Happy Women's Day
9 March 2007

2007 is the year of Equal Opportunities in the European Union and yesterday was Women's Day. Some annoyed men I met yesterday wondered why there is no such days for men. Most other people I talked to said that 364 days are for men and that it therefore is necessary to reserve at least one of the year's 365 days for women.

Only 236 out of the 784 MEPs are women and 8 out of the 27 European Commissioners. This is 30%. We can't call this equal, not even with good will. The proportion is higher in the Netherlands, where 46% of their MEPs are females. On the other hand Cyprus and Malta don't have one single female MEP.

In the European Commission 49% of the administrators and assistants are women, while only 16% of the top administrators are. In reality this means that women prepare the important decisions, but when it comes to actually taking decisions, men are doing the job.

Let these figures be inspiration today for us young female professionals of 2007! We have the power to change this. Don't be scared to put on your smart female, colorful suit or dress, let your hair down and advance with your female beauty, intuition and intelligence! As long as we haven't reached the 50% we need to celebrate Women's Day. Let the late Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, who was murdered in 2003, be inspiration for how we can enlighten otherwise dark-suit-filled-meetings.