On the occasion of International Women's Day tomorrow and the EU enlargement in May, Grace Attard, president of the National Council of Women, asked representatives from four women's organisations from the accession countries what women in their respective countries were expecting on joining the EU.

Tanja Salecl, M.Sc., director, Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Equal Opportunities

Women in Slovenia definitely welcome the fact that gender issues are an important EU policy. In the process of the harmonisation of legislation with the legal order of the EU, Slovenia adopted the Act on Equal Opportunities for women and men and therefore successfully incorporated gender issues into the Slovene legal order.

However, an important task of gender mainstreaming and the implementation of the legislation is still in front of us. Generally speaking, what we expect is to share some good practices from both sides and to learn from each other's experiences.

Speaking more specifically, on the labour market relations there are some points where Slovene women are in a better position than our European colleagues (on average) - gender pay gap in Slovenia (on average) is 10.8%, women in Slovenia represent almost half of all employed people (45.9%), and most women are full-time employed. We expect to retain and even improve the position of women when joining the common EU labour market. There are areas where women is Slovenia are underrepresented and therefore in a worse position than European colleagues. One of those areas is the political participation of women - there are only 18.8% of women in the Government, 13.3% in the national assembly, 10% in the national council, 13% in city and municipal councils and 5.7% female mayors.

Political participation is definitely one of the areas where we do expect EU experience to contribute to more balanced participation of women and men in decision making.

To conclude, we hope that other EU countries will learn from our experience in the area of public child care and parental leave. And we definitely look forward to learning from other experiences in the areas where Slovene women still have to make some steps to catch up with our EU colleagues, namely political participation.

Anna Okruhlicova, Professional Women Association (Slovakia) okruhann@nrsr.sk

In the early Eighties, I read in a magazine information about the European Union and the possibilities of its inhabitants to have free movement. It was a dream for us living at that time in "developed socialism".

This dream will, in a few months' time, become a reality. An enlarged European Union of 25 countries will be a reality for millions of Europeans. There are various expectations of enlargement. Looking back to the 16th century we see a map of Europe that is very different from today's with many of the accession countries joined as one huge monarchy.

European enlargement brings about the common values such as peace, freedom and democracy. This is also what women and men are expecting from an enlarged Europe.

According to public polls more young and educated people are welcoming enlargement, mainly due to Europe's policy of free movement of people, services and goods.

Some disappointments were raised recently over the problems that could come about with the opening of the labour market in member states. Older people are sceptical about EU membership, unlike the younger generation who have more information on the EU, especially through the Internet.

We can compare accession to when someone visits us. Slovak women clean the house and cook wonderful and tasty meals. We are a friendly and hospitable nation with many tourism opportunities. Women in particular are expecting more changes in equal opportunities policies. They are a little weary on the high living standards and they expect an increase in prices but, on the other hand, Slovakia seems economically attractive for investors, with the creation of new opportunities.

In Slovakia we have a proverb that says: "it is better to see once, than to hear about it a thousand times". Slovakia is prepared to welcome an enlarged Europe.

In the Slovak Republic women represent 51.4% of the 5.4 million inhabitants. In this way enlargement of the EU means the empowerment of all women in the EU, empowerment of their demands, empowerment of their influence in all positions of life. It means more voices for equal opportunities of men and women, more voices for common values - peace, freedom and democracy.

Nijole Steponkute, chairperson of the Lithuanian Women's Society (LWS)

THE Lithuanian Women's Society was founded in 1990, the year Lithuania declared its independence. It has since been evolving with the rest of the country, making every effort to promote Lithuanian women as equals within our society. We were, as everyone now knows, euphoric about our independence, serious about the new opportunities it offered. The collapse of the former Soviet Union finally offered some hope of a better quality of life. We were, all this time, thinking of our children.

The market economy was always the excuse the government used to cover its mistakes. Many women lost their jobs and were thrown into poverty and misery. They had to overcome their fears and to learn how to survive in a new environment - they had to give up professions they had mastered earlier, to take up various accidental jobs and to acquire new skills - driving a car, working on a computer.

Their previous knowledge of Russian had also become redundant since English was now the new game in town. They had to turn a blind eye on contempt with which the elderly were treated as the latter group increasingly became a burden to the society. They had to pay lip-service to the new sexual cult created for men and long-legged beauties falling into the hands of rich businessmen, as another form of female commodity.

In addition to their own worries, many women had to bolster and in some cases support their husbands, many of whom would lose direction unable to conduct profitable business, often involved in taking high risk and even facing bankruptcy.

There were many examples of families losing all of their savings, thus putting their own and their children's welfare at stake. As far as children were concerned, women had additional worries of having to protect their children from such new dangers as drugs, glorification of violence, and all new things emanating from the West, which challenged their more traditional family values.

The women of my generation went to vote in the referendum on the EU with only one thought in their mind - there is no other way for our country. We believed, in our hearts, that this was the only way to strengthen the democratic process on which we have embarked, and that we have to say 'yes' for the sake of our children. We want them to be equals among equals in Europe.

Our position in society is still weak for a variety of reasons - not just due to stereotypes of patriarchal society, or our inability to present a united front, but mainly due to continued poverty and the great burden of everyday family chores which act as a barrier and prevent us from giving time to politics. That is why the statistics in the country where women are far better educated than men are so deplorable. There are 10.2% of women in the Seimas (Parliament), 20.6% of women in the local municipalities, just two women mayors out of 60 and just one woman head of the district.

We have not given up yet. The women's movement in Lithuania has developed and grown much stronger during the years of independence. As a result, Lithuania was the first post-communist country to adopt the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women.

We are also proud to have a well functioning Ombudsman's Office on Equal Opportunities. People's attitudes towards women's status within the society are changing gradually, as well. A new generation of strong, self-confident women has emerged. They want to take up politics and our role is to help them. On February 12, 2004, we held a joint conference 2004 Initiative: Let's Vote for Women in Kaunas. The aim of the conference was to galvanise people to vote for women politicians from various political parties. Among other conference items, we assessed the present situation of women politicians in Lithuania, including various election campaign strategies, voting behaviour in relation to women, making tentative conjectures of how many women would be trusted to represent the interests of the society. All of this against the backdrop of countries where women politicians enjoy greater popular support.

This is an important year for women in Lithuanian politics. We shall have our first elections to the European Parliament and our fifth consecutive Parliamentary elections. Those women who have decided to take up political careers have many important lessons to learn.

LWS has published several booklets (jointly with Norwegian and Swedish partners) all of which aim to give future women politicians some guidance on how to gain self-confidence. The title of one of the brochures offered to women is called On Power.

As part of the same initiative, LWS has set up a Distance Learning Centre. The first course was on Skills of Professional Presentation. We now hope to offer students video training sessions and courses on such topics as Overcoming Conflicts and Time Management. Distance learning will give a chance to those women who live in the farthest regions of Lithuania to study and so overcome regional barriers. It is absolutely crucial that they should also try to master current IT technologies and learn to manage the fast flow of information available on the Internet.

We are preparing ourselves to live in the community of 25. We study, discuss and look for project partners and anyone who wishes to share our vision and wants to achieve our main goal of improving the quality of life for women, wherever they may be. We keep our hopes high and are expecting challenges ahead. Above all, we continue to believe in solidarity among women.

NCW statement on International Women's Day

Making the equality choice the easier choice

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the National Council of Women is calling on government to give priority to women in political, social and economic decision-making. With the next European Parliament elections a few months away, NCW deplores the lack of commitment of political parties to designate women candidates on their electoral lists.

NCW believes that the challenges faced require people with imagination, foresight and courage to act. Our country is all the richer if women contribute together with men in making full use of these qualities in the process of creating a balance between social and economic development.

We need to overcome the barriers to women's progress in leadership positions, which are partly historical and partly cultural. Today's challenge is to re-define the model of leadership, the council said.

Current research has shown that we have to move away from the dominant idea of command and control towards negotiated outcomes, and have the courage to contest the status quo to achieve better outcomes.

A shift in how leadership is a defined and recognised means for women to challenge stereotyped gender identities within their organisations.

There is urgent need to tackle the lack of affordable childcare and sexual discrimination and harassment at the workplace, both of which are a hindrance to women's career development. We need new legislation that will require both the public and private sectors to increase the number of women directors and chief executives. This should also be extended to women researchers and full professorship at the University of Malta, the NCW statement said.

For NCW the issue of undeclared work is another major cause of concern. We need to find reliable ways to quantify undeclared work and introduce incentives and job opportunities which render such work unnecessary. There should also be emphasis on awareness raising of the implications of undeclared work.

We must examine emerging issues and the development of new strategies, investing in men and women equally by creating opportunities, motivating and empowering women of all ages, at different stages of their life, whether single, married, mothers or widows.

International Women's Day has a special significance for NCW as this year the Council is celebrating its 40th anniversary.