海角大神

When Ursula von der Leyen was named the first female president of the European Commission, the EU鈥檚 executive arm, she promptly announced that she would be seeking gender balance among her college of commissioners.聽

Since 1958, just 35 of the EU鈥檚 183 commissioners have been women, she pointed out. 鈥淲e represent half of our population. We want our fair share.鈥� What ultimately emerged was a set of 14 men and 11 women (due to one female candidate being rejected over integrity concerns and replaced by a man), giving Dr. von der Leyen鈥檚 college the largest female representation ever in the commission.

The new commissioners, who took office this week, will shape the priorities and political agenda of the European Union for the next five years. To that end, they have pledged to use the improved gender parity to breathe new life into previously stalled women鈥檚 equality measures, including efforts to address gender pay and pension gaps, violence against women, costly child care, and the digital gender divide.

This 鈥渕ore realistic鈥� gender balance 鈥渋s a big boost to democracy. It will be better reflective of the population, which is not 80% male,鈥� says Christal Morehouse, senior program officer at the Open Society Foundations. 鈥淏ut I also think there鈥檚 a big connection between the symbolism of it, and what we鈥檒l be able to measure and see on the ground as this goes forward.鈥�

A different dynamic

That symbolism is powerful, and it is the culmination of a number of societal movements, says Corinna Horst, senior fellow and deputy director of the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. 鈥淭here is a development happening 鈥� you have the election of [U.S. President Donald] Trump and the #MeToo movement that helped bring back civil society engagement, saying, 鈥榃e have an issue.鈥欌�� Men woke up to this as well, 鈥渞ealizing they had wives, daughters who were affected.鈥�

This helped move the debate to a 鈥渄ifferent level,鈥� Dr. Horst says. 鈥淣ow we鈥檙e at the stage where there are some more practical, tangible things happening. You see it in 鈥榤anels,鈥欌�� the all-male panel discussions that used to take place frequently in the capitals of Washington, D.C., and Brussels. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 say, 鈥榃hy don鈥檛 you invite a woman?鈥� and they鈥檇 say, 鈥極h, we couldn鈥檛 find one.鈥� Now it鈥檚, 鈥榊es, you can 鈥� just look harder.鈥欌��

Now, at the highest levels of EU government, 鈥淲e no longer have these pictures of summits of leaders as all men in gray suits. Now there鈥檚 some color and a skirt in there somewhere. And it changes perceptions. People see it and say, 鈥極h wow, this is different,鈥� but slowly it becomes normal.鈥�

And this 鈥渘ew normal鈥� has the potential to reshape the conversations within the commission, Dr. Horst adds. 鈥淚t becomes part of our DNA, and I think we鈥檒l see changes in how we do things.鈥�

This includes, for example, how meetings are held. 鈥淚鈥檓 not saying women are better leaders 鈥� we have examples that aren鈥檛 that enlightened. But there is a tendency for women to be much more interested in the outcome, in finding solutions and the ultimate goal rather than a need to demonstrate power. It鈥檚 really listening and being a bit more empathetic, so it鈥檚 creating a different dynamic in the room. It鈥檚 not a winner-take-all confrontation, but more of a compromise 鈥� which is a very European thing.鈥�

It鈥檚 a dynamic that corporate boards have recognized as well, since a diverse set of members with different life experiences tend to yield better bottom-line outcomes. Foreign policy analysts have concluded this, too. In the past two decades, women have made up just 4% of signatories to peace deals, yet when women鈥檚 groups take part, the resulting agreements are less likely to fail, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Commissioner for equality

It鈥檚 a message Dr. von der Leyen has taken to heart. The first tangible step toward her platform of gender inclusion was her creation of a commissioner for equality post, which will be filled by Helena Dalli of Malta.

During her confirmation hearing, Ms.聽Dalli told members of the European Parliament that in her first 100 days on the job she will be enacting a 鈥減ay transparency鈥� initiative, which will require companies with staffs of 10 or more to produce reports on pay levels broken down by gender, and give workers the right to request to know the salaries of their colleagues. The measure could also include a ban on pay secrecy clauses in contracts, and a new requirement for employers to provide pay scales with job advertisements. This is all aimed at addressing the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 16% throughout the EU.

The pay transparency measure 鈥渋s the tool that we are going to use in order to see where the discrepancies are,鈥� Ms. Dalli said, arguing that the EU cannot address the gender pay gap without pay transparency. Today, the pensions of women in the EU are 36% less than men鈥檚, due to pay inequality and because nearly 1 in 3 women in the EU work part time. To this end, the office is expected to push initiatives to create more affordable child care.

All of these measures will likely drive more nuanced discussions about how best to combine work and family, says Dr. Horst. 鈥淭he number of women who have had burnouts is increasing, because they are taking care of parents and children.鈥�

The commission鈥檚 new priorities are likely to prompt a debate about work-life balance, she adds. 鈥淲hat are the ways in which we can still be competitive, still have money to live,鈥� but also have quality of life. 鈥淚 see the debate shifting here.鈥�

Preventing violence against women

Questions of economics have real effects on women鈥檚 safety too, since people who are financially reliant on their partners have a more difficult time leaving them. For this reason Ms. Dalli also pledged to pass the long-stalled Istanbul Convention on preventing violence against women, calling it one of the commission鈥檚 鈥渕ain priorities.鈥�

The convention would put in place 鈥渧ery practical鈥� measures, including increasing the number of shelters for women fleeing domestic violence and mandatory counseling programs for perpetrators and children living in abusive households, says Manon Deshayes of the European Women鈥檚 Lobby in Brussels. Yet it has been consistently blocked by more conservative EU member states, and it will remain a tough slog to get it passed, analysts say.

Some members of parliament are also pushing to address 鈥渆merging forms of violence against women,鈥� including digital trolling in which women are threatened with, say, rape and death for posting their opinions online.

As it puts these measures in place, the commission will also enact 鈥渋nstruments and indicators to see how we proceed,鈥� Ms. Dalli said.

While this might sound like dry bureaucracy, when the EU promises to study something, it means business, says Fran Burwell, distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. 鈥淥ne thing the commission does really well is benchmarking. They set up criteria and assess how you鈥檝e done. It starts out friendly 鈥� then they start naming and shaming.鈥�

This all helps to create a 鈥渧irtuous cycle鈥� that could jump-start progress on women鈥檚 rights measures that have been stalled for a decade, says Ms. Deshayes.

鈥淯ntil we had a political strategy on equality between men and women, we didn鈥檛 have a clear commitment on this.鈥� As the commission鈥檚 programs are enacted, 鈥淲e have this virtuous cycle that begins to take place,鈥� too, as younger EU citizens see more women in politics and become more motivated to join in themselves, Ms. Deshayes adds. 鈥淎nd things change.鈥�