Advocating for gender equality and the rights of women has been a priority for Belgium throughout the centuries. While there are still important steps to be taken, they have worked to fight all forms of discrimination against women to ensure equality is achieved.
Belgium’s continuous commitment to equality
Belgium commitment in advancing women’s rights and gender equality has made significant progress in recent years.
Thanks to the introduction of the gender parity law required political parties to nominate at least 33 percent women the political landscape has changed. The proportion of women in the Chamber of Representatives has risen from 12% in 1995 to 43.3% in 2023. The Flemish Parliament has the highest share of female MPs with 46.8%, followed by the Brussels Parliament with 46.1% and the Walloon Parliament with 41.3%.
The gender pay gap amounts to a negative (-0.1%) amongst workers under 25, but increases significantly with age to 4.5% among the 35-44-year-olds and even 8.5% among the 55-64-year-olds. While it is disappointing the gender pay gap still exists, Belgium performs better than most other European countries in terms of wage equality between women and men. In 2011, Belgium became one of the first countries in the world to introduce a 33% legal gender quota on boards of directors. Across the BEL 20, 40% of board members are women. This has led to women holding 16.7% of positions in executive committees and 33.1% of managerial positions.
Belgium fully legalized abortion on April 4, 1990, making abortion legal until 12 weeks after conception (or 14 weeks after the pregnant woman’s last menstrual period). These services are covered by health insurance and, while healthcare practitioners have the right to conscientious objection, they must refer patients to other providers to receive the necessary care.
Wallonia-Brussels recent actions
In 2023, to address and tackle sexual harassment and violence at music festivals, the Wallonia-Brussels Federation pledged €120 million to SACHA (Safe Attitude Against Harassment and Assaults), whose plans were carried out by the non-profit Z!. This commitment allowed their presence at a larger number of festivals and enabled student parties to benefit from this programme. They also organised training courses on sexual harassment and violence prevention, to increase the number of professionals specialised in psycho-social care, according to a government statement.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (2005) was incorporated into the Wallonia-Brussels Partnership for women and men researchers in the Federation Wallonia-Brussels (FWB) in 2011. The Wallonia-Brussels Partnership works to improve gender balance in the research community, together with overall improvement in researcher recruitment, training, social security, working conditions and job access more generally.
In 2022 to fight period poverty in the region, the Walloon government made available €440,000 (or 2.5 million sanitary pads) for a pilot project in the provinces Namur, Hainaut, and Liège together with the left-wing feminist movement Femmes prévoyantes socialistes (FPS). For women in precarious situations or those living in poverty, around 350,000 women in Belgium, buying sanitary products can be an insurmountable burden and results in having to choose between sanitary protection or food.
The women fighting for change
Belgian women have been fighting to advance women’s rights in their country through the decades and subsequently became trailblazers in their fields across the world.
- In 1883, Isala Van Diest was the first woman in Belgium to obtain a university degree and become a doctor.
- In 1888, Marie Popelin was the first woman in Belgium to obtain a law degree (although she wasn’t allowed to practice).
- In 1910, Helene Dutrieux became the first female pilot to fly with a passenger and the first Belgian woman licenced as an aeroplane pilot. In 1913 she became the first female aviator awarded membership of the Légion d'honneur (French Legion of Honour).
- In 1921, Marie Janson became the first woman to hold a seat in the federal parliament.
- In 1953, Suzan Daniel founded the first organisation for gay and lesbian rights in Belgium.
- In 1968, Gabrielle Defrenne successfully sued the national airline Sabena for discrimination, setting a precedent for gender equality.
- In 2001, Justine Henin helped establish Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis and led the country to its first Fed Cup crown. In 2004 she won a gold medal in the women’s singles at the Olympics and held, in total, 43 WTA singles titles.
- In 2019, Sophie Wilmès became the first female prime minister of Belgium.
- In 2020, Petra De Sutter, the first transgender deputy prime minister of Belgium.
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
