Women in the Parliaments of two CEE Countries: Hungary and Slovenia

The main goal of the project is to propose more effective practices for women MPs on the basis of comparative analysis in the respective countries. Women in these countries have quite a similar recent past (i.e. socialism followed by a period of transition from the one-party system to political pluralism) and quite a similar present situation (newly-formed parliaments, numerous parties in parliaments, low proportion of women MPs). For these reasons it is important to find out how women can be successful and efficient in their parliamentary work.

Project leader: Milica G. Antić



Project execution

The project is composed of four phases:
  1. In the first workshop in Ljubljana (see below: report on the workshop) experts from the different countries presented the current situation of women in their parliaments and devised a common model for qualitative and quantitative research of women MP’s activities during the last parliamentary period in each country (19-21 October 2001) Report on the Workshop (.doc)
  2. Experts from each of the countries met at the second workshop in Ljubljana (see below: report on the workshop) in order to discuss research findings and agree on further work (14-16 June 2002) Report on the Workshop (.doc)
  3. At the third workshop, scheduled for March 2003, each group is to present its findings to the interested parties (i.e. people who work in the “national machinery” that deals with women’s questions, representatives of women’s NGOs connected with women in politics, representatives of women’s groups, forums, political parties), which may contribute to the final content.
  4. In the last phase each group is to prepare strategic suggestions: they will be published in each of the different languages, and a comparative study will be published in English. It is expected that women MPs and anyone else interested will make use of the study.

Results

The main goal of the project was to improve the position of women in the parliaments. The results of the research on the current situation, comparative analysis of the work of Slovenian and Hungarian parliament and suggestions for more successful work of women in parliament Milica G. Antić and Gabriella Ilonszki presented in the book Women in Parliamentary Politics: Hungarian and Slovene Cases Compared. The book was published in the edition Politike Symposion.

Funders: