The EU Constitution and the consequences for women

The workshop was organized by the European women’s network ”Women Towards a Different Europe” with Gudrun Schyman, feminist and former leader of the Left Party Sweden, as the main speaker. There were around 50 participants – a large majority of women, but also some men - in the workshop, which was a much higher number of participants than expected, especially with a last-minute change of the venue of the workshop (originally the School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street) due to overbooking by the ESF organizers. The participants were from all over Europe, including non-EU countries.

There is no doubt that there was a keen interest in the issue of the EU Constitution at the ESF in London. There were several seminars and workshops on the subject. As to the effects of the EU Constitution on women and women’s lives, this was a theme raised not only by the WTDE, but also by a European Feminist Initiative at the Women’s Assembly meeting on Friday morning 15 October. Unfortunately the issue was not on the agenda at this meeting, where both of our groups tried to gain support for a No to the Constitution, and we in the WTDE were distributing leaflets announcing our workshop. This interest in the issue of the EU Constitution and its effects on women’s lives reflected on the interest in our workshop.

The WTDE stressed at the start of the workshop that the “Appeal to Women Opposing the EU Constitution” put forward by the WTDE before and at the ESF in London is not to be considered a fixed platform, but rather the text of a leaflet to inspire women to act and unite concretely. We feared that a fixed platform would divide and not unite the forces opposing the EU Constitution.

Gudrun Schyman initiated the debate with a speech advocating a "No" to the EU constitution from a feminist viewpoint. Gudrun explained the functioning of the patriarchal structures of our society and showed how the EU Constitution would strengthen traditional patriarchal structures. Chiefly through the effects of a combination of neo-liberal economic and social policies and increasing militarization – the Constitution is very specific on military up-building. The key economic principle of the Constitution is an extreme free market economy – an economy adapted to patriarchal society, as it means a growing market sector, and a reduced public sector. Everything is going to be decided by the market. The responsibility of society will go back to the family - i.e. the women. This and the reduction of public sector jobs will mean a decrease of women with full-time and well-paid jobs and less women achieving economic independence. Gudrun Schyman saw a connection between such a development and the fact that among the fundamental rights in the EU Constitution is one of marriage and family and the protection of the family. As the Constitution is not a treaty, but more like a law, the neo-liberal foundation of society and policies will remain fixed regardless of electoral/democratic influence.

The main points of discussion at the workshop

 The content of the EU Constitutional text and the consequences for women in more concrete ways. For example there was a question in regard to the rights of women and the influence of religion, as expressed in the Constitution, in keeping women in a traditional role in society. Gudrun Schyman stressed that the final version of the text (from June 2004) includes the equality of women and men (which was not in the Constitutional text previously) and that religion plays a less prominent role than in the previous versions. But there are still some problems relating to the view of the family in the text (see above).

 The women behind the paper the European Feminist Initiative for No to the EU Constitution put forward their viewpoints and there was some discussion on the text. It was not clear whether this text was proposed as a platform (it has been so later). It was mentioned that the text of the paper did not criticise the undermining of democracy in the EU Constitution. Also it was unclear if the Initiative simply rejected the Constitution or was demanding a different Constitutional text.

Points of agreement

The vast majority of the meeting agreed to reject the EU Constitution and intended to work in their own countries to promote a No to the Constitution (some to promote a referendum as well where this had not (yet) been decided). There seemed to be two approaches in regard to this: One advocating an outright rejection of the Constitution and another advocating an alternative Constitution – i.e. favouring a different text to the present Constitutional text.

There seemed to be an agreement in the audience not to have any division between the two, but to try to unite for a No.

Points of disagreement

A few participants of the workshop seemed to be in favour of the EU Constitution – mainly from the viewpoint that it contained something good as well (the environment was mentioned), which could be considered steps in the right direction.

Concrete outcome of the workshop

There was an agreement to form a network among the participants in order to keep in touch and exchange information in the future. The participants wrote their names, countries, organizations and e-mail addresses on an emailing list.

There have been a number of exchanges by email since the ESF as well as messages from the Women’s Assembly.

The organizers

Women Towards a Different Europe (WTDE)

WTDE contact women:

Shirin Roodsari
Ianthe Holmberg
Delia Fodor
Inger V. Johansen