
• UNITED KINGDOM 14,2
• NORWAY 13,2
• GERMANY 8,1
• Corroboration of career scissors effect

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Research perspectives from factors to
exclusionary processes

• Studying the links existing between the
  mentioned factors to identify the major
  exclusionary processes, such as, for example
• Gender ideology and stereotypes
• Operation of elite dynamics
• Mismatching (women being out of tune)
• Reconciliation issues (operational and cognitive
  sides)
• PLUS
• SOCIAL VACUUM lack of new social institutions
  and practices recognising and supporting women in
  politics (a time-lag in sociopoietic mechanisms?)

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A final wish

• not having to wait another 200 years before
  achieving the objective of seeing the completion
  of the system of equal representative democracy
  in our so-called avanced societies!