VILNIUS, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The Women Political Leaders Global Forum opened here on Thursday, calling for more involvement of women into decision making processes in the world's politics.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin, president of the forum, made the call at a high-level conference in Vilnius on Thursday.
According to Koch-Mehrin, currently about 93 percent of world state and government leaders are male, which implicates that women are still insufficiently involved into the global decision making in politics.
"The main goal of the Forum is to attract more women into politics and encourage those already holding a political mandate to strengthen their influence and get involved at the main power centers," Koch-Merin was quoted as saying at the press conference by local media.
In her words, one of the main goals of the gathering is to attract more women decision makers into the areas currently dominated by men, such as defence and security, finance, energy, information technologies.
"These areas are crucially important for every state and every economy, however, we should wear very strong glasses in order to find women decision makers there," Koch-Mehrin said.
Themed "It's about time! 100 reasons to act!", the forum was opened in Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Thursday by the country's President Dalia Grybauskaite.
The event is held when Lithuania celebrates a Centennial of the Restoration of the State and 100th anniversary when Lithuanian women, among the first in Europe, gained the right to vote.
In her address to the women world leaders, Grybauskaite underscored that Lithuania had addressed gender equality issues through established legal regulation.
However, 150 states in the world still have laws that discriminate against women. At the current pace, global gender gap will take at least another 100 years to close, said the Lithuania's leader.
The president also drew attention to the necessity to further the effort in stopping violence against women.
The president has called for the remove of the stereotypes related to "male" and "female" professions and encouraged women to pursue careers in science and innovations.
The Women Political Leaders Global Forum, which will run through June 8, has gathered more than 300 female leaders in politics, business and international organizations from over 90 countries and regions, Lithuania's presidency announced.
