Gender equality in public institutions

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

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.