The event will take place on Wednesday, 25 October 2023, from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m (CET), in-person at the CoR (room JDE53, Jaques Delors building) and online.
In 2019, European Commission President Von der Leyen has made improving gender equality between women and men one of the Commission's priorities. The CoR is committed to promoting gender equality and women's participation in political life. As part of the For more women in politics initiative of the CoR, the overarching theme of the conference is tackling the "what's next?" when it comes to gender equality by looking at what has been achieved while also discussing what more needs to be done to achieve gender equality.
The conference will allow an exchange on the strategies to close the gender gap in politics, starting from the local and regional level - often the starting point for a political career at the national or European level. Ensuring a more level playing field for women to enter and thrive in politics is essential for democratic representation, good governance and sound policy making, as much as these are also central to improving overall gender equality. However, women still remain under-represented in governance structures and the situation in local and regional government is not different: the proportion of women members and presidents of regional assemblies in the EU averages at one-third (33.5 %), and at the local level, women mayors or other leaders and members of local and municipal councils in the EU also only account for a third of the elected (32.6 %) (European Institute of Gender Equality, 2019). The CoR is committed to striving to improve such gender imbalance and this conference discusses strategies to close the gender gap and some relevant examples, from the local and regional level, to achieve gender equality in politics.