50/50: Going Digital for Gender Equality

When we started this blog, we sometimes had the impression that we had to actively look for examples of the use of digital tools for political campaigns. A year and a bit later, things have changed significantly (fortunately!) The “50/50 Campaign for Democracy” is one of the most recent cases we have happily stumbled upon.

The main goal? Ensuring a 50/50 women-to-men representation in the 2009 European Parliament elections as well as the new European Commission.

How? The website is maybe a bit too wordy for the casual visitor, but it does have a practical section called “Take action” with specific ideas on things to do to help achieve the goal (ranging from a simple signature to participating in local activities, to sending a letter to your national political parties… and they even give you the template to make it easier!)

Who? The campaign is run by the European Women’s Lobby and has an impressive list of supporters, including prominent political figures from the EP, Commission, as well as national governments….

One gets the impression by looking at this that the PA-Digital link seems to be really catching on… among the campaign supporters are many prominent bloggers including European Commissioner Margot Wallström,  Anna Diamatopoulou now active in Greek politics (sorry, blog in Greek), and the Spanish Minister for Equality Bibiana Aido who at age 31 is possibly the youngest blogger (and politician!) in this group.

Yes, we admit we have selectively only mentioned female bloggers in this post, mainly because there is a question some of us have been discussing recently and thought this would be a good occasion to ask your opinion…

Do you think women are more active bloggers than men in the public affairs arena??