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7.3.1 In the past twenty years the status of European women has been changing, both for good and for ill. Due to campaigning by the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s, it has been widely acknowledged that gender equality is an essential condition of democracy. Catherine Lalumière, former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, has compared equality to two feet: “We all have a left foot and a right foot, and we know very well that walking is much easier if the two are of the same size”.1_{Ideas such as}

equality in parity, which take account of the different cultural contexts of men’s and women’s lives and experiences, have given a new impetus to attempts to review traditional notions of a social contract and expand defin- itions of democracy.

7.3.2 Specific new demands have been made, not without some success, for greater equity between the sexes so far as a salary and job opportunities are concerned, and for the increased representation of women at the top of professional hierarchies and, more generally, in positions of influence. In 1992, according to the UNDP Human Development Index (HDI), seventeen European countries were among the thirty “most developed” societies, but when the index was corrected for gender equality, the number of European countries among the top thirty was twenty-three. However, as recently as in 1995, according to the Human Development Report 1995, only 13% of members of parliament in OECD countries were women, 15% ministers and 16% local authority members. A study carried out by the European Commis- sion in 1993 showed that only 15% of the members of the governing bodies of the twenty-one public broadcasting organisations in eleven EC member countries studied were female, while two thirds of the organisations studied had appointed no women at all at that level. As for senior management, on average only 10% of employees were women. No broadcasting organisation was headed by a woman at the time.

7.3.3 Such development as has taken place has relied heavily on a variety of social changes. For example, women are marrying at a later age and bear- ing fewer children. They are spending longer on education and training and have more time to pursue independent careers. Their growing presence in the workforce, in large part due to economic forces, has led to changes in the size

The demography of exclusion

of families and redistribution of power between husband and wife, mother and father. A woman’s identity, which used to acquire most of its meaning in the family and through child-rearing, is now also being defined in terms of work outside the home. At the same time, the concept of parity democracy, the equality of men and women as proponents of social values, has been gaining ground.

7.3.4 However, these improvements have taken place somewhat uneven- ly across Europe and are helped or hindered by a given country’s prevailing ideology and political system. Progress, especially in relation to career oppor- tunities and political representation, has been most marked in highly indus- trialised societies with extensive welfare systems. According to the Human Development Report, Nordic countries are among the top five in the gender related HDI and in these countries more than 30% of members of parliament and ministers were women; by contrast, Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Switzerland had lower rankings than the overall HDI for these countries might lead one to expect. To quote a Finnish researcher, “[...] gender differences and inequalities between the sexes in today’s Europe are multiform.”1_Over-

all indicators of the gender inequality tend to conceal the plurality of female social, economic and cultural experience and the different ways they have intervened in, or influenced, the world around them. For instance, it is only recently that immigrant women of non-European origin have made their political presence felt, even though they have always been intermediaries in intercultural socialisation.2

7.3.5 The battle for equal pay for equal work has not yet been won and the values and perspectives of women are inadequately represented in the mass media, especially not in respect of their ethnic and social backgrounds and cultural, religious and ethical mores. Advertising is one of the most influ- ential agents of socialisation; it influences an increasing amount of media con- tent and seems to play a significant role in the construction, or at least the reinforcement, of gender identity. Negative images of women are still per- petuated and reinforced at the expense of a realistic picture of women’s mul- tiple roles. Broadcasters, film-makers and advertisers still use women’s bodies as sex objects and violence against women masquerades as entertainment. It is typical that only few women make it to the top in the advertising industry. For example, only 8% of managing directors in the British advertising indus- try are women, and most of them work in small companies.3_{Perhaps there is}

a role for cultural policy makers in helping to change a culture which is so exploitative in its representation of women? In real life, the personal security of women is threatened and they suffer discrimination in employment. An obstacle to developing constructive intervention strategies is the inadequate

In from the margins

1. Julkunen, Riitta, Hyvinvointivaltio käännekohdassa (The turning point of the Welfare State). Vastapaino, Tampere, 1992.

2. This emergence of immigrant women in the European political arena has been discussed under the heading “Immigrant women: out of the shadows and on the stage” in Immigrant women

and integration, Community Relations, Directorate of Social and Economic Affairs. Council of Europe. Strasbourg, 1995.

3. See “Human rights and gender: the responsibility of the media”, seminar proceedings (Stras- bourg, 29 June-1 July 1994). Council of Europe. Strasbourg, 1994.

documentation and research on domestic violence, sexual harassment, vio- lence against women and girls in public and private as well as in the work- place.

7.3.6 The immediate future does not give much ground for optimism. There is a clear danger that the weakening of the Welfare State in many coun- tries will lead to a loss of achievements already won. Rising unemployment in Europe affects more women than men, in that of every 100 without a job it is estimated that fifty-three are women. Some observers argue that this trend is leading to the feminisation of poverty. In the transitional societies of east- ern and central Europe, political, social and economic change has tended to have a negative impact on the position of women and, ironically, the process of democratisation has been accompanied by a sharp decline of female rep- resentation in political decision making in these countries – a process which two political activists from these countries, Slavenka Drakulic and Julia Szalai, have coined “democratisation with a male face”.1

7.3.7 There is no denying that culture is a sector where women have gained both prestige, employment and influence. Women excel in the per- forming arts. They are the equals of men as professionals in many arts insti- tutions and networks of cultural services (in public libraries, museums, archives, galleries) and often outnumber them, although the most influential positions are still mostly in the hands of their male colleagues.2_Furthermore,

as participants in cultural life, women have usually outnumbered men in the- atre and concert audiences, as visitors to museums and art galleries and as mediators of cultural values and traditions.

7.3.8 However, the creative achievement of women is a less happy story – particularly in the visual arts, classical or new music and in film-making. As practising artists they find themselves in much the same position as in other professions. Research shows that great inequalities prevail – structural, finan- cial as well as attitudinal. To take an example, during the three year period 1986-88, at the Museum of Modern Art and at the Museum of Twentieth Century Art in Vienna – Austria’s two most prestigious art museums – only five exhibitions were devoted to the works of female artists. At the same time, women held more than half of the country’s art degrees and formed the majority of art school students. Female artists in most European countries will surely endorse the motto used by their American counterparts: “You have to be nude to be in the Metropolitan”.3 _{Thought needs to be given by policy}

makers to ways in which cultural institutions in receipt of public subsidies could be required to implement development programmes to facilitate access by women, whether as artists or administrators.

7.3.9 Paradoxically, while the process of globalisation is threatening the gains of European women in status and security, it may also further their

The demography of exclusion

1. Cited in The gender perspective, Council of Europe Publishing. Strasbourg, 1995.

2. See Statistical Appendix, Figure 1: Career pattern of female artists – The “pyramid of success” in Germany in 1995.

cause. It has been argued that the contradictory processes of globalisation and localisation could have a positive impact too.1_{On the one hand, women}

are said to be more “local” than men in their attitudes – that is, more con- cerned about the quality of local services, environment and culture; while, on the other hand, they are more internationalist in the sense of being commit- ted to social solidarity and humanist values. A possible indication of this inter- est in global concerns is that the share of women MPs at the European Par- liament (18%) is presently higher than that in many national parliaments of the EU. In the words of Virginia Woolf: “As a woman I have no country, as a woman, my country is the whole world”. If these kinds of speculation are cor- rect, women may have an increasingly influential role in these fields.

7.3.10 European gender policies have begun to respond to globalisation and changes it has brought about in the economy and in employment. A recent compendium compiled under the auspices of the Social Partners’ Agreement of the European Union, presented fifty examples of good policy practice, some of which showed a new emphasis on training women for Europe’s restructured labour markets.2 _{It identified a special focus on hi-tech areas,}

such as new information technologies and on the special problems of train- ing migrant women and women in rural and depressed areas. In each case, culture and cultural differences were taken into account and related to gen- der equality.