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April 2002 - Eliminate Poverty in All Stages of Life

■ ■ ■

Access to means of meeting
basic social and economic needs

Decent work, a general demand

No matter whether women perform work at home, salaried work or are self-employed, they are demanding recognition for what they do and for their skills, and they particularly want to be paid the same as men. Equality and pay equity appeared in the platforms of almost every country: Bolivia, Canada, Guatemala, Haiti, India, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Portugal, Senegal, Turkey. Another demand was equal treatment in the workplace.

Sexual harassment was denounced and censured, and legislation against it was demanded by Barbados, Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, France, Luxemburg, Spain and Europe generally, Ghana, Mali, Martinique, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Togo, Yugoslavia, Romania and Ukraine.

A decent job: a demand everywhere, including industrialized countries.

Another matter, preceding that of wages, was guarantees for equal job opportunities. Casual and part-time employment was denounced in Europe, where more women than men are unemployed. Brazilian women demanded government policies to bring down unemployment among women, especially black women.

"We want decent jobs and wages, an eight-hour workday, freedom for union activities and collective bargaining, day care facilities open according to work schedules, and retirement for women who stay at home" the Chilean women stated.

Recognition for work performed at home was a generalized demand. "It certainly deserves a salary!" exclaimed a woman from a Kanak village in New Caledonia when explaining to a journalist all the work she did every day. To illustrate the importance of this kind of work, Galician women decided to stage a strike on October 10, 2000, during which they refused to do any work at home. It was a way to put out the message, loud and clear, that these tasks are indispensable, that they represent many hours of activity, none of which is ever remunerated or taken into account in the figures or balance sheets of a country's wealth.

Many national platforms included the demand of recognition for work in the home (Congo Kinshasa, Ecuador, Mali, Peru). Rwandan women wanted "assistance for women in their work" and Ukrainian women, "respect for women's rights where housework and the community are concerned."

The solution lies in the socialization of the tasks performed by women, said the Brazilian and Colombian women, who called for public facilities for child care, and public laundries and canteens.

"We aren't trying to set up a matriarchy or a society dominated by women; all we want is equality. I don't think that's too much to ask," remarked a Nepalese woman marching in New York on October 17, 2000.

	Access to means of meeting basic social and economic needs
	Women on the March April 2002

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Last modified 2006-03-23 03:09 PM
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