Actors, singers and volunteers were collecting signatures at the weekend for a citizen’s draft bill to make it obligatory to have at least 50 percent of women as candidates for parliament.
The clock is ticking on the webpage of the Congress of Polish Women, showing that seven days remain to collect 100,000 signatures under a citizen’s draft law, which would guarantee gender parity on party election lists. The campaign gained momentum this weekend, with celebrities, popular politicians, singers, actors and several hundred volunteers collecting signatures in big shopping malls and supermarkets across the country.
According to one volunteer at the weekend, about 40 signatures were gathered in one hour. The draft law, proposed by the Congress of Polish Women, guarantees female candidates on election lists to Poland’s Parliament, European Parliament as well as local councils.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk would not like parity to be a legal requirement but believes that women should have half of places reserved for them.
President Lech Kaczynski, who met with representatives of the women's congress, is in favor of allocating 30 percent of places on party election lists to women.
Tokenism? Opponents of “positive discrimination” claim that this is a patronising stance towards women and would bring forth the best candidates.
Signatories of an open letter by journalists, scholars and businesswomen argue that parity is not a guarantee that the best prepared women would be elected to important decision-making bodies. A parity system would create a situation in which, instead of being promoted, women would become statistical numbers in the parity equation and “tokens” of equality.
In a survey conducted last summer, the prevailing majority of women (70 percent) and most men (over 50 percent) supported gender parity quotas to be enshrined in law. Ironically, the idea was not backed by the government’s representative for gender equality.
Women account for 52 percent of the EU population but on average only 25 percent of national parliament members are women. In Poland, women constitute 20 percent of lower house deputies and eight percent of the senate members.
(kk)