Report | Doc. 11910 | 07 May 2009

The rights of today’s girls – the rights of tomorrow’s women

(Former) Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men

Rapporteur : Ms Ingrida CIRCENE, Latvia, EPP/CD

Origin - Reference to committee: Doc. 11246, Reference 3347 of 24 May 2007. 2009 - May Standing Committee

Summary

The Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men is convinced that effective rights for today’s girls are a strength for both the next generation of women and for the population as a whole, within an egalitarian and inclusive society. It is concerned about the disparities which still exist today between girls and boys and, in some cases, regression of girls’ rights, including the fundamental right to a life free from violence. The education system is at the heart of the evolution towards gender equality.

Thus, the Parliamentary Assembly urges Council of Europe member states to consider the rights of girls as a priority. They should eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls, including gender-based violence, and develop education in equality between women and men without stereotyping and at all levels of the education system.

The Assembly also calls on the Committee of Ministers to launch a European project on a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education aimed at achieving a more egalitarian and democratic society. This project should seek to give girls and boys, women and men, both in law and in fact, free access to education and the freedom to choose their branch of study. It should be based on support for the development of the full potential of boys and girls and on the preservation of their personal integrity.

A. Draft resolution

(open)

1. The Parliamentary Assembly is concerned about the disparities which still exist today between girls and boys in the Council of Europe member states, and indeed, in some cases, the regression of girls’ rights. Although equal rights are a major advance in many countries, they often conceal a real de facto inequality, to the detriment of girls.

2. The Assembly is convinced that effective rights for today’s girls are a strength both for the rights of tomorrow’s women and for the population as a whole within an egalitarian and inclusive society.

3. The Assembly denounces the gender-based violence many girls are subjected to from an early age in Europe today: paedophilia, genital mutilation, forced and child marriages are all on the rise. Even gender-based selective abortions, and, in rare cases, feminicide, are starting to make their way into the European continent. This violence against girls is totally unacceptable.

4. The Assembly emphasises the need to eliminate all forms of discrimination against girls and to promote education in equality between women and men without stereotyping and at all levels of the education system.

5. It notes the value to both girls and boys of a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education.

6. The Assembly also feels that it is important that household tasks and care-giving (for example, for younger siblings) are not disproportionately delegated to girls within a family. Girls need time for themselves, for their schoolwork, their hobbies, and their personal development, and should be given the same amount of such time as boys. It is thus important to change the stereotypes still prevalent in society today which hinder girls personal development and success in later life.

7. It calls on the Council of Europe member states to:

7.1. ratify the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the amendment and protocol thereto, if they have not already done so;

7.2. guarantee access to education for all children, including girls, who are more frequently outside the school system than boys, if necessary taking over the cost related to their schooling;

7.3. promote mixed-sex classes in schools, including in non-state schools, with a view to providing a carefully thought-out education based on the promotion of learning motivation and self-regulation, and focusing on the individual pupil in order to foster the development of his or her abilities;

7.4. promote education in human rights taking account of the principle of gender equality;

7.5. introduce education in sexual and reproductive health for both girls and boys with the aim, in particular, of protecting them from sexually transmitted diseases and teaching them respect for their partners.

7.6. take measures to speed up de jure and de facto equality in education while actively defending equal rights and equal opportunities for girls and boys, women and men, and equal treatment with due regard to their differences, be they pupils, students or teachers;

7.7. ensure a gender balance among schools’ teaching, administrative and managerial staff, as well as in pupil and student delegations to the bodies that run schools and universities;

7.8. give priority to training the staff of educational institutions and child-care facilities in, and raising their awareness of, the promotion of equality between girls and boys and between women and men;

7.8.1. by training trainers in the promotion of equality between girls and boys and in non-violence;

7.8.2. by establishing equality training as a subject in its own right having the same value as other pedagogical components of the training curriculum for new teachers;

7.8.3. by organising specialised training throughout the training curriculum and during working life;

7.8.4. by raising awareness among guidance and vocational education staff of occupational gender stereotypes and equality issues;

7.8.5. by regularly evaluating the behaviour of teachers which should not be sexist, during their professional activities;

7.8.6. by making teachers aware of the particular difficulties which can be experienced by young immigrant girls;

7.9. include, in curricula for boys and girls, educational and training activities designed to raise their awareness of gender equality and prepare them for the exercise of democratic citizenship;

7.10. include in curricula a component relating to the sharing of domestic and child-raising responsibilities;

7.11. revise teaching material and methods in such a way as to promote non-discriminatory language and non-sexist education;

7.12. make parents more aware of the personal worth of their children, in particular their daughters, within the context of positive parenting;

7.13. support parents in bringing up their children, in particular by setting up “parenting schools”, designed to aid and assist parents, including promoting equality between women and men, and girls and boys within families;

7.14. take steps to ensure that public and private funders of school and study grants respect the principle of gender balance when awarding grants;

7.15. promote sports activities for girls and boys, funding the different sports facilities in an equitable fashion and educating sports teachers in equality between girls and boys;

7.16. raise awareness among media professionals of gender equality and ensure fair and equitable representation of girls and women in the media;

7.17. rigorously fight all forms of gender-based violence against girls, in particular paedophilia, genital mutilation, forced and child marriages and feminicides, as well as gender-based selective abortions, both in Europe and the whole world.

8. It urges the national parliaments of the Council of Europe member states to:

8.1. abolish any legislative provisions discriminating against women and girls;

8.2. make available the necessary funds for the education of girls and boys, for teacher training and for raising public awareness of equality issues;

8.3. give financial support to civil society organisations which are working to promote equal opportunities for girls and boys and the participation of girls in public and political decision-making;

8.4. take due account of gender budgeting, particularly in times of crisis, in view of the fact that girls and women are the most affected.

9. Lastly, it calls on the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to take account of gender equality issues in his work and, in particular, to denounce discrimination against girls during on-site visits while calling on the national authorities to ensure better treatment for girls, provide them with education and treat them as an asset rather than a liability.

B. Draft recommendation

(open)

1. The Parliamentary Assembly refers to its Resolution … (2009) on the rights of today’s girls – the rights of tomorrow’s women and asks the Committee of Ministers to ensure that it is applied by the member states, taking into account the fundamental principle of gender equality.

2. The Assembly urges the Committee of Ministers to focus the Council of Europe convention currently being drawn up on the most widespread and most severe forms of violence against women, many of which are also directed against girls, in conformity with unanimously adopted Assembly Recommendation 1847 (2008) on combating violence against women: towards a Council of Europe convention.

3. The Assembly welcomes the adoption by the Committee of Ministers of recommendation CM /Rec(2007)13 on gender mainstreaming in education.

4. It calls on the Committee of Ministers to implement speedily the follow-up phase of this recommendation, particularly in order to assess the progress of mainstreaming in the school environment.

5. It also calls on the Committee of Ministers to launch a European project on a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education aimed at achieving a more egalitarian and more democratic society. This project will seek to give girls and boys, women and men, both in law and in fact, free access to education and the freedom to choose their branch of study. It will be based on support for the development of the full potential of girls and boys and on the preservation of their personal integrity. It will give priority to economic independence and the participation of every individual in society and political life.

C. Explanatory memorandum, by Ms Circene, rapporteur

(open)

1. Introduction: a finding of persistent inequality between girls and boys

1.1. Unequal treatment of girls and boys from earliest childhood

1. Every day, all over the world, girls are banned from attending school, beaten, neglected, coerced into marriage or sexual intercourse, sold as slaves, forced to fight in wars or to sit silently by while their fate is decided for them. Each time, their rights are trampled.

2. What about Europe? This distressing finding applies to Europe too, although problems are less common than in other continents. Are girls’ rights still an issue in European societies? Are they not very often an established fact? Must we still distinguish between girls’ rights and those of children in general? Today, at first sight, these questions seem to convey a dated image of times gone by when girls did not go to school and were treated differently from the other children in the family.

3. Yet the reality is quite disturbing. The picture that emerges today is an ambivalent one: girls’ rights have clearly made tremendous progress over the centuries; yet, on the one hand, a retrograde trend can generally be observed in this area, and on the other, a de facto inequality is in any case still deeply embedded in our societies. Appearances are deceptive, which makes the problem very pernicious. The gap is still very wide between de jure and de facto equality. However, girls are entitled to rights that are effective and tangible. Otherwise their rights are valueless.

4. I was recently appointed rapporteur after Ms Cliveti, the previous rapporteur, had stepped down. I have drawn on my own experience and on various studies in order to offer a response to this problem that is as concise as possible. I will refer in particular to the high-level experts who were given a hearing by the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Paris on 5 December 2008.

The main purpose of the hearing was to gather information on the situation of girls around the world, then focus on teachers’ attitudes towards girls and boys, and finally consider how girls can be involved in decision making, particularly in the political field.

5. In Europe today, most girls go to school, most have a high standard of education and many of them work. However, very few hold positions that carry professional or political responsibilities, in all spheres of life. Girls and women are also less well paid and shoulder most of the unpaid work, such as household and care‑giving responsibilities.

6. So what is the crux of the issue? It is the unequal treatment of girls and boys from a very early age. Children – both girls and boys – are affected by stereotypes from the moment they are born, then throughout their lives.

7. Because the problem of inequality between children of different sexes is very often hidden by a de jure equality, I felt that it would be interesting to see how commentators have analysed the changes in attitudes towards girls and boys over the last few years.

8. Some authors do indeed criticise early stereotyping. I will refer in particular to the analysis of the evolution of the situation conducted in 2007 by two French sociologists on the basis of a study by an Italian sociologist dating back to 1973. These books manage to be quite enlightening without straying into the very interesting yet complex and controversial domain of psychoanalysis.

1.2. The situation in 1973

9. As far back as 1973, in a book entitled Dalla parte delle bambine,

Elena Gianini Belotti highlighted, by means of an observation survey in families, child-care centres and schools, the power of the stereotypes rooted in each of us which assign different properties and qualities to girls and boys even before they are born and throughout early-years education.

10. She found that all the differences observed pointed to the inferiority of the female gender, with girls ultimately having a lower social value than boys after being less wanted than them. She showed that mothers unknowingly behave differently, especially in terms of the toys they give to girls and boys, but also in their verbal interaction with them. The social behaviour of boys receives more stimulation than that of girls, as does their motor development: they are handled more vigorously and given more help with sitting and walking than girls. Fathers and mothers exhibit gender-differentiated attitudes: an infant’s tears are interpreted as anger in the case of a boy and as fear in the case of a girl.

11. Who has not said of a boy that he is lively and of a girl that she is sweet? This starts at birth. Blue, pirates, fighting and untidiness for boys. Pink, indoor leisure activities and tidy exercise books for girls.

1.3. The present-day situation

12. Thirty-five years on, two sociologists examined how the situation had developed. The earlier essay had had a “huge worldwide impact” by highlighting an uninterrupted process of “continuous discrimination” which had ultimately succeeded in forging separate systems of representations, expectations and attitudes that were quickly internalised by children.

13. In their book published in 2007,

Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet emphasise the “natural inequalities”. They refer to the debate on the sex of the brain and draw conclusions regarding the prejudices inherent in such concepts. The differences observed between girls and boys, particularly the differences in academic achievement, are related to cultural and social factors. After looking at school, they turned their attention to the workplace: the chapter entitled “Quel avenir devant soi?” (What future lies ahead?) studies women’s occupational integration. While the media highlight the spectacular careers of some women, this enchanted view can be dispelled by taking a quick look at the rates of feminisation in different occupations.

14. Chapter 4 takes up the concept of gender identity. As the authors point out, belonging to a gender is a social construct. This chapter is the one that follows on most directly from Ms Gianini Belotti’s study by comparing the findings made in 1973 with the present-day situation. In maternity wards, among children of equal size and weight, the boys are described by their parents and visitors as big, while the girls are “sweet” and “little”. The toys given to girls and boys still differ considerably.

The chapter then goes more deeply into this issue of the gendering of toys and books and notes their gender-differentiated uses.

15. The chapter entitled “Les chemins de la liberté” (Paths to freedom) studies the differences in female and male entry into sexuality and the different role played by peers according to gender. Feminine and masculine models are not being abandoned, although we are seeing a reinterpretation on a more egalitarian basis. Where leisure activities are concerned, the divisions are still watertight.

16. In conclusion, the authors said that “some far-reaching changes, some changes on a smaller scale and some significant continuities can be seen”.

17. I consider this presentation to be convincing and comprehensible to everyone. Ultimately, the issue of inequalities between girls and boys is indeed a reality of our time. On the basis of these findings and the statements made at the hearing, I would like to emphasise the key factor in the development of societies, namely education, as provided by teachers, but also in books and pictures for children. I also consider it very important for girls to abandon their passive role and take an active part in decisions concerning not only them, but the population in general.

18. I would also like to focus on the field of sport which, in my view, is important both for the personal development of individuals and for their social integration.

I feel it is vital that girls and boys should enjoy equal access to sports facilities and appropriate training.

19. I also believe it essential not only for girls and young women but also for boys and young men to have access to reproductive health services and to sexual health education and information.

I would therefore like to emphasise the necessity of reproductive health, not only to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, but also to ensure that girls and women are able to plan for motherhood in a way that signals their independence vis-à-vis men. All measures compatible with women’s rights must be implemented in order to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

2. Education as a central instrument for implementing the principle of gender equality

2.1. School’s vital role as a vehicle for equality

20. Given the importance of early-years education in adulthood, teachers and parents clearly have a vital role to play. I would stress that most children begin to spend time outside the family environment at a very early age. Some are entrusted to child-care facilities from the age of two months. Schooling begins at around three years of age and they sometimes also attend after-school child-care centres. Many children therefore spend an average of ten hours per day outside the home, in educational or care facilities. Teachers and educators therefore have a vital place in education, in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Parents also have a positive role to play in the education of their children, in terms of gender equality.

21. I note that representations of femininity and masculinity, as well as models for assigning the social roles which shape our societies, are replicated at school. This problem therefore needs to be examined in greater depth because the eradication of formal discrimination does not seem to be sufficient. It is necessary to ensure that the school system is a vehicle for de facto equality. In our societies education is one of the essential preconditions for economic and social success.

22. As a parliamentarian, I feel it is important that the principle of equality between women and men should be enshrined in education laws. Legislation, however, is not the only means of creating a favourable climate that enables all girls and boys to achieve educational, personal and social progress in line with their potential, their interests and their aspirations. In my view, an inclusive society cannot be built without a sustained effort to change attitudes and take on board differences. Schools play a decisive role in that process.

2.2. Teachers’ attitudes

23. As Carrie Paechter pointed out, despite some thirty years of equal opportunities legislation and considerable research into gender issues in schools, teachers still treat boys and girls differently.

24. She stresses that teachers treat boys and girls as separate and very different groups. Throughout the schooling system, teachers behave as though girls and boys are very different in behaviour, aptitude and attitudes. This view of things impacts in various ways on how pupils are treated, depending on whether they are boys or girls.

25. Teachers of young children thus tend to refer to gendered groups when praising or reprimanding, for example by saying “All the girls are sitting nicely”, or “The boys are being very noisy”. They also expect boys and girls to want to learn and to socialise in separate groups. While this does reflect dominant social norms in early-years classrooms, where children tend naturally to stay in single-sex groups, it also reinforces young children’s stereotyped views about appropriate friendships and play companions, by taking this segregation for granted. Teachers, for their part, reinforce stereotypes of gender difference by using the threat of being seated with the other sex as a disciplinary measure. This tendency to treat boys and girls as different, clearly differentiated groups, reveals a kind of unconscious discriminatory reflex in teachers.

26. Teachers treat girls and boys very differently from the day they start school until the day they leave. They do this because they hold stereotyped assumptions about gender which are self-reinforcing as they affect their own and the children’s classroom behaviour. These assumptions lead them to present boys and girls with different behavioural expectations, different classroom experiences and different curricular and pedagogic provision. The result is that neither boys nor girls are given access to the full range of learning experiences to which they are entitled.

27. Working-class girls are likely to be particularly disadvantaged in this respect, as the cumulative effect of this differential treatment leads them to choose vocational courses that prepare them for poorly paid jobs with little career structure and a focus on women’s work.

28. Studies show that teachers take a very negative view of girls whose behaviour fails to conform to female stereotypes.

Both teachers and children have strongly differentiated understandings of how girls and boys behave. Girls are supposed to be sensible and selfless, and therefore enable group activity to continue by giving in to boys’ demands. Girls are expected to take on a sub-teacher role, in other words support the teacher in keeping the boys in order and helping them to learn. Being considered sensible, girls are also supposed to participate in “housekeeping” activities, for example by helping the teacher to clean school equipment or running small errands, while at the same time the boys are left to study or play.

29. One study carried out in 2004

in a Swedish nursery school showed that, without being aware of this, the teachers treated girls and boys very differently. For instance, they gave the boys much more attention, letting them take up, on average, two thirds of all conversation. In discussions with the children, they readily allowed the boys to interrupt the girls, but asked the girls to await their turn patiently. They had two speech registers: short, directive sentences for the boys, and longer, more detailed instructions for the girls. At meals, the differences became even more glaring: the films made in 2004 show 3- or 4-year-old girls obediently serving glasses of milk or plates of potatoes to impatient boys. This division of roles was encouraged quite involuntarily by the teachers.

30. At the end of the project, the teaching staff decided to introduce two single-sex periods of one and a half hours every week. According to the teachers, these periods allow the children to quietly enjoy games traditionally associated with “the other sex”. The girls can drive cars or jump on the benches without the boys disturbing them. In a separate playroom, the boys have fun with toy tea sets, soft toys and dolls without the girls taking over and giving them lessons in domestic life. Girls and boys are also occasionally separated during meals: to prevent the girls from acting as serving staff, lunch is sometimes taken at separate tables.

31. But the 2004 study led the teachers above all to take a fresh look at their everyday behaviour.

32. Teachers of vocational subjects have been found to be the most conservative regarding gender of all teacher groups, which makes vocational classes particularly important arenas for reinforcing gender stereotypes. Vocational education remains strongly gender-segregated, even in the Nordic countries, where principles of gender equality are otherwise well established, and in the former East Germany, where gender divisions in vocational choices have been exacerbated since unification. This has serious implications for the future occupational choices and opportunities of both sexes, but is particularly problematic for girls, as the vocational courses they tend to follow are often shorter and lead to lower-status and frequently much worse paid employment. Some vocational courses, particularly those for traditionally female occupations, are highly gender stereotypical in their content.

33. It can therefore be said that the attitudes and expectations of teachers throughout schooling disadvantage girls on a long-term basis, since they will suffer from this in adult life.

34. Schools must therefore be helped to implement the principle of equality between women and men. For most educators it is a new and complex concept not taken into account in the practices of schools and other educational or child-care establishments. I feel therefore that it is essential that the authorities should help the teaching profession to move towards non-stereotyped attitudes that are consistent with the realities of 21st century societies.

2.3. Mixed-sex schooling

35. In her statement on the education system, Christiane Spiel addresses not only the issue of discrimination against girls, but also that of the appropriateness of single-sex teaching. Numerous studies have revealed systematic differences between boys and girls in variables which influence performance.

36. These differences have diminished substantially in recent years, but they still exist. Nowadays, it is not uncommon to find that girls have better school results than boys. For example, for some years now women have accounted for a higher proportion than men among the population with a secondary or higher education qualification. As a result, some people have come to regard boys as victims of a feminised education system from which girls benefit more. The fact is, however, that girls have succeeded in catching boys up now that some degree of attention has begun to be paid to them. This does not mean that equality has been achieved between girls and boys, but that the attention paid to girls is increasing in some fields.

37. While no gender differences can be shown among young children concerning interest and motivation for mathematics and the natural sciences, by the end of elementary school girls have a considerably more negative self-perception of their performance in maths than boys. They tend to underestimate their performance and the good marks they obtain are not sufficient to offset their loss of confidence in their mathematical competence.

38. Consequently, girls also have lower hopes of success. In addition, they show detrimental attributional patterns – from the perspective of motivational psychology – in comparison to boys. Failures are more frequently attributed to low ability while success is attributed to luck or teacher preference.

39. The results of the PISA

2006 survey conducted by the OECD

support these findings. In European countries there is a clear tendency among boys to self-evaluate their competence in natural sciences at a higher level than girls. Furthermore, the educational climate favours boys. Learning often takes place in a competitive climate. Girls are therefore disadvantaged because they are more co-operation-oriented. The performance of girls in competitive school classes is shown to be lower, in relation to boys, than in non-competitive classes. The way they are brought up – to be well-behaved and shy – does not tie in with the expectations of society, which prefers risk-taking and creativity.

40. Girls are also disadvantaged by the stereotypes associated with them, domestic tasks and looking after younger children, for which they bear the main responsibility, leaving them little or no time for themselves.

41. Ms Spiel concludes that our education system is undoubtedly discriminatory towards girls. However, she refuses to accept single-sex teaching as the solution to this problem.

42. In the last few years, an at least partial return to separate teaching for girls and boys has been mentioned increasingly in some countries as a solution to this discrimination.

43. However, I am not in favour of abandoning a principle which was adopted after in-depth pedagogical reflection. It is too simple a solution to what is a very complex problem. Moreover, gender-specific expectations are also generated by parents and other players. Ultimately, the fact that these gaps are not observed in all mixed-gender classes and that there are considerable differences from one country to another, as emerges from the PISA survey, clearly demonstrates the influence of educational processes and, hence, of teachers.

44. An impoverished curriculum has at any rate been noted in single-sex classes, affecting both girls and boys. Given the stereotypes about boys’ and girls’ tastes and their principal modes of learning, boys have been offered more practical activities, while girls receive a wider theoretical education, but employing methods geared less to curiosity and discovery.

45. I therefore believe that the goal of education ensuring equal opportunities for girls and boys can only be achieved by providing a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education. Essentially, this means implementing real co-education, which does not consist solely in having girls and boys seated side by side in the same room. Indeed, this type of education calls for in-depth reflection about stereotypes, differences and individual needs and for explicit involvement in the learning process. Such an approach would be beneficial for both girls and boys.

46. This type of mixed-sex education should be based on learning motivation and self-regulation, focusing on each pupil in order to foster the development of his or her abilities. For this purpose, teachers will need to be aware of the causes of gender differences and of how they themselves may be contributing to them. Marking will have to be transparent because it has been shown that the best way to motivate pupils to learn is to adopt a marking system based on objective criteria while also taking personal factors into account.

47. Role models could be provided for girls and boys to help reduce gender stereotypes. These role models could be older pupils, specific teachers or persons from outside the school. In this connection, it should be borne in mind that the majority of teachers are women.

48. School obviously cannot be the only institution responsible for a carefully thought-out mixed-sex education, although it is unquestionably a place where the necessary changes can be systematically introduced. Co-operation would need to be established at the wider level of society, and particularly with parents.

49. I am convinced that parents are very often unaware of the qualities of their children, particularly their daughters, whom they tend to underrate instead of bringing out their full potential. I therefore believe that all possible means should be employed to increase parental awareness of equality and of the intrinsic value of their children, both girls and boys, within the context of positive parenting. “Parenting schools”, offering assistance, support, information, guidance and prevention measures as an optimum means of addressing the concerns of couples, parents, families and young people are in my opinion a positive means of improving the link between parents and children and of ensuring that everyone’s value is fully recognised.

50. Furthermore, I am fully in favour of providing financial support to non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

which are active in the promotion of equality and which, through age-specific activities, are encouraging the participation of girls in decision making to allow them to become fully-fledged citizens.

3. Conclusion

51. Education is a means of guaranteeing equal opportunities between girls and boys. It is a necessary tool for reducing poverty and social inequalities and respecting human rights. Education has a major impact on the ability of girls and women to claim their rights and acquire social status, achieve financial independence or improve their political representation. It also helps to protect girls and women from exploitation and makes them less vulnerable to risks such as HIV/Aids.

52. Eliminating the differences of treatment between the sexes in education should be a priority for our states. Equality of girls and boys should be a legal obligation and a fundamental goal for our societies. Mixed-sex education represents a step forward, but it does not mean a situation of equality between girls and boys. There are still too many disparities between girls and boys during their school careers. Education for equality is a necessary precondition for a change of mentality. All educational institutions must become places of real learning about equality between girls and boys.

53. In the light of the foregoing, I propose measures to implement the principle of equality between women and men at school and in the child’s educational environment by bringing about a change in attitudes and giving priority to teacher training within co-educational schools that respect everyone’s differences and gender equality.

54. I submit the draft resolution and recommendation above for adoption by the Assembly.

(open)

Reporting committee: Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men

Reference to committee:Doc. 11246, Reference 3347 of 24 May 2007

Draft resolution and draft recommendation unanimously adopted by the committee on 29 April 2009

Members of the committee: Ms Pernille Frahm (Chairperson), Mr José Mendes Bota (1st Vice-Chairperson), Ms Ingrīda Circene (2nd Vice-Chairperson), Ms Anna Čurdová (3rd Vice-Chairperson), Ms Sonja Ablinger, Mr Francis Agius, Mr Florin Serghei Anghel, Mr John Austin, Mr Lokman Ayva, Ms Marieluise Beck, Ms Anna Benaki, Mr Laurent Béteille, Ms Deborah Bergamini, Ms Oksana Bilozir, Ms Rosa Delia Blanco Terán, Ms Olena Bondarenko, Mr Predrag Bošković, Mr Han Ten Broeke, Ms Anna Maria Carloni, Mr James Clappison, Ms Diana Çuli, Ms Lydie Err, Ms Catherine Fautrier, Ms Mirjana Ferić-Vac, Ms Sónia Fertuzinhos, Ms Doris Frommelt, Ms Alena Gajdůšková, Mr Giuseppe Galati, Ms Claude Greff, Mr Attila Gruber, Ms Carina Hägg, Ms Fatme Ilyaz, Ms Francine John-Calame, Ms Nataša Jovanoviċ, Ms Birgen Keleş, Ms Krista Kiuru, Ms Elvira Kovács, Ms Angela Leahu, Mr Terry Leyden, Ms Mirjana Malić, Ms Assunta Meloni, Ms Nursuna Memecan, Ms Dangutė Mikutienė, Mr Burkhardt Müller-Sönksen, Ms Hermine Naghdalyan, Mr Mark Oaten, Mr Kent Olsson, Mr Jaroslav Paška, Ms Antigoni Papadopoulos, Ms Maria del Carmen Quintanilla Barba, Mr Frédéric Reiss, Ms Mailis Reps, Ms Maria Pilar Riba Font, Ms Andreja Rihter, Ms Jadwiga Rotnicka, Mr Nicolae Robu, Ms Marlene Rupprecht, Ms Klára Sándor, Ms Miet Smet, Mme Albertina Soliani, Ms Darinka Stantcheva, Ms Tineke Strik, Mr Michał Stuligrosz, Ms Doris Stump, Mr Mihai Tudose, Mr Volodymyr Vecherko (alternate: Mr Ivan Popescu), Ms Tatiana Volozhinskaya, Mr Marek Wikiński, Mr Paul Wille, Ms Betty Williams, Mr Gert Winkelmeier, Ms Karin S. Woldseth, Ms Gisela Wurm, Mr Andrej Zernovski, Mr Vladimir Zhidkikh, Ms Rodoula Zissi

NB: The names of the members who took part in the meeting are printed in bold

Secretariat of the committee: Ms Kleinsorge, Ms Affholder, Ms Devaux