The ascent to the top of the European Parliament is filled with cliff edges and challenges, especially as a woman. For a former female vice president of the body, though, the most impactful differences were some of the least obvious.
Silvana Koch-Merin, a former Member of the European Parliament and the current president and founder of Women Political Leaders (WPL), speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International summit in Riyadh, described the everyday gender imbalances she experienced while working for the legislative body.
Koch-Merin had two of her three kids while serving as a parliamentarian in Strasbourg, France. It wasn’t until that point that she noticed a serious shortcoming if she were ever to bring her baby to work.
“When you’re pregnant, you see things differently. I came to realize that in this massive administration, which has more than 700 members and thousands of employees, there was not a single space, if you’re a mother, to change the diapers of your child.
“And I just thought, this is so strange. We’re passing legislation, we’re passing recommendations on work-life balance, but it just showed it’s not a place where women belong, because nobody thought of the life cycle of women, which for many includes maternity.”
It took the length of Koch-Merin’s pregnancy to convince the parliament to include diaper-changing facilities in both women’s and men’s restrooms.
“In case you ever come to visit the European Parliament and you see a diaper-changing station, think of me,” Koch-Merin told the audience in Riyadh.
Koch-Merin began to observe a lot of subtle differences during her time at the parliament, which sometimes create invisible frictions to career progression.
“One of the lessons I learned while I was serving was that there are those glass walls for women in politics,” Koch-Merin said.
“You find many women in the committees for gender equality, for social affairs, education, everything extremely relevant. But finance is important, trade is important, foreign affairs is important. And there’s very few women.”
Similar comparisons have been made about the C-suites of Fortune 500 companies. While there is growing female representation in C-suites, they are concentrated in roles like chief marketing officer and less so in technical roles like technology and digital. Women are also heavily underrepresented at the CEO level.
Koch-Merin now engages in initiatives that encourage knowledge sharing that can help keep women in the workforce longer and allow them to thrive.
“The reality is also that women, because of this quite competitive and adverse environment…leave this space way faster than men do, which means a lot of knowledge of the unwritten rules gets lost.”
Other highlights
“You can’t stumble into it. Countries don’t just suddenly have women in their politics, in their governance. They actually deliberately say we can’t be winning with half of our politicians.”
Obiageli Ezekwesili, founder and CEO of Human Capital Africa and the former Nigerian Minister of Education, on the best method to bring more women into the public sector
“My bold idea would be, maybe that’s overly bold, but I would start in this room and say, all of you here, super strong, accomplished leaders, just decide to do public service for a couple of years. It doesn’t have to be for life, but it could be for a while, and you could definitely make a big impact wherever you are.”
Hanan Abdulrahim Al-Ahmadi, Assistant Speaker of Saudi Arabia’s Shoura Council
“I sit on six, seven boards, and I’m the only woman in the room. I’ve always been the only woman in the room. And while this is intimidating, it gives a lot of power, because your voice is heard and your ideas are heard. I would like to see more women sit on boards where decisions are made, and policies are crafted, and voices are heard.
Farah Ismail, Deputy Minister for sectoral and Regional Development in Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Economy and planning
“Passion and a concrete blueprint of how to make people happier, and also the skill to get the empathy from my people: This is very important.”
Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo
