Our View: A lot more pressure needed to ensure gender equality

As is the practice, International Women’s Day was marked in Cyprus with the usual platitudes issued by the political parties and unions, about inequality, patriarchal society, stereotypes, discrimination and unequal pay. They all lamented the fact that women were under-represented in the country’s decision-making centres.  There was also an article penned by the foreign minister about the “progress made in the mainstreaming of the gender dimension in the foreign policy of the Republic” – a personal initiative – in order to mark the day.

March 8 is the only day in the year when the political parties give time to issues of gender equality and the role of women in Cypriot society. These matters do not get a mention the remaining 364 days, during which no effort is made to eliminate discrimination or to increase the representation of women in the decision-making centres. Politicians have no interest in such matters, other than in paying lip service, because 50 per cent of voters, after all, are women. The parties cannot ignore such a huge block of votes so they issue the obligatory pro-women statements on this day.

It was interesting to note that at Monday’s meeting of the House human rights committee, held for deputies to be briefed about Strategic Plan for Equality 2019-2023, not a single male deputy attended. The president of the House joined the meeting briefly, out of courtesy, but no other man was present. The fact that we had to discuss the Strategic Plan was indicative of the long way Cyprus still had to go, said one of the participants, who acknowledged that the pandemic not only delayed actions, but lockdowns led to an increase in violence against women.

This year’s declarations all mentioned violence and sexual harassment against women, as it has become an issue of great concern in the last couple of months; some 17 cases of women reporting men for sexual harassment have been investigated by police in the last month or so and the files sent to the attorney-general’s office. This gave justice minister Emily Yiolitis the opportunity to announce that a new bill, which will set up a legal framework for penalties for using violence against women and for protection of women who were abused, among other things, has been finalised and would soon be submitted to the legislature. If the matter stays in the news deputies might even show a sense of urgency in examining and voting on it.

Irrespective of the disinterest shown by the male-dominated, political establishment in gender politics, things are moving forward, albeit at a very slow pace. Things are changing but if women want to speed up the process they will have to apply a lot more pressure on the politicians, who seem to deal with gender equality only on March 8.