Women's representation in public sphere in Slovakia

According to the law, women in Slovakia have the same rights as men. They have the right to vote and they can be elected into all decision making bodies at all levels. Nevertheless, female participation in public functions and in the decision-making processes is still very unequal.

In 1998 the proportion of women in the National Council of the SR, the official name of the Slovak Parliament, was 14 percent. After the 2002 elections there were 29 women of the total 150 MPs, which comprised 19.3 percent. After the departure of several of them to the European Parliament in 2005 this number dropped to 24, which is 16 percent. From the 14 Slovak members of the European Parliament, 5 are women; one of them, Mrs. Anna Záborská, is chair of the European Parliamentary Committee on Women´s Rights and Gender Equality. In the last elections in 2006 24 women were elected, but after some changes there are currently 29 women, or 19.3 percent in the Slovak Parliament.

The situation in government is similar. Over the course of the past decade, women's representation in government was low – there were two women in government in the period between 1998 and 2002 (one deputy prime minister and one minister), the government of 2002 – 2006 had two women as ministers and four women held the office of state secretaries. The present government after the election of 2006 has currently two female ministers of a total of 14 ministers.

The effective legislation in the SR does not stipulate the obligation of proportionate representation of men and women in proposing candidates for party lists for the elections. The proportion of female candidates on the party lists in the election for the National Council of the SR in 1994 was 15 percent; in 1998 it was 16.8%, and in 2002 it was 23.4%. This shows a rising trend taking into account the situation of the 2006 elections.

The Anti-discrimination Act does not permit in Slovakia the introduction of quota, or the adoption of other temporary special measures aimed at accelerating de facto equality between men and women. For the future, however, the activities for the achievement of a balanced representation of women in the public bodies and in the decision-making functions in the SR remain at the centre of interest for both the institutional mechanisms for equal opportunities and non-governmental organisations operating in the area of support for women and equal opportunities between women and men.

In the period from 2001 to 2004, the Project MATRA, ”Empowering Women for functions in Public and Political Life in the Slovak Republic,” was undertaken. The objective was to achieve a more balanced representation of men and women in the democratic structures of the Slovak society by increasing women’s participation in public and political life. The project coordinator was the civil association Professional Women, working with the Partners for Democratic Change Slovakia and the Dutch Centre for Political Participation in Amsterdam. The project was granted by the government of the Netherlands. The project's main activities included the organisation of public debates on the need and conditions for the participation of women in public and political life, the creation of platforms for participation of women in politics, whose protagonists were people from political, public and social life. Before the elections for the National Council of the SR, and for the upper-tier and local self-government authorities professionals were training women who decided to join political and public life. A total of 600 women has been trained nation-wide.

Other major activities within the project included the publication of the newsletter ”Letters”, supporting particular women in their entry in public life. Apart from this, activities focused on legislation changes with the aim to achieve the introduction of the quota in the Act on the elections. A timetable was also produced to achieve, by 2010, a minimum 30% representation of women in the political life.

Despite the failure to achieve the statutory quota for the party lists, some political parties did start to contemplate or introduce their own internal rules for strengthening the position of women in their parties. Another positive result of these activities was the increased awareness of the issues of a balanced women's representation in the decision-making processes that has become a subject of discussion in the Parliament, in political parties and especially in the media. In the 2006 election, for example, one political party, Free Forum, had a female leader and the political party ANO accepted the zipp system (every second woman) for their candidates' list. Unfortunately, none of these political parties got places in the Parliament.

In 2007, in the diplomatic services of the Slovak Republic abroad 293 out of the 650 workers are women. Of the total number of 88 leaders of the diplomatic missions of the Slovak Republic, eight are women. Four women are in function as head of a SR Embassy (one of them – Mrs. Oxana Tomova is Ambassador of Slovak Republic in the Netherlands), two women hold the function of head of the permanent mission of the SR, and two women work as directors of the Slovak institutes abroad.

In 2007, in the judiciary there were 844 female judges. The majority of female judges are associated in the National Association of Women Judges and this association is member of the International Association of Women Judges – IAWJ with its Headquarter in Washington. At the moment chair of this association is Slovak judge Daniela Baranova.

After all efforts of women NGO´s, with professional women in leading position, we have not been successful by having not more than 20% women in politics. But it is currently taken for granted: women in politics and in decision making is an open and more visible issue in Slovakia mainly thanks to NGO´s activities.

Zuzana Vranova, Professional Women, Slovakia