Cities are human habitats that reflect the culture, life style and relations of their inhabitants through the works of architecture.
Cities belong both to women and men. Citizenship rights were first prac-ticed in cities. Thus, the infrastructure of a city must allow both women and men to enjoy their citizenship rights.
Women who comprise half of the city population, rightfully demand to take their due place and equal represen-tation in local decision making. Their demand is a call for justice and democ-racy.
In European cities, there is a new initiative to include women in urban life and to make the city more women friendly. Below is a summary of actions taken in this regard.
Initiatives to encourage women to participate in national and local decision making in greater numbers
Belgium: A law dated 1994 and revised in 2002 stipulates that 50 per-cent of the elected officials (at national and local level) must be female.
France: 50 percent of the candidates for national and local elections must be female.
Greece: The Constitution stipulates that at least one third of all elected officials (at national and local level) must be female.
Finland: A law enacted in 1987 envisaged that women and men both would be represented at least 40 percent.
In Espoo, Finland 55 percent of the mu-nicipal council members are women.
Sweden: According to a programme adopted in 1987, the percentage of women involved with the public decision making has gradually increased from 30 to 40 percent and since 1998, it has inc-reased to 50 percent.
Italy: In Modena, 50 percent of the members of the Housing Committee must be women.
Departments for equality in local governments
Frankfurt: In 2002, the city municipality established an Equality Task Force, to include gender mainstreaming in all activities of the local government.
Paris: A Follow-up Committee was estab-lished to monitor and evaluate the activities of the local government. The main idea behind the Follow-up Committee is to make sure that women and men equally benefit from local services.
Vienna: The Vienna Women’s Department has been in service for a long time. The Department has five advisers and 145 officials across various departments working on equal opportunity issues.
Essen: The local government has an “Equal Opportunity Department” (EOD). Various officials from 33 different sectors cooperate with the EOD.
Dudelange: Since 1995, there is a deputy mayor in charge of equal opportunity. Since 1997, the municipality has had an equal opportunity committee. The duties of the committee, which is composed of local government representatives, is in charge of i) advising local governments on equal oppor-tunity issues, ii) training, iii) raising awareness in gender equality, iv) cooperating with wo-men’s organizations. (Graphics by Aslı Tanrıkulu) |
