The political representation of women is far from perfect in both Belgium and Serbia, but women in politics have come a long way. In an exchange program between journalism students from Howest in Belgium and the University of Novi Sad in Serbia, we decided to analyze the past and the present for both countries.
Ever since the introduction of municipal women's voting rights in Belgium in 1920, voices have been raised in favor of equal participation of women in political decision-making. Nevertheless, it took a long time before the first law has passed to really guarantee this political participation.
In Serbia, it took some 20 more years for women to get the same rights as their Belgian counterparts. A feminist and anti-fascist mass organization Women’s Antifascist Front of Yugoslavia was formed during World War II at the First National Conference of Women in 1942 and only a few years later, in 1945, Yugoslav women used their right to vote for the first time in the elections for the Constituent Assembly. What is interesting is that, according to the research done by the Center for Research, Transparency, and Accountability (CRTA), women’s political participation was at a higher level during the socialist period than after the introduction of the multi-party system, although it is estimated that the political participation of women during socialism represented more of just a formal fulfillment of quotas than it enabled a real influence on the politics. These quotas will play an important part of the growing presence of women in politics.
After the first multi-party elections in 1990, the inclusion of women in parliament was only 1.6%, indicating an obvious decrease in women’s involvement in political structures. During the 1990s, their involvement has only slightly increased (to 4.4% in 1992, then to 6.4% in 1997). The participation of women in the legislature continued to increase in the following decade, reaching 10.8% after the 2000s elections and 12.4% in 2003.
Quotas for change
Only in the early '90s, after fierce discussions in parliament, was the first quota law proposed in Belgium. On the initiative of the then Minister of the Internal Affairs Louis Tobback, the Tobback-Smet law was introduced in 1994. It stated that a maximum of three-quarters of the candidates on a list could be of the same gender. For the elections of 1999 and 2000, the Tobback-Smet law applied in its full scope. At that time a maximum of two-thirds of the candidates could be of the same gender.
Before the federal elections of 2003, the purple government had already replaced the Tobback-Smet law with a series of new laws that stipulated that from now on the electoral lists would contain an equal amount of female and male candidates. Subsequently, laws were also voted to provide parity on the lists for the 2004 elections to the European Parliament and the regional parliaments.
The significant rise in numbers of women elected as members of parliament in Serbia is recognized after the 2008s elections when it reached 21.6%, but this was only the beginning. Serbia again followed a similar path as Belgium, fifteen years after the Tobback-Smet Law, with the new amendment of the Law on Election of Deputies. Since the year 2011, the renewed Law on Election of Deputies demanded that 30% of members of parliament have to be representatives of the underrepresented sex, ie. women. The aforementioned law was renewed one more time in May this year, and since then the legal minimum of women in this position has been increased to 40%, which means that there would be at least a hundred women in the National Assembly. Serbia currently has 96 female members in the parliament.
In March 2012 and February 2013, a complete zipper system for the 2018 local election lists was introduced. Women and men will then have to alternate neatly on each list. As of 2018, a Brussels ordinance will guarantee the balanced presence of men and women in the municipal colleges. From now on, a maximum of two-thirds of aldermen may be of the same sex.
The situation of elected women in parliament in Serbia, Belgium, and Belgium's districts.
Personal experiences
Despite the fact that more women are involved in different political levels in Belgium, few women actually have high ranking political positions. Most of the executive political positions are still run by men.
According to Celia Groothedde, member of the Flemish Parliament for the party ‘Groen’, different gender views play a big part in that. “People somehow still expect a woman to be more incompetent in certain subjects, maths for example, than a man. They also receive more criticism than a man when they don’t achieve good grades in those subjects.”
“From a young age, girls are told that certain characteristics don’t suit them. For example, they are told to not be too ambitious while that’s not the case with boys. As a result, they are going to internalize that, and I notice with myself that I have to fight against that as well. I often have to convince myself that I am suitable for a job or that I am an expert in a certain domain.”
Liesbeth Maris, Flemish provincial councilor for the Flemish party CD&V and president of ‘Vrouw & Maatschappij’, agrees with Groothedde and addresses the masculine perception that is still prevalent in Belgian politics. “When discussing who is suitable to become a minister, the members within a party often only speak of men. Even when people imagine a political leader, they very often see a man in front of them. This applies to both men and women.”
“Men also feel more called to a leadership position than women. Women prefer to be asked and are more of a consensus figure and men have less of a consensus. They are more willing to fight for a position and leave the consensus.”
A third important reason for Marlis is the negative political culture that is not appealing to women. “Politics is a very tough, competitive area to work in. Such an environment is less appealing to women. They usually don’t crave competition and that’s why many female politicians who start their political career with fresh ideas often quit after one legislature.”
Robin De Vroe, a researcher at Ghent University who investigates the representation of women in politics understands the situation of female politicians in Belgium. “A woman has to try harder to come across as credible. People think men are more suited to politics than women. Women really have to do their best to show that they also have the right skills.”
Yet De Vroe has seen improvement over the years. “I've done research on how Flemish voters look at gender when voting. It appears that today they no longer discriminate between men and women in terms of competences.”
Feeling of underappreciation
When talking about equal treatment, Groothedde often feels that she is treated more firmly than her male colleagues. “When a female colleague takes a firm stand, politicians more often say: 'colleague, calm down'. Why does the female colleague have to keep calm and can the men shout firmly? Many female politicians also experience that they are invariably given less speaking time during debates.”
“Women also have to speak more about their appearance and less about the content of what they say. That's why, as a politician, I dress in a more classic style. I know that what I say will then be taken more seriously, whereas that would not be the case if I would dress loosely.”
Marlis has also experienced an unpleasant situation regarding her clothing style. “I once wore a green blouse and colleagues pointed out to me that the color of our party is orange. Male members of my party are not expected to come in orange suits every time, so I didn’t understand the problem.”
Another frustrating aspect for Marlis is the content of the conversations that she usually has with colleagues. “The conversations between me and political colleagues are often about my clothes and my private life, while I would also just like to have a political discussion. That’s a sigh. Many steps in the right direction have already been taken, but the fundamental problems remain dormant.”
Quota law still relevant
One of the important laws for female political representation is the Smet-Tobback law that was implemented in 1994. Both Groothedde and Marlis acknowledge the importance of that law. “The quota law has been one of the most important levers to get more women elected to politics”, Groothedde states. “Using quotas is one of the ways to get a better representation of people.”
Marlis agrees and emphasizes the relevance of the law. “I'm sure we can't get rid of that quota yet. If we drop that now, I think we'll go back to it, especially with the right and the increasing polarization in politics.
The joint government in the constitution
The current federal government has Alexander De Croo as the prime minister. De Croo gave special importance to the equal representation of men and women and appointed a federal government in which men and women are equally represented. Marlies believes that the Belgian political scene should use this moment to secure this trend. “We should establish a joint government in the constitution. That way, future governments will always have to look for a gender balance. We believe that a government that is both masculine and feminine is supported more, and scientific research also shows that such governments function better qualitatively.”
“Also, since women are more involved in politics, new themes for people with precarious positions have been put on the political agenda, mainly because women also come into contact with these distressing situations more often. So enrolling this joint government in the constitution would be a logical sequel to the momentum we are now in.”
Similar situation in Serbia
Member of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina Stanislava Hrnjak sees the increase of female members in parliament in Serbia as an opportunity to change the stereotypical image that women aren’t or shouldn’t be involved in the decision-making:
“I don’t think that women are on the margins of decision-making in politics. I think that this image exists only because there are much fewer women than men on the political scene, but if we take into account the new law that demands 40% of women in the parliament, there is room for that image to change. A continuous campaign of women’s empowerment to engage in politics is necessary. Women's economic empowerment gives us positive and motivating examples, especially for women living in rural areas and for those on the margins. Therefore, I think that this is not a question of change at the local level, but a widespread goal that we can measure through short-term and long-term activities of local governments, NGOs and the state itself.”
Men being seen by the public as suitable figures for the positions of power seems to be the universal rule for both Belgium and Serbia. According to the research done by the Center for Research, Transparency, and Accountability (CRTA) in 2014, which was based on in-depth interviews with both male and female MPs during the time, different roles of men and women in parliament are recognized through greater concentration and direction of the female MPs in the areas that are considered ‘more appropriate’ for women, such as social policy, child and family care, human rights and culture, while they are mostly excluded from the field of security, finance, and infrastructure issues. Further forms of discrimination and unequal treatment are recognized in the practice of communication through gender-incorrect language and inappropriate comments, as well in the formal conversations and board meetings as in informal communications in hallways, during breaks, etc.
Stereotypical representation
Dr. Smiljana Milinkov, professor at the University of Novi Sad who specializes in gender equality, explains that stereotypical image a woman on the political scene is expected to maintain:
“Women in politics are portrayed very stereotypically in the media in the sense that they are expected to confirm traditionally understood female roles. One of them is to be feminine and that refers to the way they dress, nurture, behave, and in the media, we can find various proclamations of the most beautiful member of parliament or fashion photography. The second one is to prove that, regardless of the fact that they are active in the public sphere, they also manage to be good mothers and even better housewives. Thus, female politicians are asked questions about who takes care of the house while they are at work, who cooks lunch, or who looks after the children, and those questions are never asked to male politicians. And what is also very problematic in some media, most often in the tabloids, is the spread of sexism and misogyny towards female politicians who do not belong to the ruling regime.”
Insufficient amount of women
Even though Serbia has women in some of the highest-ranking political positions, starting with Ana Brnabić who is in her second term as a prime minister, the real impact of the women in power seems to be in the shadow of their male companions. Dr. Dubravka Valić Nedeljković, journalist and retired professor at the University of Novi Sad, thinks that women are not sufficiently present in the Serbian political and media scene:
“I think that women’s real impact is modest. This is also indicated by their presence in the media as subjects of information, ie. those to whom the media gives the opportunity to speak and in that way offer their views and ideas from their field of expertise to the audience - there is quite a small number of them if we exclude the Prime Minister whose position gives her the opportunity for greater publicity.”
“Women in positions of power haven’t done much regarding gender equality issues. The changes would only be visible if women didn’t serve as wingmen in politics, precisely, if they didn’t work for politicians and party leaders, but for women in the society. Only if they were truly independent and visible in the media and they began to understand and deal with gender equality issues. The only female politician in our country that has been seriously dealing with this issue for decades is Gordana Čomić, and in the end, she practically shut down her own political career because she fought for gender equality. She turned a deaf ear to the politics of the Democratic Party to which she belonged as one of the most prominent members since the very beginning by entering the assembly hall when the increase of the women’s quota on the pre-election list was voted, which is a huge step forward for female politicians, but for Gordana Čomić it was the end of her political career, at least as the things are now, but you never know. Politics is a very outlandish profession.”
Women are increasingly present on both of the political scenes - Belgian and Serbian, with a few steps in favor of Belgium. There is a noticeable and continuous formal improvement in the past years on both sides, but there are some universal issues like sexism, misogyny, how women in positions of power are perceived, and how they use their impact, which indeed makes room for further development.
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Online Project Journalism is a collaboration between Howest University, Belgium, and the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. In non-corona times the students of Howest work together with the students in Novi Sad during an annual study trip. This year it was an online project, to make sure the intercultural added value of working together to create a journalistic product is not lost.
Students of Novi Sad created journalism products together with students of Howest. This project connects Serbia and Belgium every year. The products are proof of cooperation between students.
The starting point for the journalistic product was the uprise and growing visibility and influence of the Black lives matter movement. BLM is exemplary of a growing awareness of identity and thus becomes more of an issue on the political agenda, in the cultural sector, and in people's personal lives. In this way, it was possible to work on themes, such as the human race, sexual identity, living with a disability, political preference, etc.
This is the sixth product that is published from the workshop.
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