INT’L WOMEN’S DAY-SPAIN: Celebrating Many Strides Forward

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 7 2005 (IPS) - Women beekeepers from Jaén, a province in southern Spain, will celebrate International Women’s Day this year, which falls on Tuesday, with a honey-tasting exhibit to underline their support for sustainable development and demand gender equality.

The day will be marked by a number of events around Spain, with the participation of a wide range of social sectors, from artists, members of cooperatives and trade unionists to politicians, members of the business community, and especially women’s groups.

Mar. 8 has been commemorated by labour and women’s organisations around the world since the early 20th century, and in 1975 the United Nations officially made it an international day.

Since socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero took office in May 2003, Spain has made great strides in favour of equal rights for men and women, but there is still a long way to go, Carmen Bravo, the women’s secretary in Comisiones Obreras, one of the country’s main trade union confederations, told IPS.

Among the advances she cited were the passage of a new law aimed at eliminating violence against women, the creation of a government cabinet made up of the same number of female and male ministers, and the designation of María Teresa Fernández de la Vega as first vice-president and minister of the presidency.

Another step forward was seen in the Basque Country, in the north, one of the 17 “autonomous communities” that comprise Spain.

The Basque provincial parliament approved a law to be applied for the first time in the regional elections in April, requiring every party to present an equal number of male and female candidates to the legislature.

But gender discrimination is still evident in the labour market in Spain, say activists. Toni Gallardo, one of the organisers of the Jaén event planned by the Ceres Association of Women from the Rural World, told IPS that women farmers suffer the worst discrimination.

To illustrate, she pointed out that if a couple owns a farm and both work it, only one of them can register with the social security system, “and it is generally the husband who signs up.”

Ceres was the goddess of agriculture during the time when the Roman Empire encompassed the Iberian peninsula. The Roman statue of the deity is located in the Spanish province of Cáceres, on the western border with Portugal.

Comisiones Obreras believes that a modification of the existing laws is urgently needed to address such cases, as well as the adoption of measures like paternity leave, in order to enable men to take time off to help with their newborn children, so that not all of the burden falls on the mothers.

In addition, official statistics show that 79.8 percent of men are employed nationwide, compared to 55.9 percent of women, and trade unions and women’s organisations are calling for measures to bring the female employment rate at least up to the EU average of 60 percent.

To achieve that, 760,000 of the 9.8 million currently unemployed women in Spain would need jobs.

Inequality is also seen in the world of scientific research. Pilar López Sancho, president of the organisation “Women in Physics”, says her colleagues still experience discrimination.

She noted that even though there are more women than men earning university science degrees, only 13.4 percent of female professors make it to the top university teaching position (catedratica), a proportion that is even smaller in the field of physics, where it shrinks to 2.9 percent.

López Sancho pointed out that the situation reflects a kind of pyramid shape, where female science students are a majority, but then little by little they form a smaller proportion at each tier in their academic careers.

Non-governmental organisations and trade unions are calling for quick action in creating national laws and statutes in line with the Equal Treatment Directive approved by the European Parliament in 2002.

The Directive obliges EU members to adopt measures aimed at achieving equal access by men and women to employment, training and promotion.

Last Friday, the government took new steps forward by approving 53 measures designed to bring about “full equality for women”, as Fernández de la Vega told the press.

The initiatives include the launch of a “special delegation against violence against women” and the creation of a “women’s observatory”. Another decision taken was to increase the proportion of women in public entities, and require a similar increase in companies that sign contracts with the public administration or receive government subsidies.

In addition, a plan for gender equality in the public administration and a framework accord with the United Nations Development Fund for Women were adopted.