Global Backsliding on Gender Parity Puts EU Ambitions at Risk

  • Most member states opting for male candidates for commission
  • Only nine out of 24 EU parliament’s committees led by women
Ursula von der LeyenPhotographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg
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The European Union’s executive arm is set to miss a target to achieve gender balance among its highest-level members, as national governments around the world and power brokers in Brussels walk away from high-profile equality commitments.

Political expediency and institutional hurdles have complicated EU efforts to meet wide-ranging gender-parity goals. As well as the European Commission’s failure to uphold its equality targets, the European Parliament decided to rescind its own rules among certain committee members.