A few words on gender equality

“Men and women shall have equal rights in family, political, social and economic life in the Republic of Poland.” – says the Constitution of Republic of Poland. Equality of men and women is also one of the ground rules of the European Union. Today we tend to forget that it was not always the case. Several dozen years ago access to high schools and higher education institutions or right to vote were not so obvious for women. Today, according to the law, men and women are equal. Unfortunately everyday life situations, both in family and professional life, show that it is still much to be done in that matter.

Gender discrimination, as any other form of oppression, is a breach of fundamental human rights. Most often, also in Poland, this phenomenon effects women. The main reason are stereotypes concerning the role of the woman in family and society.

In Poland, women discrimination is most visible on the labour market. It results firstly from a division of roles and duties in family life. Woman is the one that raises children, she also more often cares for grandchildren, elderly parents or other dependants. An obstacle that women meet in their professional career is lack of flexible forms of employment. As labour market research shows, only one fourth of employers are open to such forms of employment. This deprives many mothers of the possibility to find employment, thus women constitute a majority group among unemployed. The situation is in no way improved by the insufficient childcare system that forces many women to remain at home.

Young women are often discriminated in the recruitment process. At job interviews they often hear the disallowed questions about family plans, while maternity rights discourage many employers from hiring women. All those factors greatly impact the country’s economy. Lack of support for mothers effect in many young people deciding not to have children (or to have less children), what results in demographic low, ageing society, creating negative economical effects.

Even if a woman manages to find a job, she is often treated worse than men. She can face direct discrimination in the form of ill-treatment, or indirect manifesting itself in having worse conditions of employment on the basis of supposedly objective criteria. It usually concerns type and time of work, form of employment, professional trainings, promotion possibilities and, above all, remuneration. According to research of 2007, women in European Union earn on average 17,6% less than men. A woman is paid less for performing identical duties. Other problem is stereotypical perception of manly and womanly professions, what result in women dominating in sectors with lower remuneration and lower prestige. Women’s presence on higher levels of management ladder and in the fields important in terms of country’s development also remains quite marginal.

Most extreme examples of discrimination at work are cases of sexual harassment and humiliation. It is worth noting that Polish Labour Code regulates following the constitutional equality of sexes at work. An employee is entitled to claim damages in case of equality principle being breached. Discrimination victim can bring a charge to the labour court, to National Labour Inspectorate or demand an initiation of conciliatory proceedings.

Research conducted by CBOS (Polish Public Opinion Research Centre), opinions of Polish citizens concerning equal treatment of sexes are divided. Percentage of respondents convinced that women are discriminated is almost equal to number of those who think opposite (44% vs. 46%). The problem of unequal treatment of sexes is more often noticed by women, usually it concerns work. Women are more dissatisfied with current legislative responses. Men (41%) are more satisfied with national gender equality policy than woman (29%). It is worth noting that general opinion of a respondent about government policy largely affects these opinions.the idea of gender equality is generally commonly accepted in Poland (declared by ¾ respondents). An increase of social consciousness and general sensitivity about the problem. Respondents were asked if they ever witnessed sexual discrimination. Most of described cases (75%) was concerning work: gender criteria during recruitment process, lack of promotion possibilities and lower remuneration for working on the same position. It were commonly associated with maternity function of women.

Policy of equality, (so called ‘gender mainstreaming’) is well-established in the operational strategy of the European Union. The subject of sex is being taken into account in the mainstream of all political processes, priorities and action of member states. The purpose of numerous projects and directives is promoting the introduction of women to the mainstream politics, as now they are still outside it, improvement in accessibility of employment and career development of women, fighting against sex segregation on the labour market and mitigating the reasons of differences in remuneration. Years of work on the problem within the UE territory greatly improved the position of women and general life conditions of UE citizens. Annual reports of the European Commission indicates that there is a positive tendency in the society and labour market favourable to the principle of gender equality.

Gender mainstreaming is especially promoted by European Social Fund that supports numerous actions in the wide area of the social life. These are, among others, donating projects changing relations between man and woman (e.g. promotion of reconciling career and private life through increasing engagement of men in family duties), or project promoting equality of sexes in administration, education and judiciary system (e.g. training courses for government officials concerning the equality of possibility, promotion of non-stereotypical messages in educational programmes). These aim are implemented also through funds for remedial actions and providing support to groups that found themselves in worse conditions.

It is extremely important to realise that gender equality is not only a matter of social justice. It is a condition to achieve stable economic growth, competitiveness and social cohesion. Investing in gender equality policy results in higher women employment rates, higher participation in GDP, tax income and fertility rate increase. It is thus profitable to aim at comprehensive incorporation of still not fully utilised  intellectual and creative potential of women, for the benefit of innovativeness development and the competitiveness of economy.

Despite introduction of EU standards concerning gender status, in Poland and in Europe the phenomenon of gender inequality still exists, usually to the disadvantage of women. The problem lies not in the field of legislation, but concerns the problem of putting the new rules into practice. Positive changes depend on the effort of employees of enterprises and institutions to work out organisational and ethical standards fully respecting the principle of equality. Shift in mentality of the whole society is also necessary.

 

author: A. Siemaszko-Skiendziul

 

Literature:

 

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