PES Women recalls on International Women’s Day that across Europe the gender pay gap is still over 16%. And thus equality between women and men cannot yet be celebrated.
At the PES Women Summit in Rome last week, the PES gender pay gap campaign ‘Equal Pay – It’s about Time‘ was the focus of our debate. Closing the gender pay gap will be a top priority for the PES and PES Women in the upcoming European election campaign. The PES Common Candidate Martin Schulz too promised to fight fiercely for equal pay.
Today PES Women, with their president Zita Gurmai in the lead, organised a massive street action in Hungary calling for equal pay, as part of the five PES Women campaign events, which were launched in Italy last week.
“On International Women’s Day, it’s important to raise awareness that women and men are still not earning the same wage for the same work. If not tackled during this period of crisis, Europe will face an increased pay gap as well as other imbalances in society and on the labour market. We cannot tolerate this any longer and this is why we are on the streets today; we need to mobilise to ensure that Europe leans to the left once more and women’s rights are ensured.” PES Women President Zita Gurmai stated.
Although the occasion of street action today is International Women’s Day, PES Women want every day to be women’s day, and are planning further actions and events across Europe in the upcoming weeks. These events will also tackle two other crucial issues for women’s rights: the access to sexual and reproductive health and rights and combating violence against women.
