The Speaker of the Federation Council reviews the Second Eurasian Women’s Forum
The Eurasian Women’s Forum has firmly established itself as one of the most influential and representative international events and has developed into a popular intellectual public forum that promotes the need for women in leadership roles to better consolidate their efforts for the sake of global security and sustainable development. Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko said this, speaking at the closing plenary meeting of the Second Eurasian Women’s Forum in St Petersburg.
“Many things at our forum have taken place for the first time,” Valentina Matvienko said. “The input of major international organisations, which helped us with the event programme, was quite valuable, including that of the United Nations Organisation, the UNIDO, the World Health Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, PACE and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. The forum’s key event was the Women 20 meeting. In general, the coordinated work of all forum participants allowed us to hold over 60 events,” she said.
“The outcome of the forum includes new projects,” Valentina Matvienko went on to say. “One of them – STEM – aims to get more women engaged in the high technology sector. We immediately began working on this with our American colleagues after the first forum. I would like to thank our American friends and Sarah Harder personally for this very interesting work we were involved in together.”
Valentina Matvienko noted that some very fascinating events had been held during the forum, such as the exhibition entitled Made in Russia: Exports from Women’s Hands; the workshop Health and Beauty Lab; and creative presentations of works by female artists, designers and writers.
The forum participants approved an important resolution. “We will forward it to the heads of state, government and parliament, as well as to the UN and other international organisations,” Valentina Matvienko said. “Let’s do all we can to make our voices heard, so that the ideas and recommendations generated by the forum can be put into practice in our countries and at the international level.”
According to the Speaker of the Federation Council, the forum has gone beyond the boundaries of Eurasia, finding response from around the world. She said: “That is why I suggest that we go further and give it another name, for example, the International Women’s Congress. I am asking for suggestions for the name of our forum.”
“The Second Eurasian Women’s Forum is drawing to a close, but we will continue our cooperation,” Valentina Matvienko said, reminding the audience about the launch of a special website, Eurasian Women’s Community. “It will allow us to constantly be in contact and share our experience and important information.”
The permanent working group will continue to carry out its activities until the next forum. “We will appreciate your proposals for holding events under the auspices of the forum in our countries within the next three years to highlight various current issues,” Valentina Matvienko said. “I believe there will be lots of events focusing on issues that are important to women. Still, I suggest that St Petersburg serve as the regular venue for holding our forums.”
Valentina Matvienko thanked all forum organisers and participants, as well as volunteers, for their efforts. “We had a unique atmosphere of unity, friendship and mutual understanding,” she said. “We were riding the same wave and spoke one language.”
Speaking to journalists after the forum, Valentina Matvienko said that next time forum participants would talk about the progress in implementing the proposals included in the forum’s final document.
“We have managed to develop measures to give women an increasingly prominent role in politics, the economy and social life,” she said.
“We have a common agenda, as well as an understanding of existing problems and ways to solve them and, most importantly, we have a desire to consolidate our efforts,” she added.
Answering media questions about how to ensure gender equality, Valentina Matvienko said that each country had its specifics regarding this issue and that in some countries there were quotas for women, in particular, in parliament. “We do not need this, as women have already achieved remarkable success.”
“In Russia, women can compete with men as equals,” she said. “We do not need charity or condescension as we want to compete [with men] on an equal footing.
“Many things depend on women themselves, on their desire to enter politics, or be elected to parliament or start a business, while the government has to see to it that women have the right of choice,” Valentina Matvienko said.