Who is Magdalena Ogórek?

The 10th of May the Presidential Elections will take place in Poland. The favorite candidate is the current President, Bronisław Komorowski, member of the liberal Party Platforma Obywatelska, the same of Mr. Donald Tusk. The major competitor will be Andrzej Duda, official candidate of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, party leaded by the former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

There are other candidates, with low possibility to pass the first round of the elections. Among them, media concentrated their attention to the candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Madgalena Ogórek.

Magdalena Ogorek

Who is she?

Magdalena Ogórek (36) is an historian with a Phd got at the University of Opole. She worked at the University of Warsaw and in the highest political offices. She has also collaborated with the National Polish Bank and she has been anchorwoman in a financial show. She has also had a career as actress, participating in some Polish movies and Tv-series, around 10 years ago. She was candidate and lost the Parliament Elections in 2011.

Miss Ogórek received many critics regarding her candidature by the Polish Media. She was attacked for her low political experience. Media also made jokes about her surname, that in Polish means cucumber. 

The campaign against her is covered by a trace of misogyny. Even if she doesn't have a strong political background, from some experts she could become a real new element in the polish political landscape. But she looks beautiful, she has also a past in Tv. And that seems enough to attack her above normal.

This case represents just an example of how empty can be the words used during the International Women's Day, when the general climate remains the same as always. 

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No rhetoric for the International Women's Day

Today is the International Women's Day. The 8th of March has been designated to celebrate the women achievements regarding social and political rights, and to remember discriminations and violence that women are still facing in the World.

It is positive to celebrate the role of women. But it is also sad that we still have to talk about gender discrimination. And the worst aspect of this celebration is listening some politicians (male) speeches, where they point out how women are important in our life, but in practice they are less available to leave space in the political system to them.

The women condition in Europe seems much better than in the rest of the World. But, just to remind some numbers:

- there is a discrepancy of salaries about 16% between women and men for the same kind of job (from 30% in Estonia till 2.5% in Slovenia);

- the women member of a Parliament are just the 20% of the total;

- considering the most important EU Members, just Germany has a female Prime Minister (Uk has had a long experience with Margaret Thatcher, France had a female premier for few months in the early 80s, whilst Italy and Spain never had a woman to lead a Government).

- in the top 50 World's Most Powerful People listed by Forbes, there are just 5 women: Angela Merkel (5th, German Prime Minister) , Janet Yellen (6th, Head of the Federal Reserve), Dilma Rousseff (31st, President of Brazil), Christine Lagarde (33th, Head of the IMF), Park Geun-hye (46th, President of South Korea).

(For some information about the violence against women, please refer to the lat post about Ozgecan Aslan).

The situation is much better than fifty years ago. But let's try to avoid rhetoric and let's go ahead to create the right condition toward a real gender equality.

Happy Women's Day 

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