WTDE

ESF in Malmö 2008

wtde — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:20:17 +0000

Again an ESF gathering, the focus this time on consequences for women of the Lisbon Treaty in cooperation with a number of other organisations.

Two Seminars in Malmö

wtde — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:42:12 +0000

Women and the Lisbon Treaty

wtde — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:40:47 +0000

Precariousness and the undermining of equal opportunities for women by EU economic policies – why does legislation not work?
The Irish voters said No to the Lisbon Treaty – but still the EU countries continue to ratify the treaty. A clear majority of those voting No were women. This did not happen by chance.
Why should women oppose the Lisbon Treaty?
Because basically the Lisbon Treaty continues the attempt to realize the fundamental neo-liberal policies of the fallen EU Constitutional Treaty.
To oppose both is necessary to be able to secure equal opportunities and equal pay for women.

EU neo-liberalism and the lack of equal pay
Neo-liberal economic policies have been central to the EC and EU build-up since the adoption of the European Single Market in the 1980s, aiming to create free movement of capital, goods, labour and services all over the EU. The completion of the Single Market has increased the pressure for liberalization and privatization. The other central element in EU neo-liberalism has been the adjustment to the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) starting in the 1990s, which led to cuts in public spending and thus also opened the way for privatization. These policies have consistently undermined the equal opportunities and social security of women. Despite the equal opportunities and equal pay legislation of the EU (EEC) and national governments since the 1970s.

Since the beginning of the 1990s an increasing pay gap between women and men has been experienced in Denmark, especially within the private sector. According to new figures from ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation) there has been an increase in the gender pay gap in Denmark of 2% (to around 17-18%) since 2001, whereas the pay gap has been reduced in other EU countries, except in Finland. In Sweden in particular there has been a gender pay gap reduction of around 3 %. But in many EU countries, among them Germany and Britain, wage differences between women and men are on average over 20%. In a number of EU countries there are no proper statistics to rely on with regard to this issue. Wage differences between women and men are at a totally unacceptable level all over Europe and the EU.

When things move so slowly within the EU with regard to achieving equal opportunities and pay – and in some cases move in the wrong direction – this can be explained to an important extent by the neo-liberal economic policies of EU countries. On one hand they have led to cuts in public sector spending, where most employees are women, as for example in the Scandinavian countries. This has hit women in particular by freezing their wages. Therefore there have been widespread strikes for wage increases and equal pay both in Finland (the hospital sector) last year, and this spring in Denmark and amongst nurses in Sweden. A large majority of the strikers were women.

On the other hand the pressure for liberalization and privatization also leads to increasing wage differences between private and public sector workers and increasing competition between employees. Very often women get the worst deals, as they are generally regarded as having a ”poorer” working capacity, as they are the ones having maternity and child care leave etc.

These economic policies have led to a situation of increasing precariousness and impoverishment among women, single mothers in particular.

The Lisbon treaty
The Lisbon Treaty turns an extreme form of free market economy into a basic ideology of the EU. This is not a treaty about people and for people, but about free competition and money.

The Lisbon Treaty institutionalizes an extreme free market economy – making it the basic principle of the Union, which has far-reaching detrimental consequences for women. Market economy will be imposed by law from above. Economic policy will no longer be the responsibility of democratically elected governments. It means removing the possibility of the citizens of individual EU member states to have an influence on or decide different economic and social policies.

The Lisbon agenda
Not to confuse the Lisbon Treaty with the Lisbon Agenda of 2000, it should be underlined that the latter is one of the EU’s most important tools for undermining working conditions and pay, as well as workers’ rights, as it has done for some years already.

The Lisbon Agenda aims at making the EU economy one of the world’s most competitive by 2010 – by deregulating the labour market and increasing competition. As such it has influenced EU treaties (such as the EU Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty) as well as directives. For example the EU services or Bolkestein directive, which turns public welfare services into commodities for sale. A recent EU health directive will speed up this development within the health sector.

Women depend on public welfare
As women still have the primary responsibility for the caring work in society, women are generally more dependent on a ”welfare for all” high-level social policy to gain economic independence and gender equality. As opposed to the cut-downs and privatisations (including more insurance-based ”welfare”) of public services envisaged in the Lisbon Treaty, and which is already imposed in our societies, with its goal of continued economic liberalization.

Only 58% of women in the EU are in the labour market, mainly due to a lack of good and cheap public day care. With more privatisation it will be even more difficult for women to have secure and quality employment with an adequate wage. The imposition of an extreme free market economy is anti-social and particularly detrimental to women.

The Treaty undermines efforts to achieve democracy and gender equality
Women need an extension of democracy and more and better public welfare to gain more power and equality. Despite the inclusion of the principle of equality between women and men in the Lisbon Treaty text as a goal of the EU, this remains just beautiful words, because the rest of the text (and the policies) remains the same.

The Lisbon Treaty undermines efforts to achieve democracy and gender equality by imposing free market economic and social policies. It is anti-democratic, as it concentrates and centralizes power in the EU bureaucracy, and in the hands of the European top-level political elite and weakens the role of democratically elected national parliaments and the democratic influence of ordinary citizens.

For a Feminist Europe!

wtde — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:10:42 +0000

The consequences of the EU neoliberal priorities have had a strong impact on the women in Europe, both citizens and migrants.
They were the first who involuntarily paved the way for the deregulation of and the transition to a flexible labour market. The majority of the unemployed, poor, and uninsured people living outside of society are women.
The welfare state has been ripped apart, including those services that support women in entering into the labour market and enabling men and women to combine work and family life. These, e.g. are nurseries, kindergartens, children’s education and care, care for the elderly and disabled, and mothers’ support. EU policy must stop the discrimination and segregation of women with handicaps, enabling their complete participation in society.
We are experiencing the privatisation of human reproduction. The unpaid work of women at home and with their families leads to poverty of elderly women. We are against this and other aspects of discrimination of women in old age.
Women have to face a double challenge: on the one hand the labour market requires them to be flexible and mobile; on the other hand they have to carry the load of reproduction.
At the same time we are experiencing a strategic, ideological, and political attack on the rights achieved by the women’s movement in all European countries. Abortion rights are questioned or revoked. The family law has been reversed.
The situation will be getting worse in the light of the current economic crisis.
The EU policy for gender equality has been cancelled by neoliberal actions.
All kinds of discrimination against women must stop in order to reach a feminist EU. Regulations, directives, and action programmes are not sufficient, especially if oriented towards neoliberal goals.
We want equal participation and representation of women in politics and in all decision-making institutions, including 50% of all seats in the bodies of the EU.
We want gender equality in the labour market, the same chances for women and men at work!
We want equal pay for equal work.
We want the possibility of combining work and family life though the reduction of working hours and the introduction of public services for the care of children, sick and the elderly.
We demand that the sexual and reproductive rights of women be guaranteed.
We are in favour of all different ways of a self-determined life, including the form of how we live together. The institution of traditional marriage cannot be the only accepted family union.
We are in favour of a European law on free abortion within the first 16 weeks (European terms law).
We demand a European law against gender-based violence. This should be applied to all women, regardless of the residence status. All women, regardless of their residence status, have to have free access to public health services, especially for gynaecological care, and to any other public service.
We demand European laws and policies facilitating the prosecution of those involved in the trafficking of women and minors.
We condemn the sexist and xenophobic image of migrant women in the media, as it promotes violence against them.
The law against gender-based violence must include coordinated policies that guarantee assistance to women in all spheres: prevention, health, education, employment, housing, social and judicial help.
The Europe we want must not accept a gender hierarchy and exploitation.
The EU we want has to be based on gender equality through political, cultural, economic and social means.
Berlin, 29 November 2008
EL-FEM