2023 has so far been full of EWL activities! On 9 January, the EWL Executive Committee hosted a follow-up webinar to an EWL workshop conducted by EWL Executive Committee members at the very first EIGE Forum in Brussels in October 2022 to discuss with members the next steps to address women’s rights setbacks. Among other things, we discussed what the new Gender Equality Index 2022 tells us about the state of women’s rights today. When analysing the index, it is clear that there have been very few improvements since 2010, a total of only 0.5% in the last ten years. Some areas have improved only very slightly, such as women’s wealth, women’s employment and influence, women’s unpaid work and women’s health care. Women’s equality in higher education is also declining. Generally speaking, at the current rate, it will take at least 60 years for women to catch up with men in these areas. The Index full report also presents individual results for each country (https://eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/gender_equality_index_2022_corr.pdf) indicating a variation in degree of equality between the EU countries.

From 17 to 19 February 2023, EWL held its first face-to-face board meeting in three years in Brussels, Belgium. Prof. Bettina Pfleiderer, EWL Vice-President and EWL representative of MWIA, together with two other EWL ExCo members organised a workshop on “The climate crisis has a female face” (Figure 1). The aim was to hold this workshop in preparation for a new EWL working group and to take a closer look at the climate crisis as it impacts on women. EWL is currently mapping the expertise of its members to further explore how EWL can better integrate and address issues around climate.

Figure 1: Three members of the EWL Executive committee gave a workshop on the topic-

Figure 1: Three members of the EWL Executive committee gave a workshop on the topic- “Climate Crisis has a Female Face” at the EWL Board meeting in Brussels, Belgium, from 17 to 19 February 2023.

One of the highlights was the advocacy campaign for the Directive against Women. The Directive must criminalise all forms of sexual abuse (i.e., sexual violence, rape and sexual harassment) and abuse over women’s sexuality https://womenlobby.org/IWD2023?lang=en

Figure 2: Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer, EWL Vice-President and MWIA representative to EWL, displays a campaign poster for the adoption of the Violence Directive at the EWL Board meeting in Brussels, 17-19 February 2023.

Figure 2: Dr. Bettina Pfleiderer, EWL Vice-President and MWIA representative to EWL, displays a campaign poster for the adoption of the Violence Directive at the EWL Board meeting in Brussels, 17-19 February 2023.