A meeting was held in the European Parliament last week titled ‘Women and the Economic Crisis’. The event brought together many activists, left wing parties and women’s’ groups and was hosted by the United Left group (GUE/NGL). The meeting discussed the effects of the economic crisis on women and what solutions the left had.
There were speakers from Cyprus, Greece, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, England, Portugal and France. Several speakers spoke about the situation of women under capitalism today. Women are at a much higher risk of suffering from poverty despite working longer hours. Across the EU women are also paid less than men on average. In Germany, there is a 23% pay gap.
Women are more likely to leave the labour market to care for children and the elderly. The way in which capitalism is structured means that workers are punished for taking time from work to do this type of work, losing out on, salary scale progression, pensions, training and career advancement.
A speaker from the Age Platform Europe pointed out that ‘Private pensions discriminate against women’. EU legislation permits financial companies to discriminate against women as they have a slightly longer life expectancy than men. She also pointed out that ‘Private pensions are generally based on contributions so if you miss payments you get a smaller pension. This is more likely to hit women who take time out of work for childcare.’
Joe Higgins also spoke about the pensions issue condemning the Spanish and Greek governments for recently announcing plans to increase the retirement age. Joe went on to say that ‘Demographics is used to hammer workers on the pension issue. We need to socialise the wealth in society, if this is done it is entirely possible to produce enough to let all male and female workers retire at 55 or 60 regardless of time taken out to take care of children, the sick and the elderly’.
Women are disproportionately represented in sectors such as retail and healthcare which tend to have lower pay. Women also make up most part time workers and are more likely to have ‘yellow pack’ type work contracts.
As with all workers many of the rights that have been won over the years are under attack with the economic crisis. Many neo liberal governments and parties are calling for many counter reforms that will hit women the hardest.
Sarah Wrack, an organiser from the Youth Fight for Jobs (YFFJ) campaign in Britain spoke at the meeting. She warned that ‘The election of a Conservative government this year would bring in counter reforms that would hit women the hardest. Tax breaks for families would tie women into abusive relationships for financial reasons. The Tories also want to increase the time limit for abortion without any new medical evidence’.
She pointed out that historically it has been a Labour government under pressure from the workers movement that brought in many reforms that benefitted women but since 1997 many of these have been eroded. ‘All the major parties in the Britain, including Labour, now call for cuts to public sector which will hit women the hardest. A disproportionate amount of women are employed in the public sector and a disproportionate amount depends on public services.’
In particular she spoke about how the cuts will affect women in education. In Britain the government are cutting the budgets for universities, and calling on the universities to carry out cutbacks. In her university in Brighton, as is the case in many other universities in Britain, the childcare facilities are being put under pressure. ‘The cuts in university childcare will have a big impact on many women in education, they will make childcare inaccessible for low paid workers and students and will force women into leaving education.’
Anja Deschoemacker from Parti Socialiste de Lutte / Linkse Socialistische Partij (PSL/LSP) which is the Belgian sister party of the Socialist Party spoke about the recently announced plans by the Carrefour super market to sack 1,700 of its workers in Belgium. She said that ‘we need to be out supporting this fight’. She continued, ‘Jobs have been increasingly replaced with ‘yellow-pack’ contracts which are pushing more poverty on workers. We need to fight for a general strike for jobs with fixed contracts and decent conditions. We need to fight for full employment; with full employment we can end discrimination by employers’.
Anja pointed out that most of the achievements of the women’s movement came as a result of strikes and movements of workers. She went on to call on all women workers in Belgium to support the Youth March for Jobs Campaign that is organising a series of protests around Belgium at the moment. She also said that in order to completely end all discrimination and sexism that ‘We have to fight for a socialist society’.
Sarah Wrack from Youth Fight for Jobs also spoke about the need to fight back against the plans of the employers and governments to take the crisis out on workers. The Youth Fight for Jobs campaign fights against youth unemployment but also against unemployment of all workers and for decent working conditions for all. Sarah stated that ‘Young people have been brought up with the idea that decent jobs, houses and so on could be achieved by working hard. Young women were told that feminism had won and there was no need to fight for women’s rights anymore but this is clearly not the case’.
The electoral sphere will be an important one to campaign for these ideas; Sarah went on to say that ‘The betrayal of the Labour Party is felt by workers in Britain. YFFJ support the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition in the upcoming general elections in the UK. The candidates are men and women that will attack every cut on public services and will advocate the use of society’s resources to defend jobs and decent wages for all’.
This meeting was an important one, it highlighted key issues and challenges for the workers movement at this time. The 8th of March this year will see the 100th International Women’s Day. As is the case with the first International Women’s Day the struggle for women’s rights are linked with the struggle of all workers. Joe Higgins and the Socialist Party will continue to use the position in the European Parliament to give voice to these movements and to highlight the particular injustices against women workers.
CHECK OUT OTHER RELATED ARTICLES:
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- Report from plenary session of the European Parliament (June 2010)
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- Report from the plenary session of the European Parliament (May 2010)
