Press Releases

Royal Hall, Saturday, 19 November 2022

Your Excellency President of the Republic of Cyprus,

Esteemed Presidents of BPW Cyprus, BPW International,

the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation and

the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry,

Distinguished fellow speakers,

It is with great pleasure that I have accepted your kind invitation to address this Symposium, on the occasion of International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day.
I warmly congratulate BPW Cyprus for its outstanding initiative and strong commitment to empowering and mentoring business and professional women.
I also commend BPW’s role as entrepreneurship is the yeast for economic prosperity and social welfare. According to Christine Lagarde “when women do better economies do better”. Hence, women’s empowerment is an overarching goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Research conducted by OECD reveals that investing in gender equality boosts economic development, competitiveness, job creation and GDP and that economies are more resilient, productive and inclusive when they actively support the equal participation of women in all spheres of life.

The successive crises inevitably had repercussions for women, their prospects and the challenges they face in their family and professional lives. The pandemic has significantly affected women’s employment and career development but at the same time it has also highlighted examples of outstanding women leaders and revived our hopes for building back better.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Women’s empowerment is close to my heart. Being the first female President of the House of Representatives, I am a staunch defender of gender equality, gender-balanced representation in decision-making structures and leadership and gender mainstreaming in legislation. In my capacity, I have undertaken multiple initiatives which advocate gender equality. Jason Reynolds pointed to the fact that “it’s hard to be what you can’t see”. I aspire to portray a positive female role model to lead the way for more women in leadership and decision-making structures.

Distinguished guests,

Numbers speak for themselves. Cyprus has 27% of women in management-level positions - one of the lowest rates in the EU and ranks 22^nd in the EU on the Gender Equality Index. Gender inequalities are strongly pronounced in the domain of power.  Cyprus still has a long way to go to close the gender gap and increase women’s participation in decision-making structures and leadership.

Reconciliation of professional and family obligations remains a major challenge that must be overcome urgently. Currently, Cypriot women shoulder much more care responsibilities and unpaid work than men and have limited access to leadership networks. The investment of €20.5 million in the framework of the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan on supporting early childhood education and the creation of a network of childcare facilities is a positive step forward as it will foster full-time labour market participation of carers, notably women.

Assuming leadership is an uneven playing field. Cypriot women encounter multiple constraints and are deprived of equal opportunities in assuming leadership roles because of persistent gender stereotypes and cultural bias. Often women are perceived as ill-equipped for assuming leadership positions. At the same time, there are higher expectations from them. Charlotte Whitton highlighted that “Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good." Nevertheless, the challenges to women’s empowerment will not vanish overnight. We must focus our efforts to overcome the particular challenges that hold women and girls back. We must step up our efforts to eliminate the gender pay and pension gaps (9% and 39%, respectively), the gender segregation in education, training, and employment and female underrepresentation in the fields of ICTs and STEM.

The difficulties we face in assuming a leadership role should not discourage us but rather strengthen our resolve to claim and stand up for our rights. It is everyone’s responsibility to engage, commit and embrace our efforts.We must utilise the lessons learned from the crisis and the current momentum to turn the crisis into an opportunity and to effectively address our particular challenges. It is imperative to transform the male-dominated narrative of leadership, to inspire change and encourage more women representation in decision-making and leadership.

Dear Colleagues,

It is my firm belief that the exchange of best practices and valuable insights will further enhance our joint efforts to encourage and inspire more women to assume leadership roles in the new reality.  Needless to say, that gender equality must be an essential ingredient of all recovery policies, as the repercussions of crises are never gender blind. Women have the potential to lead the way to a new normal, where equality is the norm and not the exception. Working closely together in solidarity and unity, we can strive for a better, more sustainable, equitable and promising future for present and future generations. I wish to conclude my remarks with a quote from John Stuart Mill’s Essay on the Subjection of Women which was published in 1869 and it is still relevant today: “I consider it presumption in anyone to pretend to decide what women are or are not, can or cannot be, by natural constitution. What is now called the nature of women is an eminently artificial thing – the result of forced repression in some directions, unnatural stimulation in others.”

I wish you every success in your deliberations.

(The text as sent by the House of Representatives)