A new poll held in 45 European countries reveals the attitudes of youth on gender equality issues. Results vary widely depending on a country’s culture and mentality. For instance, 92 percent of Turkish youth support traditional views on gender equality, but only 16 percent of Dutch adolescents share this position. But there is one issue that an overwhelming majority of youth throughout Europe agrees on: gender equality should be promoted on a government level.
The poll was conducted
online by the European Youth Parliament, a non-partisan civic organization with
the assistance of the Stiftung Mercator Foundation and other youth
organizations. It involved 4,112 young people aged 16 to 27 were involved
displaying various attitudes, but two thirds of whom agreed that governments
pay insufficient attention to issues of gender equality in their countries.
Unexpectedly, the highest level
of gender discrimination was recorded in Ireland, with 85 percent claiming they
witnessed unequal treatment. Next in line came Turkey, Serbia, the United
Kingdom and Albania.
But Ukraine, too, is not
without its problems. Nearly two thirds of Ukrainians said they witnessed gender
discrimination. However, nearly half of Ukrainian respondents strongly agreed
that women should be in charge of raising children and taking care of the
household. Meanwhile, only four and five percent of adolescents from France and
Spain, respectively, agreed with this position.
Regardless of traditional
views on gender roles, 70 percent of Ukrainians think that time taken off from
work to raise children should be available to both women and men. While this
seems high, only the Czech Republic scored lower on this count with around 60
percent.
Besides issues of gender
equality, the poll also asked if the European Union should be enlarged to
include additional countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest supporters of
further enlargement are still outside the club: Georgians (85 percent),
Albanians (82 percent), and Ukrainians (80 percent) were the most eager for
expansion. The least enthusiastic respondents hailed from Finland, Estonia and
France.
Kyiv Post intern Yuliya Hudoshnyk can be reached at
[email protected].
