New to the European Union they may be, but as Alma Williams has discovered, women fight for equality and strive to reconcile work and family demands, whether they live in the UK, Malta or Poland. 

Would you like to be exposed to a daily dose of sex on your television along with the weather forecast? Vera Lodrova decidedly doesn't. She is a 75-year-old grandmother in the Czech Republic who has collected over 100,000 signatures, accosting people in churches and town squares in her campaign against sex and violence on the most popular national television station. She has now taken her petition to the Czech Parliament - and to those in charge of reviewing broadcasting licences.

Vera is just one woman of action out of the ten countries who joined the existing 15 Member States of the European Union in 2004. High-flyer Veira Vike-Freiberge, President of Latvia, is another: she is busy bashing the budgets of dishonest corporations with revenue many times bigger than those of small states like her own of 2.5 million inhabitants. Another is Kriistina Ojuland, Foreign Minister of Slovenia, who now has her eye on being Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. Plus three of the new Commissioners appointed to the EU - from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania - are women.

These are just some of the 'new' European women in the news at the moment. Irrespective of age, and despite family commitments, all are forceful, vigorous and enthusiastic in their aspirations. In these new Member States, women make up the majority of citizens, bringing the European total to over 230 million. So how typical are these 'high-flyers' of their fellow countrywomen? Can there be any common ground among them when these accession countries differ so widely in everything from geography to political tradition? Have they anything in common with us, in the 'old' EU?

"Ten years ago," as our British Minister for Europe, Denis MacShane, points out, "six of the ten states did not exist, and one of them was at war." The new Member States range from the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta to the large central-European territory of Poland with its 38.6 million inhabitants, from former members of the Communist bloc to still-divided Cyprus. Some - like Slovakia and Slovenia - are new names that do not feature on our old school maps.

I began to ask my questions 15 years ago. I was the only woman in a very early European delegation to Malta discussing the possibility of entry with its President and Prime Minister on a surprisingly cold January day. But that meeting provided a starting point, namely the building up of a long-term relationship with strong and forceful Maltese women's organisations.

There was also the opportunity to forge friendships - like that with the matriarchal Mary Jane Spiteri of the National Council of Women. Proudly bearing the Order of Merit and with a mop of wiry white hair, she's over 80 now, but still adept at asking me awkward questions at inconvenient moments, such as, "How will you vote when there is a referendum on the euro?"

Working with the women of Malta equipped me for ventures into other candidate countries as part of the European Commission's 'enlargement' team providing technical assistance in that difficult transition period when national laws had either to be created or brought into line with European legislation as part of what is called the acquis communautaire. Without this conformity there could be no joining of the EU.

Concerns of women

I began to get the feel of the issues that concerned women and what joining the EU would mean in practical terms.

There was no doubt about it: they were concerned first and foremost with employment and equality of opportunity for women, and the ongoing conflict between work and family life. They took a look at what has been achieved in the EU within the last ten years - most notably the fact that in all of the original 15 Member States any increase in employment has come from women, particularly women of child-bearing age, with a fresh target of 60 per cent now set for 2010. But they were dismayed at the deplorable 27 per cent gap between wages paid to men and women in the EU, even though the right to equal pay for equal work has been enshrined in Community legislation from the start.

Nevertheless, in spite of many improvements, they reckoned there was always going to be a problem for women - indeed a conflict of interest - in reconciling work with family obligations, always juggling their lives, always seeking a balance.

I talked recently to a new generation of young women (all fortunately with Christian names that I could pronounce!) about a woman's place in the new Europe: Karolina from Hungary, Katalin from Poland and Irina from Slovakia.

Karolina is 26 and a post-grad law student. She told me, "I'd still rather be a woman than a man even though it means a double work load and lower pay. That's not fair. One day I want to get married and still be a lawyer, but I know I shall work all day and then come home to cook the dinner."

Katalin has a Warsaw University degree in political science. "Women are getting married and having children later now. And families aren't so big anymore. My grandma got married at 18 and had lots of babies, my mother was 22 and had just the two of us. I'm 25 and some day I do want a family but I won't give up my work, though I'd like the choice to work part-time. Men don't know anything about the kitchen, laundry, shopping - or babies. A bit of parental leave would do them good. Women are much better educated in a more all-round sort of way."

Irina also sees a clash between commitments to work and family.

"A woman still has to be a lot better than a man to get on. You still want them but babies hold you back. Things will improve in the EU, but it's still hard, especially if you're in a caring job like nursing and have to do shifts or work on Sundays. Somebody needs to look harder at working conditions."