Speech - Speaker Teresa Anjinho - City Madrid - Country Spain - Date Tuesday | 13 January 2026

Good morning.

Let me begin by thanking the President of the Spanish Court of Auditors, Enriqueta Chicano Jávega, for inviting me to your meeting. It is an honour to be here and to mark this important milestone with you: for the first time, 40% of the European Union’s audit institutions are chaired by women.

As European Ombudswoman, I cooperate closely with various other oversight bodies in the EU, including the European Court of Auditors, so I have a strong appreciation for the work your institutions do in ensuring accountability and preventing corruption.

Having forty percent of supreme audit institutions in Europe now chaired by women is an important step on our collective journey towards true gender equality, a journey we share with the generations of courageous and inspirational women that have come before us.

I am thinking of women such as Clara Campoamor whose advocacy resulted in Spanish women getting the vote; Aurora Teixeira de Castro, a similarly impressive lawyer from my own homeland, who tirelessly highlighted the lesser legal standing that women used to have in Portugal; or Simone Veil, the European Parliament’s first female president.

But I am also thinking of personal heroes and role models. I was fortunate to have strong female role models close to home — especially one remarkable great aunt. In 1950s Portugal, being a working woman was never easy. Yet she persevered. She devoted her life to education, especially to teaching children with special needs.

It is thanks to her and so many other strong and persistent women that we enjoy the progress that we see in Europe today.

At EU level, many of our most prominent institutions are now led by women: the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank, and the European Investment Bank. As are many key EU agencies and other important EU bodies such as the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

There’s no doubt: powerful female role models in public life are essential for a healthy, inclusive democracy. They show the next generation – girls and boys alike – what’s possible. A child who grows up seeing women at the helm of institutions or top companies grows up with a different view of the world, a broader sense of what’s fair, and a deeper understanding of equality.

We can – and should – take pride in the progress we’ve made.

But pride must never turn into complacency.

Yes, it matters that we mark milestones like today. Yes, it matters that we celebrate the achievements of individual women.

But the very fact that we are still marking these moments is also a reminder: the work is not done.

True gender equality means reaching a point where parity in public life is simply expected—where an institution being led by a woman is not newsworthy, not exceptional, but entirely unremarkable.

That is the future we are working toward.

And we are not there yet.

Let me give you a few concrete examples of what I mean.

Thanks to sustained policy effort, the share of women in management within the European Commission has risen dramatically—from very low levels in the early 2000s to near parity today.

And yet, progress remains fragile. It took significant pressure and prolonged negotiations for Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to secure just 11 women among the 27 EU Commissioners.

The picture across our Member States tells a similar story. Nearly two-thirds of ministers – around 65 percent – are still men. And the imbalance is often even greater in national parliaments and regional assemblies.

And inequality is not limited to leadership. Women in the EU continue to earn around 10 percent less than men on average –while still carrying a disproportionate share of unpaid care and household work.

And for too many women, inequality is also about safety. In 2024, nearly one in three women in the EU experienced physical or sexual violence—and never told anyone. That same proportion faced sexual harassment at work.

New technologies have also added another layer of risk. Online, women are disproportionately targeted by sustained, violent, and explicitly gendered abuse.

This is not only a personal tragedy—it is a democratic one. When women in public life withdraw, or decide not to enter public life at all, our public space becomes narrower, less representative, and less capable of serving society as a whole.

So the question is clear: what must we do next?

How do we build on the achievements of the past and the present to create a safer, fairer, more just society for the future—a society where equality is no longer an aspiration, but a lived reality?

From my perspective as European Ombudswoman, there are three key areas we must focus on.

The first is this: we must vigorously enforce and defend the rules we already have.

Europe is not starting from scratch. We have a strong legal foundation. The EU Treaties enshrine human dignity, freedom, and equality as core values. The Charter of Fundamental Rights explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sex and affirms equality between women and men in all areas of life. And we have EU legislation on gender equality in the workplace, parental rights, and work-life balance.

But rules, however strong, are only meaningful if they are implemented, monitored, enforced—and defended.

We must never assume that progress is inevitable. History tells us otherwise. Progress can slow. It can stall. And it can be reversed.

In recent years, we have seen precisely that: a significant rollback of women’s rights in many parts of the world.

This is why the pursuit of gender equality demands constant vigilance.

EU institutions, including the European Commission, have a critical role to play. So do national governments. But so too do ombudsman institutions.

By handling people’s complaints about public administration, ombudsmen are uniquely placed to identify cases of gender discrimination and emerging threats to women’s rights. This helps ensure that gender equality rules do not remain words on paper, but translate into real change in women’s lives.

Cooperation matters too. Through the European Network of Ombudsmen, my Office works alongside more than 100 national and regional ombudsman institutions across Europe to share expertise and strengthen the protection of fundamental rights. Just yesterday, I was in Málaga to mark the launch of the year in which the Network turns 30 – a reminder of the strength that comes from collective action.

I will take this opportunity to quickly but proudly mention that, just like supreme audit institutions, around 40% of the bodies in this Network are now led by women.

The second area we must focus on is representation.

Whether in government, business, or civil society, the presence of women is not optional—it is essential.

If our laws, policies, and decisions are meant to be inclusive, then the way we make them must be inclusive too.

This is not only about who leads our institutions or runs our companies. It is also about who is in the room when ideas are shaped – at meetings, conferences, on television panels, and at the many forums that influence political and public debate.

Not so long ago, all-male expert panels were still a familiar sight in Brussels. After a grassroots online campaign, they suddenly became much rarer. In fact, at times it almost felt as though women had appeared overnight – proof that when there is a will, representation can be found.

That is why we must keep challenging the assumption that it is acceptable for only half the population to be properly represented in discussions that affect us all. Diversity of background is not a slogan, it is a prerequisite for better decisions.

Or, as the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg put it so simply and so powerfully: “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

The final area I wish to touch upon is leading by example.

This means looking honestly at our own institutions and asking whether they truly welcome women – and whether they actively support their personal and professional growth.

Leading by example is practical. It means having robust equality policies in place. It means investing in targeted training. It means promoting gender balance at management level. And it means consistently raising awareness about what gender equality really requires in everyday working life.

In my role as European Ombudswoman, I seek not only to ensure that EU institutions promote gender-sensitive policies and address discrimination, but also that my own Office sets a visible standard – one that reflects inclusivity, diversity, and fairness in practice, not just in principle.

And I know that many of you share this responsibility. Each of us, in the institutions we lead, has the opportunity – and the obligation – to make gender equality real, starting at home.

To conclude, there is no doubt that the position of women in Europe today looks very different from that of a generation ago. Barriers have been lowered, opportunities have widened, and leadership spaces, once closed, are increasingly open. These changes are real—and they matter.

But they are not guaranteed. In Europe, many women continue to face discrimination, insecurity, and exclusion in their daily lives – often silently and invisibly.

That is why our task is not only to look forward, but also to remain attentive: to ensure that equality rules are applied fairly, that institutions are accountable, and that women’s voices are heard wherever decisions are taken.

If we remain alert, inclusive, and committed, equality will no longer need to be defended, negotiated, or explained. It will simply be there – rooted in our shared humanity, inseparable from our very existence, and reflected in how our societies live and work.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to our discussion.