Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-02-Speech-2-428"
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"en.20080902.33.2-428"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I would like to begin my speech by expressing my thanks to the Commission for its 2008 report on equality between men and women, which takes a comprehensive approach both to policies to mainstream the gender dimension and towards specific positive discrimination measures. Although, admittedly, we should point out that the Commission’s report has work matters at its core, it takes no account of many other issues and difficult situations which women encounter and we have therefore tried to incorporate them into this Parliament report.
On finding a work/life balance, we must change the fact that currently 85% of informal carers are women. We need more public services whose role is to provide childcare and care for dependants.
Similarly, as regards participation by women in public life, we should encourage initiatives to increase participation through social organisations, unions and political parties. Electoral quotas were a decisive step which must continue as we strive for equality in democracy.
There are other key aspects such as access to education, the overturning of social stereotypes, the issues and difficulties facing women in rural communities, which we cannot ignore. We must join forces to that end. We must work closely with organisations and make the fundamental European Union principle of equality between men and women a reality, because by so doing we will be moving towards a Europe with more law and greater social justice.
I also wish to thank all my colleagues who have by their efforts helped improve the report as initially presented. There is common agreement that despite the progress that has been made, there is still much to be done.
In that regard complacency is likely to be our worst enemy. If we are unaware of the challenges and the work which is yet to be done it will be difficult for us to make headway on equality issues.
The outlook of this report is based on the principle of gender mainstreaming, and the report raises various matters which have a bearing on that principle. They are all important and we can not ignore any of them: incorporating women into the labour market, domestic violence, women in education, balancing family life with work, and vulnerable groups such as immigrant women or the disabled. All these aspects must be borne in mind and merit exhaustive study and analysis, but I would like in the time available to me to focus on the aspects which I regard as most important.
Domestic violence is the greatest social scourge of our time, not only in Europe but worldwide. A social injustice in which women, purely because they are women, experience violence at the hands of men because chauvinistic values are still fairly deep-rooted in our society.
Accordingly it is necessary to encourage laws in Member Status to combat this social plague. We have a very good example in Spain, where a few years ago the Law against Domestic Violence was incorporated into the national legal order; it recognises the rights of mistreated women and implements a comprehensive policy ranging from prevention, to treatment and reintegration of the women affected.
As far as women and the labour market are concerned, we should be aware that we are a long way still from achieving the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy. Women’s employment has risen but unemployment figures for women are still much higher than those for men, and we must therefore take political measures, both through the European Commission and the Member States, which encourage women to join the labour market on the same terms as men.
Another fact of life which we cannot skate over is the difference in wages; this has stood at 15% since 2003. Greater measures which have the agreement of business and the unions are needed.
Also in this report we propose that the Community institutions and the Member States should declare 22 February as International Equal Pay Day. A woman would need to work 52 more days a year to earn the same wage as a man."@en1
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