Opening remarks of Vice-President Věra Jourová at Women in Public Life conference

Women in Public Life conference

• Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,
• Let me warmly welcome you in today's conference “Women in public life”.
• And let me also greet all of those watching on the Internet because you cannot imagine how many text messages I received before we started a little bit late: “Where are you? We really want to see and hear it!”
• And I am really grateful for such support and such participation because I think that we will speak about it today that one of the problems of all of us who are targets of aggression and hatred is that we sometimes feel that we are alone with it. Each of us alone. But we are not. So that's why it's great that we could meet today and that we could speak about this important topic.
• And as Florence said at the beginning, the purpose of this event is not only to attract attention to the topic but also to find workable solutions. And I promise that I will work with the conclusions and with the outputs of this debate further on. Already next week I should speak about it in the Parliament and in many other places.
• And I am not the only mastermind of this event. We have here Slavica Grkovska who will speak later.
• It was quite a moment when we met in my office. She visited me, we spoke about the situation of judiciary in North Macedonia and many other things. And it was her idea, her inspiration, something like, well, we should do something about this phenomenon. That spark of the moment, “yes, let's do it!” So that's why we are here and we are here together and with many of you because you really have something to say about the issue.
• And again, the solutions will be key.
• We see that the European Union still is a good address for women. It is one of the best places and we see also from the data that
• women are increasingly present in politics, in business, in journalism and many other influential jobs. This is not only good for women - this is good for our societies,our economies – and it is simply also just.
• And as Ursula von der Leyen said before, by having more women in decision-making positions, our world is simply better. Simple and True.
• Between 2011 and 2023, the percentage of women members in national parliaments increased by an average of 8,5 % throughout the EU. We have more women ministers. We have more women in different top jobs.
• But I did not invite you here to celebrate these relatively good numbers. There is a dangerous trend: We see many women engaged in public life leaving.
• The stories of the Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová or the former Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern send a stark warning that even women with a huge courage and determination can eventually succumb to the sea of hatred and threats that is heaped upon them.
• These are known names. How many hundreds of thousands may be unknown women? Who are at every taking decisions about whether it is worth doing it, whether it is not better to hide. To stop what they are doing.
• It is not enough for women to break the glass ceiling; they must also not fall off the cliff.
• his is why we are here today.
• And let me clarify some things from the get-go. Women in public life are no snowflakes. They are strong, determined and they know what they are getting into.
• So what is happening? I am sure we will hear today a lot about gender stereotypes and lack of supportive work cultures.
• And we will hear about the challenges and abuse women experience online: anonymous, organised or spontaneous hate, threats, sexual comments – online platforms have become a place where the cowards and losers hide behind their scenes and spill vile.
• For example, a NATO study from 2021 found female Finnish ministers received a disproportionate number of abusive messages. In Italy, researchers suggested female mayors were approximately three times more likely to experience physical or psychological violence compared with their male counterparts.
• Or a study by Interparliamentary Union showed that 85% of female parliamentarians from 45 countries have suffered psychological violence during their course in the office.
• I invited you here for two reasons: first, to help understand this problem better and to identify pragmatic, workable, feasible solutions.
• Andtwo to send a loud signal, especially ahead of the elections, that women are not alone. That there is plenty of us who managed, often against the odds, and we want to share and fight for change. And that is what we will do. And also that we will not give up.
• Because when it comes to the decisions women take about their career, often it is not about themselves alone: it is also about their families. And I myself was hesitating on many occasions saying: “I just can't do this to them again.”
• My children are happy that I am leaving politics. Because they are really scared. Is it normal? I don't think so.
• I understand these dilemmas of women very well then. But I want to stress that the issue here is bigger. It is not about me or you. It is about the impact on our society.
• There is evidence that greater representation of women in public space brings a positive effect , whether we speak of politics, journalism, activism or in general about top positions. If we drive women out of the public life, we go directly against the needs of our societies. And this is simply bad for democracy.

• Today, I want to make our voices heard and I want to shed more light on the challenges women face in public life and why they decide to leave their functions.
• Today, we will help to all brave women to break silence on violence against women active in public life.
• We will discuss why to fight against gender stereotypes and how to push for more acceptance and support in the society.
• We will listen today to a number of testimonies and interventions from politicians, journalists and human rights activists and together I trust we will identify the most effective tools to protect women in public life and how to put them in practice.
• So, I look forward to your discussions in the panels today. At the end, I will come back and make conclusions.
• Thank you very much.