Following calls for 50 percent parity for perspective candidates to parliament for both men and women, a web site has been set up, by women, who oppose the idea. Boguslawa Radziwon is the co-founder of the web site
parytety.pl. which opposes political parties being forced to submit a list of candidates containing an obligatory 50 percent of women.
“Common sense suggests that quotas would not lead to changes in the situation of Polish women,” she told Rzeczpospolita today.
“I vote for someone because he or she is better equipped for the job and not because of their gender,” says Radziwon.
The web site is a response to the call from the Women’s Congress for mandatory candidate lists made of the 50 percent from both genders.
The anti-parity web site says of quotas: “We have substantial doubt whether the equal rights of men and women should be construed so literally.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Donald Tusk had said that the aim of all political parties should be to get more women in parliament and having parity in candidate lists would be the ideal, although he did recommend this to be made mandatory.
“This is just a populist demand which distracts from the real problems women face,” says Radziwon.
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