Slovakia

On 1 July 2016 Slovakia assumed the Presidency of the EU Council. The government had been planning to implement the agreement reached between the UK and the EU in February 2016. But now they have to deal with the fact that Great Britain is leaving the European Union.

The purpose of this report is to summarise the representation of women from the Slovak Republic in the EP at two levels – firstly the proportion of women and men in elected offices (the descriptive representation), and then the representation of so called women’s issues by the MEPs from Slovakia (the substantive representation). Current debates about substantive representation of women turn their attention from the concept of “critical mass” to the concept of “critical actors”. Thus, instead of looking at how many women in politics are necessary to enforce an agenda focused on the living conditions and rights of women, scholars have become more interested in who (whether an individual or a group) is willing and able to enforce such an agenda, and how the entire process of the political struggle operates.

How has accession influenced gender equality in Slovakia? How has legislation changed and what has happened to the lives of women and men in the country? How has accession influenced the situation of feminist and women’s NGOs? These and other questions are raised in this analysis, which tries to summarise some basic aspects of the assessment of the Slovakia’s membership of the EU. The analysis is part of the international project “10 Years in the EU from a Gender Perspective.

In Slovakia, as well as in Poland, there was a lack of women’s voices during the official celebration of the 20th anniversary of democratic changes last year. It was the reason why Ingrid Hrubaničová, a Slovakian actress and writer, who had been touched by the absence of women decided to publish an Open Letter to Potential Women of November in the main daily newspaper “SME”. She appealed to those women who participated in the Velvet Revolution asking them to speak about their experiences during the memorable events in November 1989. She also encouraged the female journalists to fill the gap and efface “white spots” of history and to present female engagement in the democratic changes.