No Women, No Cry?

IT will be soon 20 years that central and eastern european countries got rid of soviet oppression. Velvet revolution – sometimes called. Looking at the role of gentlier sex in our society, one must admit that we still have not thrown the socialist thinking out of the window.

Slovaks had its shot in April. Electing a woman for president would have no doubt showed some level of maturity. Unfortunately, Radičová lost her electoral battle. This month brings an opportunity to Lithuania – Dalia Grybauskaiė, European Commissioner responsible for Financial programming and budget,  is leading the surveys. However, after lately media rumours the people of lithuania will have to overcome one more prejudice. Voting for Grybauskaite is not only support for a woman, but also for a lesbian.

What is the reason that women in CEE break into the highest political positions so hard? Is it the sign of empty-headness of the voters? Or just so grievously few good women candidates run for the office? How come that with more than half of population being a female they are so underrepresented in this field of social life?

Finally, couple of numbers (share of women in office of the heads of government or president in CEE after 1989):
Slovakia – 4 PMs, 4 presidents – 0 women
Czech republic – 8 PMs, 2 presidents – 0 women
Hungary – 7 PMs, 4 presidents – 0 women
Poland – 12 PMs, 5 presidents – 1 women

And so on, and so on… With far more than 100 heads of executive power in 8 post-communist 2004 EU entrants, only two posts were to women – polish PM Hanna Suchocka and latvian president Vaira Vīķe-Freiberg.

Comments invited. Show your opinion!

P.S.: I would not bat an eyelid to give my girlfriend Janka a piece of executive power. She already is in charge of our appartment!

[polldaddy poll=1596037]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *