01/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted the report by Czech MEP Vera Flasarova (GUE/NGL) on discrimination against young women and girls in education. The report stresses that education and training for girls and women is “a human right and an essential element, affording full enjoyment of all other social, economic, cultural and political rights”. It also highlights the disproportion between the number of qualified women (59% more than men) and the decreasing percentage of women represented the higher one went up the career ladder, going from 43% of doctors to only 15% of full professors. There were multiple causes identified: family and home obligations and difficulty of access to education for low income families, “which reinforces the preference traditionally given to boys' education”. The report stresses, too, the differences in salary (women earn on average 15% less than men) and deplores the fact that these differences remain “at unacceptable levels and no improvement is in prospect”. (hb)