Green economy: gender perspectives have to become integral part of policies, say MEPs
[European Parliament, Brussels, 12 September 2012] Women and men in different sectors will be affected by the transition to a green economy, which is regarded as a means of stimulating economic development, particularly in economic crisis. However gender perspectives are not well integrated in policies and programmes for sustainable development and this increases gender inequality, warn MEPs in a resolution adopted on Tuesday.
"This report is the result of cooperation between me, other MEPs, the public and a multitude of NGOs. It gives a number of suggestions that would lead to a sustainable economy with equal power for women and men to influence society. The green economy is not only an issue of technology, but also about social justice and creating a society for the future", said rapporteur Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, Sweden).
MEPs call on promoting gender equality as a key issue when designing and conducting negotiations on future regulations and programmes for the EU structural funds and the Common Agricultural Policy as well as when implementing environmental policies at all levels. They emphasise that GDP as a measure of production can not measure environmental sustainability, resource efficiency, social inclusion or social development - this is why new indicators have to be developed.
To encourage gender equality in the green economy, the resolution highlights promotion of women’s entrepreneurship, creation of measures to help women to achieve a balance between their working and private lives as well as development of action plans to encourage more women to choose courses and careers in the fields as engineering, natural sciences and IT and training courses to facilitate women’s access to new "green" jobs.
More women should also be appointed in management roles and company boards within the green job sector. MEPs stress that if this is not possible to achieve through voluntary means, the establishment of quotas or other methods must be used to strengthen equality and democracy.
Procedure: non-legislative resolution
Link to the Report on the role of women in the green economy: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2012-0235&language=EN&mode=XML
Text adopted (11.09.2012) will be available here.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/plenary/en/texts-adopted.html
