On the occasion of the Generation Equality Forum, the global meeting held in Paris to promote gender equality after the pandemic, in association with the European Union's EUROsociAL+ Programme, we interviewed María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, Vice-president of the European Parliament's Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality to analyse some of the main challenges for gender equality.
María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop. Eurodiputada.
Do you think gender-sensitive budgets are a good tool to reduce the gaps between men and women?
Without budgets that include a gender perspective it is not possible to finance the social public policies and services that women need to become emancipated, to have a better life than they have, and to be equal to men both in public and private spaces. In addition, we have asked, although without success at the moment, that the post-covid reconstruction funds incorporate a gender perspective. That is to say, that they should not be offered to governments or administrations that were not committed, and that the reconstruction funds should take seriously the rights of women and also of the LGTBIQ collective.
You are from Extremadura. How is gender related to territory?
The link between gender and territory is as clear as that there would be no territories without women. To start with, women fix the population to the territory, which is extremely important in depopulated areas. Hence the relevance of rural women. Women are the great guardians of natural resources in all parts of the world and suffer the predatory violence of States and companies. There are many Berta Cáceres in the world. They are the ones that guarantee the links that are needed to sustain life, the links between one another, and eco-dependence, the links we have with the world around us: with the earth, with natural resources, with the sources of energy and with the non-human animal world. Without a doubt, women are a rising value in a world that is now moving towards another model. Because the scarcity of resources has already shown that our model of production, distribution of wealth and consumption is not sustainable. The knowledge held by women is essential for the survival of human beings and the planet.
At EUROsociAL we work a lot with Latin America. What challenges do we share with the region in terms of gender issues?
I think there are many challenges that we share with Latin America. First and foremost is the fight against male violence. Secondly, the fight for sexual and reproductive rights. A week ago, Parliament struggled to draw up a resolution to urge all Member States to guarantee the right to a safe and legal abortion. In Latin America, progress has been made in Argentina and hopefully there will be progress in Chile as well. But the extent to which reproductive rights are violated in some regions like Central America is a cause for deep concern.
I would say that equality between men and women has not been achieved anywhere, and although Europe is moving forward, it is moving at a snail’s pace – something that the European Institute for Gender Equality has strived to highlight. The levels of poverty suffered by women in Latin America are clearly not comparable to what women suffer in the European Union, but, once again, the challenge to achieve equality remains in a number of places. There may be different dimensions, with the problem existing to a varying extent; nevertheless there are objectives that we can absolutely share with Latin American women. In the International Women’s Day strikes on 8 May this global dimension became evident, as women face very similar problems all over the world.
Can we be satisfied with the new European Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025?
This strategy has been a real step forward as it considers violence against women in a very comprehensive way. It has ratified the Istanbul Convention, pointing out the stance of the governments that have not ratified it and that promote disinformation campaigns about this convention in the European Union. I do not think we are going to see a comprehensive directive that covers all male violence, but steps are definitely being taken in the recognition of gender violence as a European crime.
It also seeks to put forward specific measures to eliminate all forms of workplace segregation that exist in the employment market. There are completely male and female sectors that include cleaners, supermarket cashiers, health workers and social service workers. These women are not only underpaid, they are undervalued from a social and cultural point of view. This is one of the questions being addressed by the strategy.
We want care services to be looked after, to be public, accessible and universal, that working from home does not become used to overload women, and we want the work of women in the world of care to be valued, as well as attending to their working conditions and health. We also need to ensure a greater and better representation of women in the economic space and on boards of directors.
Are we moving towards a European Pact for care services?
I would say without any doubt that there is progress being made, because before they were not even considered whereas now they are. It should also be pointed out that social issues in the European Union, which were always under-represented in EU law and politics, is much stronger today. The minimum wage and wage transparency directive, which is being discussed in the European Parliament, will undoubtedly improve the lives of people and the lives of women in particular because it will expose and hopefully even eliminate the 14% salary gap that exists today between men and women. This gap then translates into a pension gap of 37%, which means that elderly women are far worse off than their male counterparts.
In addition, the work-life balance directive has been strengthened, meaning that more pressure will be placed on countries to implement it. This is very important in the world of care, which is a world of women and which is completely feminised.
The segregation suffered by women in the public and work space is due to overload with domestic tasks, making it essential to legislate on the co-responsibility of women and men within the home.
In short, it seems to me that we are certainly closer to a Europe of care than we were before.
