MADRID (Reuters) – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a gender equality law on Saturday that will require more equal representation of women and men in politics, business and other spheres of public life.
The Equal Representation Act will apply parity measures to electoral rolls, the boards of large corporations and the boards of professional associations.
Pedro Sanchez made the announcement at a Socialist Party rally on International Women’s Day, March 8. The initiative will be approved at a government meeting on Tuesday, before being debated in parliament.
The prime minister said the executive “was not just taking a step in favor of feminism, but in favor of Spanish society as a whole”.
This is the latest in a series of equality measures announced by the left-wing coalition government.
In December, lawmakers passed a transgender rights bill, as well as a groundbreaking Sexual and Reproductive Health Act that, for the first time in a European country, provides state-funded paid leave for women with painful menstruation.
“If they represent half of society, half of the political and economic power must go to women,” Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.
The Equal Representation Act will require women to make up 40% of the management of any listed company with more than 250 employees and an annual turnover of €50 million.
In politics, the law will require parties to put forward an equal number of male and female candidates in elections, with the aim of increasing gender parity in parliament. Currently, women make up 44% of Congress and 39% of the Senate.
It will also require professional associations to have at least 40% women on their boards of directors, as well as on the juries of all publicly funded awards.
(Report Jessica Jones, French version Benjamin Mallet)
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