Brussels, 08/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Suddenly on 8 March, there was a flurry of fine words on gender equality to mark International Women's Day, focussing on reducing the pay gap between men and women, but with little in the way of tangible action to put the words into action.
As the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, rightly explained, gender equality only exists on paper because women are being harder hit by the economic crisis, with higher unemployment and less secure jobs.
This is the area most of concern to politicians in Europe, along with reducing the pay gap between men and women, which currently stands at 16% on average in Europe. That amounts to nearly 59 days of unpaid work, a genuine scandal in twenty-first century Europe, said Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP, France), rapporteur for the European Parliament on how the economic crisis is affecting women's work, an own initiative report to be adopted by the plenary next week. For the socialists, Zita Gurmai of Hungary said that the pay gap had led to a pensions gap and made women more vulnerable to poverty. She called for the appointment of a European Commissioner for Women's Rights and Gender Equality with genuine commitment and real leadership to ensure the pay gap became a thing of the past.
Manifesto, network and another round table. On International Women's Day, the socialists and democrats party at the European Parliament published a manifesto to ensure that equal rights for women becomes a reality. The president of the S&D, Hannes Swoboda of Austria, said that the top five priorities were the pay gap, poverty, violence, unemployment and job insecurity, adding that S&D pledges to continue to right against the most fundamental inequalities.
The European liberal and democrats party says that it provided the cornerstone to this year's International Women's Day by setting up a network for female equality, which will promote women's involvement at political, social and economic level. The president of the ALDE, Sir Graham Watson, explained that gender equality was not just women's business and he hoped the network would become a strong common platform for co-operation between political parties, institutions and civil society to achieve greater equality.
The most tangible action to emerge on this International Women's Day is the manifesto and network. The European Parliament will adopt three non-binding resolutions on how the crisis is affecting women, getting rid of sexual stereotypes and the situation of women in North Africa.
The relevant Parliament committee focussed on violence against women and decided to take action to counter female genital mutilation (victims of which are reported in 13 countries in the world). European Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding organised a round table on Wednesday 6 March and held a public consultation on the matter (see EUROPE 10799), but nothing in the way of action is yet on the cards.
The sudden rush of enthusiasm for women's rights at EU level does not hide the lack of action in the member states on women's rights and gender equality. In this connection, the U-turn in Germany on quotas of women on the boards of big companies quoted on the stock exchange speaks louder than words. Berlin recently decided not to back the 40% quota promoted by Reding (see EUROPE 10801). What a sad present for International Women's Day, tweeted Reding. (MD/transl.fl)