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If you only see sixty, seventy years old white men in ties and the society does not look that way, you might feel a certain distance that might translate into a lack of trust, or a lack of confidence or a lack of identification. I believe we are serving not only girls’ dreams, not only equality, not only the potential of society expressed at full. I think we are also serving democracy and the democratic institutional life if we empower women in institutions. I think we do have a responsibility there.

Let me share with you one piece of positive news. I was last week in Lebanon and I met there an incredible woman, the first ever Minister of Interior [Raya al-Hassan] in the Arab world. These are good stories that need to be told, I believe, because she is not there because she is a woman. She is there because she would be an excellent Interior Minister, I believe, she had been Minister before, she has the competencies for that. But the news is that the first ever Interior Minister in the Arab world is there. I think this has an impact, this has a power and I think we have in the European Union the responsibility to support these stories so that they sustain the positive moment that brought them there and they managed to deliver.

I see the danger of a new generation of girls that might think that, yes, violence is normal, yes, limits are normal, yes, if I have something wrong in my life this is my fault. I see this mentality going back again in our societies and I think we have a collective duty to resist this, and at the same time, to add a new layer of ambition that is I believe at reach if we work together men and women alike along these lines.

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