Fevereiro - a outra metade do céu...

Edição 2012 do calendário europeu de mulheres inspiradoras, organizado pelo Instituto Europeu para a Igualdade de Género. Pode descarregar a totalidade do calendário, que tem apenas versão digital, aqui.

A figura de Fevereiro, Maria Regina Tavares da Silva, de Portugal:

“Gender Equality is a requirement of both Democracy and Human Rights. It can not be left for the "day after", when political and economic stability are fully on their way; it must be a dynamic ideal urging us on all the time”, says the woman. It would be difficult to find a person who has devoted her life so completely to tackling the problems of women. Maria remembers 1974 - the year of the democratic revolution in Portugal, the beginning of work for gender equality and also because: “We hoped to make things happen much more quickly than ever, because it was a time of change, everything was questioned: the role of women, the participation of women, so we really managed to influence changes in legislation, policies, much faster than in normal circumstances.”

This beginning laid the foundation and main direction for the whole professional life of Maria Regina: “I had invitations for work in other areas, but I thought this was more important, so I stayed. I have worked passionately in this field and in every forum since the seventies and have defended the same principle: the concept of gender equality as a principle of human rights and an absolute requirement of democracy”. This conviction led her to propose to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 1988 that a Declaration acknowledging this view must be adopted and that the issue of Equality of Women and Men - the formulation of Gender Equality was not yet the prevalent formulation - be handled in the Organization (not as a social question, as up till then, but) under the heading of Human Rights. The same conviction also made her defend this position at the UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and in many other fora. Maria Regina Tavares da Silva deepened her knowledge while working for the UN, CEDAW; the European Union, the Council of Europe, the international civil society and in numerous other organizations.

"During the eight years working for the CEDAW committee I came to the conclusion that in spite of geographical, historical and cultural differences in the world there are some basic issues regarding women and gender inequality that are common to every region. And they also exist in Europe,” - says Maria Regina Tavares da Silva and lists: “basic inequality is in the labour market: the pay gap, differences in the possibilities of access in career development, access to decision making. Another is in political life and marginalization, very often women have to exercise political responsibilities to access decision making, also in the economic sphere, but very much so in the political sphere. The third one is gender based violence in all its forms.”

Maria Regina stresses that gender equality is the responsibility of the state, of society, of every woman and man: “when I chaired the national machinery at the end of the 80's and beginning of the 90's, that was one of my concerns. I think this is really important, we won't get anywhere if the government and the national mechanisms for equality detach themselves from civil society organizations. It has to be a common effort because it is a common responsibility.”