Girls, let's have a party!
There are almost 100 political parties and movements registered in the Czech Republic. They are soon to be joined by a new party which is planning to run for and even win seats in the next general election in 2006. Called "Rovnost sanci", or "Equal Opportunities", the new political party will focus on women in society both on a domestic and international level.
"We want to bring a women's view on a number of global issues. In an era of high risk technologies the world is under permanent threat and men sometimes handle these technologies carelessly. It scares us how easily armed conflicts occur. On the domestic front, we want to tackle inequality in the workplace, in the home and in society in general,"
says Zdenka Ulmannova from the emerging party Equal Opportunities. She points out that owing to their "second shift" in the household, women are excluded from decision making. Dads are little involved in the functioning of the household and that brings about a decrease in the birth rate and a crisis of the family as an institution.
Michaela Marksova-Tominova from the Czech government's Council for Equal Opportunities says the most important women-related issues in Czech society are discrimination on the labour market, domestic violence, unequal distribution of public funds and a lack of women in decision making positions. She welcomes the new party although she says the odds aren't great.
"In the general elections people tend to choose the big parties. On the other hand there is a growing movement of so-called 'independent' parties which have success mainly on the regional and local levels. But anyway, I think it is very important that such a party was founded because we will see."
The Equal Opportunities party will be open to both women and men. On a European level, it is planning to make the best use of the fact that the future Czech EU commissioner Vladimir Spidla will have equal opportunities on his agenda.
Although the founders of the Equal Opportunities party say they have not drawn any direct inspiration from abroad, women's parties are active in many countries of the former Soviet Union, in Iceland and Northern Ireland. A women's party was this year registered in Iran while Australia's women's party was discontinued last year after seven years of existence.
