The cabinet on Monday endorsed a plan to bring more women into high politics in the Czech Republic. The agenda is under the auspices of the human rights and rinorities rinister while the interior minister is in charge of the details: His office should suggest changes to the laws that would increase the women ratio on the party candidate lists to at least 30%.
These quotas, which are rather careful with regard to the distribution of men and women in the population, should be in place in time for the parliamentary election, as well as elections for regional administration and the Prague City Council.
This is not the news that would make one jump. Nothing has happened yet anyway. But soon the situation will change and the efforts of Fischer’s cabinet, which are for now on paper, will not find many strong advocates. The atmosphere is well illustrated by one of the most successful women in Czech politics: ODS Vice-chairwoman of the lower house, Miroslava Němcová who opposes the quotas.
It is a fact that quotas receive a lot of criticism and that there are countries where women get into politics without them.
But what is even more important is that there are fewer and fewer women in high politics and nothing seems to suggest that the reason is the quality of their work when compared to their male counterparts. Let me just mention that Czech politics is lagging in this sphere even behind the world of business, which is a world in which there are no quotas.
Something must change. Despite the general equalisation of the situation, local female politicians still receive a lot of improper messages claiming they should not be present in politics. Just take a look at the first holiday month. The pregnant ODS MEP Andrea Češková was rebuked by the media for keeping her pregnancy secret during the campaign. Media claim it goes without saying that as a new mother she would be unable to work properly in Brussels and that her mission will be an “opulent maternity leave abroad”. ODS MP Lucie Talmanová was caught in a cross fire between former prime minister (and the father of her son), Mirek Topolánek, and the Prague mayor. Pavel Bém welcomed her decision not to run in the autumn election as an end to a “luxurious maternity leave”.
Female politicians do not have it easy as it is still a men’s world. They are at a double disadvantage as mothers. But that is no news, nor is it a condition specific to the Czech Republic. The trouble is that it is not getting any better. Only a few men have experience with bringing up children in the Czech environment. That is how it is possible that not only the journalists but even a top politician – a former psychiatrist – can publicly that looking after a child in while occupying a job in the lower house is a “leave”. That’s a joke: everyone who, even for a short period of time, tried to look after a child and tried to maintain a career, would be much more careful with the judgment.
Despite all the doubts, quotas might help even if only because of the broader options they introduce. So far, unfortunately, there is no point in expecting that the after-the-election stars will change on their own accord just by watching their female colleagues.
