The second episode of sexist discrimination the President of the European Commission suffered this weekend raises questions about more than just the behaviour of Ugandan Foreign Minister Jeje Odongo. As part of the EU-African Union Summit, Odongo addressed his institutional greetings and handshake exclusively to Charles Michel and Emmanuel Macron, ignoring Ursula von der Leyen in front of cameras from all over the world.
One might think Odongo ignored von der Leyen because countries like Uganda do not have women politicians, or for religious habits. This would be wrong, however. Uganda has an equal if not greater proportion of women in parliament and in government than Italy, is not a predominantly Muslim country, and is the neighbour of one of the very few states in the world that has more women in positions of political power than men, Rwanda.
The main question, however, concerns the lack of - or way too delayed - reaction of the male political leaders who accompanied the President, with only Macron taking initiative. Michel's idleness is particularly serious, given this is the second time he fails to intervene in a similar sexist and diplomatic setback, after the one inflicted by Erdogan on the President of the Commission at the time of the now infamous ‘sofagate’. It is highly desirable that Michel finds a way to make amends.
Macron's reaction came late, with President Von der Leyen being left waiting surrounded by an awkward silence. Should Von der Leyen herself be expected to devise a way to deal with gender discriminatory behaviour? No, it is rather the context that must change.
The persistence of strong sexism in politics and within parties is, according to a study conducted as part of the Inclusive Leadership Initiative at the European University Institute, the main cause of the lack of female representation in top political positions. A survey conducted with Quorum-YouTrend last November shows that most Italians, men and women alike, think that discrimination and lack of party support are the main factors hindering women's political careers. These reasons score way higher - a difference of almost ten points - compared to the difficulty of finding a balance between women’s political activity and care work. Even more interestingly, the research demonstrates a substantial discrepancy between this strong perception of discrimination by the voting public, on the one hand, and that of the political elites, in particular men, on the other. Indeed, the latter tend not to attach particular importance to discrimination and lack of support by the parties.
Despite developments often described as great achievements for gender equality, most recently the election of Roberta Metsola as President of the European Parliament, all of Europe, not only Italy, is still lagging behind in terms of parity in politics. With five women head of government out of 27 member states, the EU is placed perfectly in line with the global average rate calculated by the World Economic Forum for all the states in the world, including Saudi Arabia and the like.
The EUI Inclusive Leadership Initiative proposes a new methodology to scratch the glass ceiling of politics: working with male political leaders to deconstruct stereotypes, traditional and sexually connoted notions of political authority, to ‘enact’ equality knowing also how to avoid episodes that affect women politicians constantly, like ‘sofagate’. In addition to the development of these skills, we offer insights of gender economics, on the effects of quotas and female participation on the quality of public policies, and on inclusive political communication. In short, a school for equality in politics - which will be discussed next 1 March with the European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli. This initiative finally targets those who keep the gates of equal representation. Because one thing is certain: women do not need training programmes to improve their political skills more than men do.
First published on La Repubblica Firenze as part of the "Firenze, Idee d'Europa' series. Italian version available.
Costanza Hermanin is a research fellow at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance. Next week she organises a high-level policy dialogue with European experts on a new methodology to deal with gender inequality in politics.