Women's Day Celebrated in Europe


	EP celebrates International Women's Day
	Taking place on Sunday, the International Women's Day has been highly prepared by the European Union, with banners claiming the Commission's will to close the gender gap. The European Parliament also celebrates the event this week with a lot of conferences, debates and meetings strongly focused on "women and the European elections". As one of this conferences was organized by the Socialist group, we met MEP Zita Gurmai, vice-president of the Committee on women's rights and gender equality.
	Lack of will from some political parties (1/4)
		"The Socialist group is organising its own conference besides the ones of the Parliament. What do you bring to the table that the other political parties don't?" Zita Gurmai explains that we have to take the women's rights more seriously in Europe. While the Socialist Party wrote a manifesto for the elections with a chapter dedicated to women's rights, the actions could have been pushed further. She is disappointed because the Socialist group wanted a new legislation and EPP voted against. She also blames the Liberals and the Greens who didn't put enough attention on this issue.
	Women can face the crisis in a better way (2/4)
		"It seems like the only bank which didn't suffer from the crisis in Iceland was the only one run by a woman. Do you think women have better capacities for this kind of jobs?" Even if Zita Gurmai admits that women's risk management capacities are smaller than men's, she says that the current economic crisis shows that we a more careful approach that women can provide beacause they have a different way of thinking. In some countries, the only banks runned by women didn't suffer from the crisis, so it shows that the EU has to use women"s potential like they already do it in northern countries. Language: English View this video Download a broadcast version of this video
	Quotas are the only way (3/4)
		"Do you think quotas are the only way to close the gender gap?" Zita Gurmai explains that there are no other solutions than the quotas right now. Even if the capacities should be the only condition to hire one person instead of another, women still have to prove what they can do more than men do. That's why positive discrimination is needed, for Europe to take benefit of both gender capacities.
	Europe through women's eyes (4/4)
		""Women and the European elections" is the main issue treated in this week's events on women's rights. Does it mean that women have their own expectations towards the EU?" Zita Gurmai presents a booklet created by the Socialist group, where important female politicians discuss the fact that women voted against the constitutionnal treaty and the Lisbon treaty. It is time to listen the women's specific concerns, and she applauses the fact that the Commission is well aware of that and is taking action against the gender gap.