#sofagate: a missing chair as the symbol of European sexism

Author Dimitra Letsa

Published on: 08/04/2021

I am making this article short, because I do not want the message to get lost in many words.

I want it to be as clear as possible how tragic of a statement #Sofagate was for women’s position in Europe today. We talk about improvements, we talk about victories, we often think that it is only the weak or unprotected who suffer and that the strong ones have nothing to fear:

because this is the European Union and we have a woman president and women prime ministers and commissionaires and women have nothing to complain about and sex equality has been achieved. And there are people who still question whether women really suffer from being treated illegally, unfairly, unethically.

And there comes someone who can demonstrate with only a chair how our world really is.

• The European Council President does not give the seat to a female counterpart and takes the seat that is presented as rightful his
• The European Commission President, being a woman, does not demand a chair for herself, does not leave the room, does not protest; she sighs and stays and endures – to avoid the blame for making a scene, to avoid missing out the meeting completely.

Yes, the host of the meeting set the stage the way he did, having his own agenda; but he is not the one responsible for his guests’ behavior.

As a European citizen, I feel ashamed and angry that the two heads of the European Union behaved the way they did and demonstrated to the whole world how deep sexist Europe still is, all the way to the top.

And I find no excuse for their behavior. Only pathetic explanations.

But Moonshot News would really like to hear from you what would you have done. What about watching the video and taking the poll?

[poll id=”2″]