Women's Views on News |
| The impact on women of recession and austerity Posted: 25 Mar 2015 08:03 AM PDT
It found that while progress on some headline measures of gender equality has continued – the employment and pay gap have continued to narrow, for example – some women are facing new hardships and barriers to equality. And although the number of women in work is greater than ever before, young women's employment, which fell furthest in the recession years, has still not recovered. There has also been a rise in the number of women who are stuck on zero-hours and short-hours contracts unable to get enough work to make ends meet and afraid to complain in case they lose the hours that they do have. Pay in real terms has fallen for women even though it hasn't fallen by as much as for men. Women working full-time now earn about nine per cent less per hour than men but women working part-time earn nearly 38 per cent less. Women still make up the majority of those paid less than the living wage and more women than ever before are in part-time work because they can't find full-time work. Single mothers face greater obligations to look for work and are at greater risk of having their benefits taken away; they are, the report found, also the group most likely to be sanctioned for unjustifiable reasons. More single mothers are now in work, but frequently they are stuck in low-skilled and low-paid jobs which they have little chance of progressing from. And self-employment has driven the increase in employment for both men and women in recent years, with half the growth in women's employment being to self-employment. About a third of self-employed women are employed in high-skilled jobs (managerial or professional occupations) and the numbers in these occupations has risen significantly since the recession, accounting for about a third of the net growth. However, compared to men, more of the net growth in self-employment for women has been in low or lower middle skilled jobs. These kinds of jobs account for two-fifths of the net growth in self-employment for women and only one-sixth of the net growth in men's self-employment. In 2014, the three most common jobs for self-employed women were: cleaner, childminder and hairdresser. And over the period that women's self-employment has increased, earnings from self-employment have fallen. The real median income for a self-employed worker fell by 22 per cent between 2008–9 and 2012–13, from £266 to £207 a week (based on 2013 prices). This is a bigger fall than the fall in real wages for employees following the recession. The report also found that on average, among those paying tax, women earned 30 per cent less than men from self-employed income sources – £16,000 compared to £23,000 a year. And then self-employed women also miss out on important benefits such as statutory sick pay and statutory maternity pay. Since the recession there has also been a big increase in the proportion of women who are in part-time work because they can't find a full-time job. The rate almost doubled between the start of the recession and 2013 and has only recently started to come down. But by the end of 2014, there were still 746,000 involuntary part-time women workers – one in eight part-time women compared to about one in fourteen before the recession. In 2014, one in nine women said they were underemployed, compared to one in 11 men. Between 2008 and 2014, the number of women who were in work but would have liked more hours than their current job gave them increased from 1.1 million to 1.55 million, a rise of 41 per cent. Nearly a quarter of sales assistants and retail cashiers, for example, said they would like more hours than they currently have. This is likely to reflect the growth in zero-hours and very short-hour contracts in these areas; in 2014, over a quarter of retail workers were contracted to work between one and 15 hours a week. The TUC's Decent Jobs Deficit report found that women accounted for 54 per cent of temporary workers and 55 per cent of zero-hours contract workers in 2014 when they made up 47 per cent of all those in employment. In sectors such as retail, health and social care, hospitality and further and higher education there are growing numbers of women with little employment security and few opportunities for progression. This report was intended to shine a light on how women have been affected by the changes to the labour market and the cuts in public spending in the past seven years and to help trade unions prioritise action to defend the most vulnerable women in the workplace and society. To read it in detail, click here.  |
| Support equality and LGBTI strategies Posted: 25 Mar 2015 07:38 AM PDT
The European Women's Lobby (EWL) and ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, have sent an open letter to European Commission's vice president Frans Timmermans – and to the European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova – on the topic of the promised EU LGBTI strategy and the EU Strategy for Equality between Women and Men. You could help the cause by forwarding or emailing or otherwise sending it to your MEP and asking for their support. Their letter read: Dear Vice President Timmermans, We are writing to you today to confirm your active support for both the promised EU LGBTI strategy and the EU Strategy for Equality between Women and Men. Commissioner Jourova has publically committed on several occasions in front of the European Parliament to advancing both these important and complimentary strategies. We are aware that the College of Commissioners will very soon make a decision on which initiatives to pursue in 2015. It would send a very bad signal to citizens of Europe and to stakeholders concerned about women's rights and LGBTI rights, if the European Commission decided to drop both strategies from the list of initiatives put forward for 2015. We are fully aware that in the current context of the Commission, there is a desire to be strategic in terms of the types of policies proposed by the EU. While this approach is undeniably reasonable and practical, we urge you not to forget the responsibility of the European Commission to uphold and advance equality and combat discrimination. Targeted action is needed to ensure concrete outcomes and show Europe's commitment to deliver change. Equality between women and men is a fundamental value of the EU (article 2 TUE), enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights (article 23); the EU has the responsibility to promote equality between women and men (article 3 TUE and article 8 TFUE). Recent analyses of the EU's delivery against these commitments on the 20th Anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action by the European Women's Lobby, by EIGE and by the European Parliament, clearly show that the EU is falling well short of its political responsibility of achieving equality between women and men. UN member states just adopted the CSW political declaration which reaffirms their commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action. The Beijing Platform for Action stresses on separate and strong institutional mechanisms for women's rights: the EC has to follow this requirement and have a dedicated instrument for equality between women and men. Additionally, it is essential at this time that the EU is unequivocal and clear about its commitment to putting an end to the discrimination that LGBTI people continue to face within the EU's borders. The Fundamental Rights Agency Survey on LGBT rights (2013) clearly highlights the discrimination, bullying and violence experienced by LGBTI people on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity in Europe. An EU LGBTI strategy, fully in line with the EU's competences, would not add new policy initiatives or legislative proposals. In addition to demonstrating strong political commitment, it would increase coherence, clarity and visibility for all the activities currently being done at EU level. We have been heartened by the EU's focus on LGBTI rights in recent years but there is no time for complacency. Grassroots LGBTI and women's organisations that make up our membership in Europe are reporting increased threats to their political space, including physical attacks on their persons and property. At such a time, it is essential that the European Commission shows political leadership by giving visibility and support through clearly setting out its own strategies to support women's and girls' rights and LGBTI rights. We want to see the EC taking stock of the demands and resolutions of the EP, in recent years on equality between women and men and on LGBTI rights. The adoption of twin strategies for equality between women and men and on LGBTI rights is the only way to ensure that this happens in in a transparent and accountable way. As you know, we welcome the appointment of a Commissioner for gender equality, but without a strategy on equality between women and men, the Commissioner will have very little means to deliver its work; it's a question of credibility and accountability for the EC. The EU needs to ensure coherence in its internal and external actions and champion women's rights and LGBTI rights in its internal policies, as it is already doing externally. The European Commission, at the beginning of its new term of office, is in a position to make a visible difference by providing two strategies as simple and tangible tools for the European Commission to show citizens exactly what the European Commission is doing to address their concerns. Yours sincerely, Evelyne Paradis, Executive Director, ILGA-Europe Joanna Maycock, Secretary-General, European Women's Lobby  |
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