> true that European parliaments contain a higher percentage of women than the
> U.S. Congress?
The story is, Europe is much less homogenized than the US. Sweden is still the world leader in gender equity, the Netherlands are fairly equitable, France less so, Germany seriously less so, and Austria and Switzerland are sort of where Italy is, i.e. the 14th century (noxious sexism, and female labor force participation is at positively, um, Japanese levels). The Swiss didn't give women the right to vote in national elections until 1970 or thereabouts, I kid you not (though they could vote in cantonal elections before then). It's very contradictory -- Germany is much more egalitarian in many cultural and economic measures than France, but the French have a well-developed daycare system, which practically doesn't exist in western Germany (a big bone of contention for eastern German women, who *did* have quite good daycare until Papa Kohl applied the thumbscrews in 1991, thus ensuring the future rise of the PDS).
-- Dennis