During a recent Management Board meeting, we sat with the Chair for a quick-fire tour through gender gaps, political sheroes and giving the floor to the youth…
Tackling gender gaps: but where to start?
When asked which gender gap she would fix instantly, Helena Valas didn’t miss a beat: “The care gap.”
“We have a huge imbalance between paid and unpaid work. Once you fix that - and once men see how much unpaid work women are doing - they will definitely appreciate it more,” she explains. Closing this gap, she adds, would have a ripple effect: “The care gap is the biggest problem. But it’s so deeply embedded in how we see the world that it’s also the hardest to change.”
Her leadership style? Empathy, first.
On her leadership style, Helena is equally direct: “Empathetic.”
“This is my first role as Chair, so I’m using these first months to really understand the Agency and the people behind it,” she says. “Getting to know the team is essential to leading effectively.”
Helena sees EIGE as “a supporter in policymaking at both national and international levels,” pointing to the Gender Equality Index as a concrete example of how EIGE’s tools help Member States understand where they stand. Evidence-based policymaking, she stresses, is where EIGE plays a “crucial role.”
Who is her inspiration for women in politics?
And who inspires her in EU politics today? She proudly spotlights Slovenian women making their mark: President Nataša Pirc Musar, along with young parliamentarians Irena Joveva and Zala Tomašič.
Who should take the reins to shape tomorrow?
Those last two names are incidental. For Helena, youth engagement is key to shifting the needle on gender equality: “They genuinely believe in equality. They feel its absence in society, and they’re pushing us to treat everyone equally.”
She sees this energy most clearly online: “Digital spaces are the first place we see them - or hear them - because they spend more time there, and the technologies are closer to them.”
She speaks with much conviction when she says: “The youth will bring a shift - not just in policymaking but for the future as well.”
Watch the full interview with Helena for more of her professional insights… and a few personal surprises…