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Nabarralde | Nabarra Papers
Gender
Equality, A Constant Struggle
Pototo
Etxarri and Mila Parot Zubimendi
All studies
published this year are showing that average salaries for men
surpass those of women in the same job category. Women's salaries
in the Basque territories under Spanish jurisdiction are approximately
70 percent of men's salaries. This situation is maintained by
both direct and indirect discrimination. However, the fact that
in the Basque territories under French jurisdiction the earnings
gap is 9 percent is evidence that valid tools against wage discrimination
do exist.
Several studies
published in early 2000 reveal the extent to which women are
paid less, for equal work, than men.
A study conducted
by the trade union UGT in Navarre confirmed that a working woman's
salary in that Basque region is 69 percent of a man's salary
for doing the same job.
Another study
by the regional government of Baskongadak's women department,
Emakunde, released this year states that 84 percent of
the jobs held by women in three Basque provinces in Spain are
temporary and mainly in the domestic sector. According to the
Emakunde report, unemployment among women is twice higher
than among men.
A study by
the Spanish Employment Institute released this year revealed
that the highest gender gap in unemployment in the state was
reported in Navarre where women unemployment rate was 253% higher
than it was for men followed by Castile-Leon (180%), Castile-La
Mancha (175%), Aragon (168%), La Rioja (163%), and Baskongadak
(147%).
The study conducted
by the Spanish Fundación Argentaria and published in early 2000
confirms that women are paid less than men for equal work, and
that temporary workers are paid less than those on open-ended
employment contracts. Wages in Spain finds that the average
monthly wages of a male worker on an open-ended contract in
1999 were ESP 287,423 gross (including average overtime pay),
compared with ESP 161,923 for all temporary workers, and ESP
211,981 for women on open-ended contracts.
Several factors
explain the wage differential between permanent and temporary
workers. The former receive seniority bonuses and other bonuses
linked to productivity or objectives, whereas the latter usually
do not. Moreover, the skills required and the responsibilities
of the job are usually lower for temporary workers, and basic
wages are also different. Regarding the relationship between
men's and women's pay, eliminating differentials accounted for
by contract type, seniority or responsibility leaves a 12.5%
gap that is explained solely by gender, according to the report.
The simple
fact of being a woman means that a worker is worse paid. The
Fundación Argentaria study, based on a sample of 175,000 workers
in companies with 10 and more employees, has confirmed the views
that the trade unions have held for some time, based on studies
of lesser scope and on daily experience. In particular, the
findings are seen as confirming the belief that one of the fundamental
reasons for the high level of temporary employment in the Spanish
state, including its Basque region, is not the uncertainty of
the market but the desire of employers to cut labor costs. For
employers, the competitiveness of the Spanish economy demands
the reduction of wage costs.
From an overall
social point of view, specialists tend to explain the maintenance
of this clear two-tier pay structure - by type of contract and
by gender - by the fact that women and/or temporary workers
tend to form part of a family unit in which another person,
the husband/father, has a higher and more stable wage. However,
this does not explain everything.
Another study,
recently carried out by the Catholic institution for fighting
social exclusion, Cáritas, entitled The conditions of life of
the poor population from a territorial perspective finds that
in Spain 8.5 million people are poor because they have to live
on less than ESP 35,000 a month. The main contributory factor
to poverty is the lack of work (unemployment is three times
higher among the poor) or labour precariousness. However, more
and more poor homes are supported by women -a situation that
has been called the "feminisation of poverty".
As the data
clearly indicate, while our exclusive emphasis on market statistics
has focussed attention on the transition to a new era of growing
equality for working women, the invisibility of unpaid household
production has left unresolved the inequities of the previous
era. The resulting contradictions include wage and gender discrimination
in the economy, costly investments in "labor-saving" household
devices that have not actually saved time, inaccurate estimates
of real growth, and longer working hours for women.
These contradictions
are now having a direct impact on our daily quality of life
in the form of high levels of poverty for single mothers, children
and unattached elderly women, rising levels of time stress,
and declining levels of parental care time for young children.
The data also
clearly point out to the need for a more efficient and equitable
distribution of time, resources and housework responsibilities,
for adequate social supports for those working long hours without
pay in the household economy, and for flexible workplace arrangements
for both men and women that allow work and famility responsibilities
to be balanced more effectively to ease the intense time pressure.
Expanding what
we count and measure denotes a profound shift in values that
can provide a practical basis for building the just and equitable
society we genuinely wish to inhabit and leave for our children.
October
1, 2000
Note: Pototo
Etxarri is a social worker and a graduate student of History.
Mila Parot Zubimendi is a law student and environmental activist.
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