Speech
Gender Mainstreaming at governmental level in the EU Member States 01 February 2007
Nyamko Sabuni, Minister for Integration and Gender Equality
Nyamko Sabuni's statement at the conference Gender Mainstreaming at governmental level in the EU Member States
Statement at the press conference following the conference on Gender Mainstreaming at governmental level in the EU Member States
Honorable guests, ladies & gentlemen - very welcome to this press conference on gender mainstreaming.
There is still a discrepancy between political will and reality in gender mainstreaming in the EU. This is the challenging conclusion of the project we are discussing here today.
Before going more in to this, I want to say that Sweden took the initiative to this project. It started in december 2005. And it ends with this conference.
Gender mainstreming has been official EU policy since 1999, and Sweden decided that it was time to follow up what has been acheived. Now we have a report. We are here today to discuss this report, its conclusions and recommendations.
As I said - there is still a discrepancy between political will and reality, even in countries in the frontline - like Sweden. So there is still much to be done when it comes to changing attitudes, legislation and political reforms.
In my work as a minister in the new Swedish Goverment I will put a high priority on how to attack the most urgent equality problems in Sweden:
- to promote gender equality among young parents in sharing the responsibility for the small children - through making changes in the parental leave insurance.
- to find ways to fight violence against women, including abusing the human rights by forcing them into arranged marriges.
Gender mainstreaming is a relatively new concept.
In short - it is about how to reach the goals for gender equality.
In practice it can be how to broaden the group of policy makers to take responsibility for promoting gender equality.
It can be to establish gender impact assessments of proposals and bills.
Another example is gender mainstreaming of the budgetary process. Which means to analyze how men and women respectively gain from the budget.
I hope this conference - and the report - will inspire everybody to renew their efforts to achieve real gender equality. Thank you.
