We need a feminist voice in Europe – these elections can be a new beginning (Commentary)
I must say the comments following this article were quite discouraging.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/23/feminist-voice-europe-elections-womens-rights
We need a feminist voice in Europe – these elections can be a new beginning
Soraya Post and the other feminist candidates were compelled to run after tiring of women's rights and equality being shunned
theguardian.com
Friday 23 May 2014
This weekend it looks likely that the first MEP to represent a feminist party will be elected to the European parliament – Soraya Post of the Swedish Feminist Initiative. The elections are also the first time that French candidates who are specifically feminist have stood for the European parliament, on a list I set up: Féministes pour une Europe Solidaire (Feminists for a United Europe).
The rise of feminist candidates in Sweden, France and Germany has prompted questions about why they are standing, and why feminist MEPs might be necessary in Europe. In France in recent years feminist activists, both women and men, have chosen various strategies to put feminism at the heart of the political agenda – protesting against the political parties at public events, or getting involved with organisations on the left. The reason large numbers of activists have decided to bite the bullet and get involved in the European elections is to respond to two pressing problems: women's rights and a social crisis.
When it comes to women's rights, people across Europe have looked on in astonishment as Spain has moved backwards on women's rights to control their own bodies. Put simply, the conservative government is planning to ban abortion except in cases of rape or where there is a danger to the mother. What have the European institutions had to say? Nothing. Stony silence, as if the right to abortion was not the cornerstone on which all other women's rights are built. Without the freedom to control our own bodies, it is impossible to imagine women achieving equality in professional or political life, or within the family.
The Spanish decision on abortion underlines the fact that, while Europe has made progress towards equality, we have not yet won. To take another example, one European woman in three has been the victim of some form of physical or sexual abuse. One in three! ....
MORE at link posted above