Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-19-Speech-3-149"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"2001-09-19"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:Equal pay for work of equal value2
dcterms:Language	"pt"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.20010919.10.3-149"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:2001-09-19-Speech-3-1502
lpv:speaker	lp:Helena Torres Marques2
lpv:spokenAs	member; Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Partido Socialista (1999-07-20--2004-07-19)3 member; ECON (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3 member_of_the_bureau; PES (1999-07-20--2002-01-16)3 member; Delegation for relations with Australia and New Zealand (1999-10-06--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Union has played a decisive role in condemning and in attempting to resolve the problem of pay inequalities between men and women that exist in our fifteen countries. Both the Treaties and now national laws uphold the principle of equal pay for men and women. No country, however, complies with its own laws in this field. The differences vary from country to country, but the outcome is the same. When employment in a given sector is dominated by women, the outcome is lower pay. It is the jobs mainly held by women that society accepts should be the least well paid. Even in Scandinavian countries, where women have achieved equality, even in political life, it is proving difficult for them to enter decision-making positions in privately owned companies, where salaries are higher. We therefore have a situation that is out of kilter, in that the laws impose equality but society continues to accept a model that fails to value work undertaken by women. In order to ensure that real democracy is practised and that a new social model that accepts equality is created, we need to give men greater rights in the field of their private lives. The laws that have been adopted and the proposals in this area are quite telling. In Portugal, for example, the government recently presented Parliament with a proposal for a law making parental leave mandatory for a period of at least five days. No European country currently has such a law. This type of leave is granted at the employer’s discretion and the aim of this law is to attempt to change people’s way of thinking. The fact that society continues to accept men’s abdication of duties in their home lives constitutes a genuine form of unfair competition to which women are subjected in their professional lives. If we want to change the situation of disadvantage that women continue to experience in the workplace, we need to change people's attitudes and the practices of the social partners. And here, the European Union must continue to play a key role. At the Lisbon Summit, Europe acknowledged that only by increasing the rate of employment for women will it be able to achieve, within ten years, the economic and social development that it wants to see. Europe must now acknowledge that it needs not only more working women but also the jobs that women do. To this end, the Commission proposed and the Council accepted equal pay as one of the priorities for 2001 in its programme for equality. The European Trade Union Confederation has also decided to make this issue its priority for this year. In drafting this own-initiative report, the European Parliament... ( ... I only wish to congratulate the rapporteur, Mrs Smet and say that I agree with her proposals."@en1
lpv:unclassifiedMetadata	"The President cut the speaker off)"1

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