Male feminist runs for chair of EP Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee
[European Parliament, Brussels, 29 September 2011] The candidate for the chairmanship of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality is a man. Mikael Gustafsson (SE) was proposed by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group. He formally joined the European Parliament at this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg, thus replacing Mrs Eva-Britt Svensson (SE) who had to resign from her mandate for health reasons on 01 September.
The election for the chairmanship will take place on Monday, 3 October, at 17.00-17.30 in Room Paul-Henri Spaak 4B001 in Brussels.
Biography of MEP Mikael Gustafsson (GUE/NGL, SE)
Mikael Gustafsson, from the Swedish town of Nynäshamn, was one of the top candidates for the Swedish Left Party in the 2009 election to the European Parliament.
Throughout his career he has engaged both in a voluntary and professional capacity with issues linked to equality, social justice and sustainable development.
Mikael Gustafsson is especially dedicated to work against gender discrimination in employment and pay. He strongly believes that the gender dimension should always be integrated into European employment, environmental, educational, health and external policies.
Mikael Gustafsson has held several functions within the Swedish Left Party, and currently chairs the Party’s programmatic commission, which has the task of redrafting parts of the Party program. He is employed as a political advisor at the Swedish Parliament.
He has extensive experience as a politician at the municipal level, including boards with areas of responsibility ranging from child policy, educational policy, environmental policy, and sustainable city planning. He was an elected member of the Tyresö municipal council from 1998 to 2008.
Mikael Gustafsson was born in 1966. He is married and has two children.
The Swedish Left Party has a long tradition of integrating gender equality at the core of their work and political programme. Since 1990 the party has a constitution that demands that at least 50 per cent of any board in the party should consist of women.
