PES Women

🇪🇺Post-European elections 🗳️, PES Women held special Executive and Statutory meetings in Vienna, Austria, this weekend to take stock of the gender equality developments in the last EU mandate and identify the challenges for the upcoming term. 📝

👉For the gender equality agenda, the last mandate was challenging, busy and full of important achievements, driven forward by PES Women and our progressive family in the European Parliament, Council and Commission.

💪 But our fight will continue during the next 2024-2029 mandate. Above all, we must preserve what we have achieved !

💜From today on, PES Women will keep pushing forward feminist priorities from our elections manifesto and we will fight for the adoption and implementation of an EU Charter for Women’s Rights.

Read more on the achievements and priorities that we discussed in our last webstory 👀. Link on our web page ⬆️

📣📣📣📣the European Parliament has voted in favour of including access to abortion in the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights.

➡️ PES women and our progressive family has been campaigning for many years so that everyone has the right to bodily autonomy, to free, informed, full and universal access to SRHR, and to all related healthcare services without discrimination, including access to safe and legal abortion!

📢📢📢📢We are proud that our political group in the European Parliament has been the driving force in pushing and adopting the resolution!

🔊Women’s rights and gender equality have always been at the centre of our political family’s foundations and values. Securing women’s rights and progressing gender equality are a priority for our progressive family in the upcoming European elections and the following European mandate.

➡️That was the call from us and PES election candidates yesterday at our EU Women’s Rights Charter Event.

📣The event was attended by current MEPs from the Socialist and Democrat Group in the European Parliament and prospective MEP candidates from PES member parties who are running in the European elections.

📢We call all candidates from PES member parties running in the 2024 European elections to sign our EU Women’s Rights Charter Pledge

You can find the pledge on our web page or in the bio.



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The is a ❤️

That is why PES Women has created a 'Feminist Toolkit' for our member organisations and parties to use in the run up to the 2024 EU Elections.

Find it through the link in our bio 👆 or in the PES Women Library 👇

https://women.pes.eu/library/

We stand in solidarity with our President Gurmai Zita

PES stands with Zita Gurmai against persecution from Orban regime – The Party of European Socialists The PES is deeply worried by the news that the Hungarian Prosecutor’s Office interrogated Zita Gurmai, president of PES Women and a member of the...

🙋‍♀️ On this , PES Women are calling for a in the upcoming European Elections.

🇪🇺 For the next EU mandate we need feminist leadership, feminist institutions, and feminist policies.

✊ So let's join together and pledge to create a Europe that stands up for equal rights, women’s control over their lives and bodies, and for an end to gender-based violence and discrimination.

Today marks two year since the escalation of the Russian aggression war on Ukraine.

Conflict affects everybody. However, women are disproportionately impacted before, during, and after conflict. Conflict exacerbates pre-existing systemic inequalities, further affecting peace and security for women.

Today, and everyday, we stand with women in Ukraine.

and are excited to come together in Rome for a joint seminar in the context of the Election Congress 🗳️

Looking forward to an inter-generational exchange on issues and priorities in the EU 🇪🇺

See you in Rome 🌹

Unsere Spitzenkandidatin Katarina Barley und unser Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz sind zusammen Deutschlands stärkste Stimmen für Europa. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur Wahl als Spitzenkandidatin für die Europawahl, liebe Katarina Barley. 🇪🇺♥️

Den Europawahlkampf packen wir gemeinsam an. Machst Du mit? Dann komm ins : https://link.spd.de/KBfb2

Free and independent trade unions are a central element of a democracy. They are the canary in the coal mine. They are the warning when democracy is under attack.
Our president Gurmai Zita last week participated to a joint Party of European Socialists and Magyar Szocialista Párt in Budapest, against Órban's attacks against unions, women, the judiciary, the academia, freedom of speech, and minorities' rights.

🤵🏻‍♀️🌹 Our president Gurmai Zita was ahead of our delegation to the with our friends from the SPD in Berlin. We met and discuss women's rights issues with many friends and comrades. We congratulated Achim Post on his new possition as vice president of the SPD.

PES Women Executive members call for an ambitious directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

PES Women urge all EU governments to take action and defend women’s rights by defining r**e on a consent-based basis.

Read more here: https://women.pes.eu/equality/pes-women-executive-calls-for-ambitious-directive-on-combating-violence-against-women-and-domestic-violence/

Today, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we call for a Europe that has zero-tolerance for gender-based violence. A Europe that ensures women are equally protected across the board. A Europe that defines sexual assault and r**e based on lack of consent.

We call on EU Member States to take real action and protect women. We urge all EU member states in the Council to support the proposal by the European Parliament and the S&D Group on the EU Directive on combating violence against women & domestic violence.

The final Directive must:
🟣Criminalise r**e.
🟣Define r**e as based on lack of consent.
🟣Make gender-based violence a Euro crime.

Consent is key.
Protect women.

🗓 November 15 marks European (Un)Equal Pay Day.

📉 The gender pay gap in the EU still remains at almost 13%. Meaning from now until the end of 2023, women in the EU are working for free.

➕ While we have made important progress in reducing such inequalities with the success of the Women on Boards Directive and the Pay Transparency, there is still much that must be done.

❌ The gender pension gap, the gender overall earnings gap, and gender care gap remain as some of the reasons why we continue to see a 13% gender pay gap.

As long as the gender pay gap stands, we will not achieve real, transformative, and meaningful gender equality in Europe.

🙋‍♀️ At this year’s Annual Conference, ‘EU Elections Through a Gendered Lens’, we examined the gendered aspects of the upcoming 2024 European Elections. Securing gender equality and women’s rights must be priorities for the these elections.

🌹 Ahead of the 2024 elections we presented the ‘Hate Speech Silences Women’ campaign, to raise awareness of hate speech women face, and in particular women in politics.

📸 Check the Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/partyofeuropeansocialists/albums/72177720312569048

🤓 Learn more about today's discussions:
https://women.pes.eu/news/pes-women-congress-european-elections-must-deliver-a-feminist-europe/

Women in all their diversity have a right to participate in politics and public life. However, hate speech prevents women from freely and safely exercising their freedom of expression, in private or public spaces, online or offline. In other words, hate speech silences women.

In the run up to the EU Elections in June 2024, we must call out the hate speech and violence that women in politics face. Women must not be silenced.

What can we do to protect and support women while deterring hate speech?
⚖ Make hate speech & hate crime a EuroCrime
📜 Establish a clear gender-based hate speech & hate crime definition
📈 Call for the Commission to collect data on hate speech and research the anti-gender movements that spread hate, fear, and disinformation
🎓 Introduce and support education-based prevention programmes across the education sector and in work-places

📣The International Equal Pay Day marked in 18 September, represents the longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value. Across all regions, women are paid less than men, with the gender pay gap estimated at around 20 per cent globally.

➡️The EU has taken important steps in creating a fairer and more just Europe for women when EU parliament finally voted on the long-awaited pay transparency directive. That is another tool in closing the gender pay gap and creating Union of Equality. But we should remember that in EU average gender pay gap is still 13%.

♀️ 🇪🇺 🏳‍🌈 During an online meeting today, the PES Women Executive reiterated it's commitment to include LGBTI rights in the organisation’s work. Gurmai Zita Katarina Barley Elke Ferner Katrine Skov Tüttő Kata Michaela Kauer Read more: 👇🏼

PES Women: LGBTI rights are human rights - PES Women PES Women stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Rainbow Rose, PES and Partit Laburista in support of Europe’s LGBTI community

The line has been crossed.

Luis Rubiales, President of Spanish Football Federation, crossed the line at the final of the Football World Cup by kissing Jenni Hermoso without her . A lack of consent is sexual assault.

We stand with Jenni Hermoso, the Spanish women’s football team, and every person who has experienced sexual and gender-based violence. This is why we need consent-based definitions of sexual assault across the EU now. continue to fight for a for gender-based violence in Europe.

TW: sexual violence

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One in three women over the age of 15 have experienced physical or sexual violence in the EU. A consent-based definition of r**e at EU level is a vital way in which we can combat sexual violence and violence against women. Currently, r**e is not listed as a Eurocrime and many national legislatures do not include a consent-based definition of r**e.

Last week, the European Parliament adopted an ambitious directive on violence against women and domestic violence that aims to introduce a consent-based definition of r**e, case-by-case assessments for consent, and a longer list of aggravating circumstances for offences. The Council, on the other hand, in its position, has removed any mention of consent-based definition of r**e.

As the EU institutions enter trilogues on the directive, PES Women support the Parliament’s proposal and calls for the inclusion of consent-based definitions of r**e. This directive is key to creating a safer Europe for women - let’s ensure its strength to protect women from all forms of violence, including r**e.

At the 2023 Festival in Panama, PES Women hosted two workshops on prevalent  issues to foster global solidarity among the young feminists who attended:

💜 Identifying & tackling anti-gender movements

Backlash against gender equality, women’s rights, and LGBTQI rights goes hand in hand with de-democratisation and populist values which are on the rise across the world. Increasingly we are seeing politically organised transnational anti-gender movements that threaten to rollback on & prevent progress in gender equality. Given the ongoing global poly-crises, it is a crucial time to take transnational progressive action to counter such movements and reiterate gender equality as irrevocable.

💜 Collective & grassroots feminist movements: what can we learn from each other?

Feminist Collectives and grassroots organisations are an integral part of feminist movements. Given the current successes and popularity of anti-gender manifestations, we have an urgent need to foster transnational solidarity across feminist collectives and grassroots organisations. Such intersectional & global feminist movements must be supported across borders as they are the foundation of change and at the forefront of the fight against anti-democratic forces.

 

Gender equality can also only be achieved with mutual support and solidarity among all generations from across the world 🌎

Last week, PES Women President, , joined young socialists and social democrats for the 2023 Congress and Festival in Panama. She highlighted that global intergenerational solidarity in our political family is key to ensuring and a . In the face of rising populism & extremism, youth voices are needed now to help tackle anti-democratic forces ✊

PES Women would also like to congratulate in her new role as IUSY President & on his re-election as IUSY Secretary-General 👏🎉

 

Conflict affects men and women differently by exacerbating existing gender inequalities.

In conflict, women and girls are particularly disproportionately affected by sexual violence.

On International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, calls for for sexual violence in conflict.

🎂 For more than 30 years, has fought for gender equality and women's rights in the EU.

On 9 June, PES Women joined
& in Portugal for an international conference marking '30 Years of PES Women - Achievements & Challenges' 🌹

Feminists from our progressive family gathered to discuss backlash on women's rights and tackling violence against women.

High-level attendees also gathered for the launch of the & campaign in Portugal.

✒ Read more about in our latest webstory. Link in bio & stories 👆

📆 May 9 is Europe Day where we celebrate the values of solidarity and unity in the EU 🇪🇺

ℹ️However, in 2023 we are seeing increased conservative backlash against gender equality and women’s rights in Europe. This undermines the EU values of solidarity and unity.

We will only withstand it if we dare to take even more action, more democracy, more solidarity. On this Europe Day, we call for an EU Charter of Women’s Rights to ensure women’s rights are irrevocable in Europe 📜

“Europe will not be made all at once” (Schuman). So let’s continue to make a Feminist Europe together 🌹🇪🇺