A rather ambiguous equality

International Women’s Day, which is celebrating its centenary this year, was celebrated on 8 March with various initiatives in the seat of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The chamber heard various official speeches, and then discussed and voted on two reports: one on the quality between men and women, the other on combating female poverty.Eighth March throughout the year. “Over the last hundred years Europe has changed, but there are still too many situations in which we ascertain discrimination and inequality to the detriment of women”, said Jerzy Buzek, President of the EP. After having recalled the need to ensure, also through EU legislation and action, real gender equality in the social and economic fields, Buzek emphasized the low numerical number of women in political life. He then added: “In no country, in no political, cultural or religious system is it possible to tolerate the fact that women enjoy fewer rights than men. That’s why the 8th March is not enough. We need to work in this direction for 365 days a year”. Eniko Gyori, Hungarian minister, on the behalf of the current six months’ presidency of the EU, maintained: “Equality between men and women was seen as a revolutionary concept a hundred years ago. Today it’s only a duty, a principle that ought to be obvious and that we need to turn into a material reality”. Citing St. Francis of Assisi and his “sister poverty”, Gyori listed the many cases “of poverty, not only material, from which too many women suffer today: exploitation, trafficking, violence, prostitution, lack of work”. Hence his appeal for the protection of women’s rights and the need to “develop an essential reconciliation between professional life and family, with priority attention to pregnant and nursing women”.Equality and protection of rights. “There are too many inequalities between men and women in the EU and a hundred years of campaigning haven’t been enough to achieve real equality. So we need to act to redress them, starting out from the gender imbalances that we ascertain in the economy”, said László Andor, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs. He spelt out some of the main problems: “Access to the labour market, equality of remuneration for equal tasks and responsibilities, working conditions, pension rights, and women’s quotas”. “Many specific measures for the achievement of equality are possible also thanks to European Funds. We in the European Commission want to take steps with this intention in mind”. The Commissioner then insisted on one point: “Working hours need to be regulated to meet the needs of family life. This is a priority commitment”. Lastly he mentioned the right to education. Of the same opinion is the Vice-President of the Commission, Viviane Reding: “Wage equality for equal tasks and the access of women to senior executive posts in businesses have become indispensable priorities. If positive results are not soon achieved, through self-regulation, we would then have to think of EU interventions”. Eva Britt-Svensson, chairperson of the parliamentary commission on women’s rights, on the other hand, said she was favourable to “quotas” to overcome the disparity between men and women in social, economic and political life. “Quotas are like antibiotics – said the Swedish MEP -. It would be better not to have recourse to them, but if the disease is serious, we cannot do without them”.Some negative aspects. With regard to the two reports approved on 8 March in relation to International Women’s Day, that presented by the Bulgarian MEP Mariya Nedelcheva indicates the priorities for the Union “in terms of equal opportunities and gender rights in Europe, with specific attention to the world of work”. The text approved by the EP presents however some controversial aspects, linked especially to gender identity. The other report, drawn up by Romanian MEP Rovana Plumb, and aimed at combating the situations of poverty that especially affect women, proposes “the introduction of a gender perspective in plans for the revival of the economy”, thanks for example to the promotion of female entrepreneurship. Another report approved on 8 March was dedicated, instead, to the “reduction of healthcare inequalities in the European Union”. The rapporteur, Portuguese MEP Edite Estrela, inserted in it a series of shared objectives, such as “the importance of ensuring that health services be furnished in a manner consistent with fundamental rights”, the “need to maintain and improve universal access to healthcare systems”, and “the importance of improving access to disease prevention”. Some highly controversial passages are however to be found in this report. Paragraph no. 25, for example, maintains that “the EU and member states should guarantee to women easy access to contraceptive methods and the right to safe abortion”. Other serious questions are raised by its proposals in terms of so-called “reproductive health” and gender identity.