Event report

On February 17th 2022, a group of 15 students of the Hague University of Applied Sciences participated in a dialogue about women’s rights and gender equality. The event started with a kick off presentation by four students who organized the event. This was followed by a brief presentation of Pascalle Grotenhuis, Ambassador of gender equality and women’s right on behalf of the Dutch national government. She explained how the COVID pandemic has increased gender inequality. She also pointed out that The Netherlands has a long way to go regarding reaching equality between man and women: there is a pay gap, women are not well represented in management levels, and maternity leave, paternity leave and childcare benefits should be improved. After a Q&A with ambassador Pascalle Grotenhuis, the group of students discussed a number of propositions. Should decisions that only affect the female population exclusively be made by female politicians? Is it a good idea to implement gender quota? Who is responsible for pushing for change? The national government, society, the EU or individual citizens? The students formulated the following recommendations to the European Union: - The EU should embrace and communicate more explicitly that equal opportunities and women’s rights are fundamental human rights that should be respected in all circumstances. The EU should commit itself to a greater extent to encourage gender equality in all European countries, specifically in some Eastern European countries. Students unanimously support that the EU should hold member states accountable if they do not respect women’s right. Cutting European subsidies is considered as an effective way of showing member states that unacceptable policies are not tolerated. However, students also stressed the importance that these measures shouldn’t affect innocent people, but should target the government. The participants of the dialogue were also not an advocate of suspending EU membership because of not respecting women’s rights. This because of geopolitical reasons. - The students suggest to introduce a uniformed curriculum/course at all schools across Europe about human rights and gender equality. This programme should also embrace diversity and different opinions. The students considered education as the key solution to address intolerance towards women and LGBTQ+ communities. - The EU should start a campaign with female role models. The objective of this campaign is to celebrate women and inspire young girls across the continent.