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Christel Hanewinckel,
committee chairperson

On 1 January 2000 the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth  |assumed the presidency of the Network of Parliamentary Committees on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of the EU Member States and of the European Parliament.

The aim of the Conference of National Parliaments on Equality for Women and Men is to intensify the exchange of experience and views among the relevant committees of the national parliaments and jointly to pursue and promote equality within the framework of European integration. Each year a committee from one EU country holds the presidency; following Belgium (1997), Portugal (1998) and Spain (1999) Germany holds the presidency in the year 2000.

The most important event during each presidency is the annual Conference, to which all states send participants. We shall hold this year's Conference in Berlin  | at the end of the year 2000, probably on 17 and 18 November. The Spanish organizers chose as the main topic the involvement of women in politics and the general conditions which have to be taken into consideration, including the need to reconcile political activities with women's responsibilities in the family. With our topic we want to go back a step, as it were: we do not want to start with women who are already working and ask what we can do to resolve or at least improve the apparently inevitable conflicts between employment and work in the family; a question which, strangely enough, only women are ever asked and which only women ever ask themselves. We want to focus on the main reasons for the vocational training girls and young women choose. It is remarkable that young women opt for occupations which are either typically female occupations or which offer no chance of advancement. This decision sets the course for their subsequent employment. To this end, we will commission an opinion from renowned experts  | in this field in order to have a sound basis for our work. In this connection, the causes are to be stated in the field of individual orientation e.g. as a result of the family or the possibility of reconciling the occupation with one's own family, on the one hand, and with structural conditions, on the other (such as opportunities on the labour market, the influence of vocational guidance, schools and other educational institutions) in Germany. The other participating countries are to be included, once the specific criteria of the study have been defined, and in a structured manner asked about their experience and insights. On this basis a political discussion can then take place which throws light on the topic, makes it possible to draw comparisons with neighbouring countries and forms the basis of final conclusions which can generate impulses for national and European policies.