Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-05-31-Speech-4-010"
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"en.20010531.1.4-010"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, the eleventh annual report on the Structural Funds, which for the first time examines Community measures in favour of equality between men and women, indicates that although the active participation of women in the labour market has been continuously increasing in the last three decades, there are still considerable differences between the two sexes.
In almost all the Member States, unemployment rates are higher for women than for men. The difference in employment rates between the sexes is an average of around 20% in the Member States. Employment among women decreases according to the number of children that they have. Women do the majority of non-paid work in the home, including caring for children and other dependants. Even in countries that have high employment rates, women are over represented in part-time jobs, in many cases not out of choice. Moreover, the differences in salary between men and women are still considerable: 28% for medium term at Community level.
In short, it says that here in Europe, the champion of human rights, women do not have the same rights in practice as men, they are still less represented in public institutions and in decision-making positions in private entities, and they are still the prime victims of ill treatment within couples and of sexual violence.
I am convinced that women cannot be truly free and equal to men until they have the same opportunities to get a job, are paid the same salary and gain true financial independence. Once the day comes when these objectives have been achieved, the other inequalities will also have disappeared.
It is true that the Lisbon European Council has stated an objective of increasing the Community average rate of employment among women from the current level of 51% to above 60% by 2010. But when I think that, for example, in Spain the level of women in employment currently scarcely reaches 35%, I think that it is not going to be 10 but 20 years before we can talk about real equality between the sexes, especially if the shortages of jobs in general continue to be so great.
Perhaps it is time that we took ourselves more seriously, for example, the proposals from Orio Giarini and Patrick Liedtke, and their Report to the Club of Rome, entitled "The employment dilemma: the future of employment" –where they advocate the division of the working day, or the proposals of Peter Hall that focus taxation on business consumption and remove the burdens from the cost of labour factor.
The challenge of equality is above all the challenge of employment. I therefore welcome the initiative to modify Directive 76/207/EEC, from 25 years ago, on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment of men and women.
I also congratulate Mrs Hautala, chairman of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, on her excellent report."@en1
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