It’s time for women to lead in politics, say participants in ODIHR Finland/Poland roundtable

Now is the time for women to boost their representation in political leadership positions, said politicians, government officials, diplomats, civil society representatives and activists from Poland and Finland, who gathered in Warsaw on 17 December 2019 to explore ways of increasing women’s political participation and share good practices. The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) organized the event together with the Finnish Embassy in Poland.

“Finland is proud of our history as the first country to give women full suffrage more than a hundred years ago. But equality is not something that was achieved in the past and is now over and done with – it’s a constant struggle to include everybody in political decision-making. The Finnish government is determined to uphold the principle of gender equality. In addition more than half of our ministers are women. Women’s equal participation gives an enormous boost to democracies and economies, as more people get to be represented in the decisions that affect everybody,” said Finnish Equality Minister Thomas Blomqvist.

The event takes place just a week after Finland elected a new prime minister. At 34, Sanna Marin became the world’s youngest prime minister in office and the youngest ever female head of government. At the same time, women remain under-represented in parliaments across the OSCE region. Poland and Finland are both above the OSCE average in this regard, with women making up just under 30 percent of deputies in the lower house of the Polish parliament, and more than 40 percent in the Finnish parliament. However, this still leaves their representation in parliament lagging behind the proportion of women in society overall.

“The scope of today’s challenges requires leadership that is clearly values-based in aims and experience, centred on people and our collective future,” said Katarzyna Gardapkhadze, ODIHR’s First Deputy Director. “We need to shift from a rigidly hierarchical to a more equitable leadership model, with less top-down decision-making and more participation. The good news is that we already have the knowledge and tools to make these changes happen – now all we have to do is use them.”

To increase women’s participation in leadership roles, a variety of women’s networks and mentorships were proposed, as well as greater efforts to mainstream gender equality mechanisms in electoral and decision-making procedures, and active political support for women’s participation in the political process.