The discrimination against women in job and salary in Tunisia.

A woman's right to work is enshrined in national legislation, both in the private sector than in the public. The legal texts governing the sector pledging equal rights between men and women.

The article 11 of the General Statute of State employees, local authorities and public institutions, it pledging equal access to public employment and it prohibits discrimination. This principle was indicated both in terms of assumptions in terms of career development and compensation.

Same thing is enshrined in the private sector and in collective agreements.

With the law of 17 February 2000 were repealed some articles of the Code of Obligations and Contracts resolved to provisions that require the consent of the husband for the work of his wife.

The monthly wage in the private sector is about 557 dinars. Bonuses and overtime represent 14% of salary.

These data were observed through a survey conducted in April 2011 by the Center for Research and Social Studies under the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Another information that emerges from this survey is that 63% of workers in the private sector are male, while 37% are female.

This data, in itself is disconcerting, it is compounded by the fact that the average net salary of men is 29% higher than that of women.

Salaries in the private sector increases with the level of education received.

In the agricultural sector, workers' salaries are in line with that of workers in the same category, but results in a 15% lower for the remuneration of the female workforce, thus abrogating the establishment of a minimum salary in this sector.

The debate on inequalities between men and women is also apparent in the employment sector, where women are being penalized with low salaries, less responsibility and more discrimination.

The situation that emerges in Tunisia appears to be paradoxical, as the average of the girls with a school career of the most successful it is higher than that of males, but women have more difficulties to enter the world of work than men.

To pledge the full enjoyment of women's right to pay without discrimination, the Tunisian legislation has planned inspections to check the correct application of labor relations organizational legal, regulatory and contractual.

Violation of these rules will be subject to criminal and administrative penalties.

Sources:

http://www.espacemanager.com/tunisie-le-salaire-des-hommes-superieur-de-29-celui-des-femmes-dans-le-prive.html

http://www.radiomfm.tn/fr/actualite/details/5104/La-discrimination-au-travail-touche-plus-les-femmes-que-les-hommes.html

http://www.femmes.tn/fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=95

The Gender Pay Gap in Serbia

If you are a woman in the labour market, pay attention to not fall down in a gap or to not hit your head against a glass ceiling!

Before talking about gender pay gap and glass ceiling it may be useful to give some definitions.

Gender pay gap is defined by the European Commission as: "the difference between men’s and women’s pay, based on the average difference in gross hourly earnings of all employees."

As far as Glass ceiling is concerned, Ann Morrison describes the problem: the glass ceiling is a barrier "so subtle that it is transparent, yet so strong that it prevents women from moving up the corporate hierarchy", women can see the high-level corporate positions but are kept from "reaching the top" (Breaking the Glass Ceiling, 1994). The glass ceiling is invisible but real, barriers that prevent women from reaching high level working positions and they are due to different factors, but the most important are prejudice and discrimination.

Some EU institutions, like EIGE, has done research and studies about these problems by monitoring the situation among different EU member States.

But for what concerns countries which are not part of EU, like Serbia, informations are very poor or even lacking. But it seems that things are going to change. As a matter of fact, on the 20th of October 2014, EIGE published this title: "Serbia will be the first country outside the EU to build a gender equality index based on the Gender Equality Index of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). EIGE experts investigated the possibilities during an official visit on 14 and 15 October and concluded that it is relevant and technically feasible to construct such an Index in Serbia: Serbia has the appropriate statistical know-how and expertise to do so."

Until we wait for the Gender Equality Index, there is a recent study: "Gender Pay Gap in the Western Balkan Countries: Evidence from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia" (2013), that is useful to analyse in order to understand gender pay gap in Serbia. According to new research conducted by a team of two think-tanks, The Belgrade-based Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN) and the Skoplje-based University American College Skopje (UACS): in Serbia, women employees have higher qualifications than men, but yet they still earn less. 

For a better understanding of the statistical results produced, we need to distinguish between "raw/unadjusted gender wage gap" and "true/adjusted wage gap". The first one is a simple difference in the average female vs. male wage. The second one is calculated using econometric methods that make it possible to compare women with men, holding the same work characteristics - such as education level or years of work experience – in addition to the comparison of women and men within the same occupation or sector of activity. In Serbia, the unadjusted gap is 3.3%, while the adjusted gap is 11%. Practically, this difference means that, when the labour market characteristics are taken into consideration, the pay gap raises. So the adjusted gap shows that in Serbia women and a men doing the same work, despite they have same work characteristics, men are still paid more than women. This result clearly underlines that the wage gap has nothing to do with professional skills but it is strictly related to gender discrimination based on some prejudice: men are more authoritative, women are less flexible with working hours due to their family responsibilities, etc.

Due to the particular structure of the Serbian labour market, it is important to analyse the gender wage gap separately in public and private sector. 

As it is shown in the graphic below, the wage gap in Serbia is bigger in the private sector as a result of the glass ceiling. In the public sector the wage gap is the same in law paid and high paid work positions, while in private sector the wage gap for low paid profiles is 5.5% and it is 14% for the high paid positions.

References:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/gender_pay_gap/gpg_brochure_2013_final_en.pdf

http://www.rrpp-westernbalkans.net/en/News/Research-Results--Gender-Pay-Gap-in-the-Western-Balkan-Countries--Evidence-from-Serbia--Montenegro-and-Macedonia/mainColumnParagraphs/0/text_files/file0/Policy%20briefs_gender%20pay%20gap.pdf

http://eige.europa.eu/apps/gei/content/Gender-Equality-Index-Country-Profiles.pdf

http://eige.europa.eu/content/news-article/eiges-gender-equality-index-invigorates-serbias-path-to-gender-equality

http://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2013&mm=02&dd=21&nav_id=688849

The gender pay gap in Belgium

Nowadays, finding a job in Belgium is not a piece of cake, especially for women. Employers are not keen on hiring them because they do not want to give them a maternity leave when they decide to have children or because they simply underestimate their skills. And when they do find a job, women are not allowed the same income as their male colleagues. This blog post is going to analyze the case of the gender pay gap in Belgium but we will see that, sadly, this kind of discrimination is present all over the world.

 

In Belgium, women are on average paid 10.2% less than men for the exact same work. This percentage is calculated comparing the salary of men and women who are working for the exact same amount of hours. If we compare the monthly salary of Belgian men and women, the gap increases to 21% because a lot of women only work part-time. 45.8% of Belgian women work part-time, sometimes they want to combine work with their family life, but sometimes they did not choose not to work full-time. The average pay gap between men and women in Europe is 16.2%.

Every year, the Global Gender Gap Index releases a chart ranking 142 countries of the world according to their score concerning the gender pay gap issue. The score is a number between 0 and 1. 0 corresponds to inequality between men and women’s salary and 1 corresponds to equality between both salaries.

http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/rankings/

As you can see from the chart, sadly no country reaches the score of 1, meaning that there is not one single country on this planet that offers the same amount of money to a woman working for the same job as a man. The countries with the highest scores are the Scandinavians countries, with at least 0.8/1. Belgium is ranked number 10, with a score of 0.7809/1, which is not too bad considering the 142 countries included in this chart. Italy is ranked number 69 with a score of 0.6973/1. The countries at the very bottom of this chart are Syria, Chad, Pakistan and Yemen with a very poor score of only 0.5/1 which means that in these countries, men are paid twice as much as women.

Since 1957, the Belgian law stipulates that men and women must have the same salary for the same work. However, many companies have found a way to avoid abiding by this rule. They give different names to two functions so that they have a valid reason to pay the male employee more than the female employee. The two functions are called differently but everyone knows that the jobs are exactly the same.

Belgium is actually the first country of the European Union that has organized the Equal Pay Day, in 2005. The Equal Pay Day consists in raising people’s awareness about the gender pay gap. It was initially created in the United States in 1990. The date on which the Equal Pay Date is held is calculated in a very precise way: we calculate the date until which a woman should work in order to earn the same salary as a man who works from the 1st of January until the 31^st of December. The Equal Pay Day usually takes place in March. In 2014, the Belgian Equal Pay Day took place on the 18^th of March, this means that a woman should work exactly 14 months and 18 days to earn the very same amount of money that a man would have earned in 12 months. In other words, a woman would work two months and eighteen days for nothing.

Here is the link to 2 videos, created for the Equal Pay Day, whose aim is to raise awareness about the gender pay gap: http://www.equalpayday.be/EN/

 

Sources:

http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2014/rankings/

http://www.jobat.be/fr/articles/les-femmes-gagnent-encore-toujours-102-en-moins-que-leurs-collegues-masculins/

http://www.lalibre.be/actu/belgique/l-ecart-salarial-hommefemme-reste-present-en-belgique-52a5dd1e357004c37c89d1b1

http://www.equalpayday.be/NL/documenten/dossier2014EN.pdf

Gender pay gap: the case of Italy

The gender pay gap is a complex phenomenon, caused by a number of factors. One of these is definitely the discrimination suffered by women in the workplace. Very often the professionalism of the female figure is underestimated. Other factors are surely due by tradition and by gender roles, which determine the place of women and men in society right from their early age.

Finally, women usually choose part-time jobs in order to combine family and working life. The wage gap is in fact higher for women with children or part-time jobs. Women usually spend more time at home and with children while men rarely take parental leave or choose part-time jobs. The working day of a man at work is usually longer, but if you add up the hours paid and unpaid, a woman works definitely more.

The ninth edition of the Global Gender Gap Report, a study that takes into account women's participation in economic life and work in 142 countries, has placed Italy in the bottom of the ranking concerning participation in political and economic life. Unlike other sectors, such as health and education, where the gender gap is almost non-existent, we can’t say the same in terms of wages.

On this last aspect Italy is confirmed the tail-end among the developed countries. We are in fact in the last place in Europe, in the 114^th place in the overall standings, and in the 129^th  place regarding equal pay for equal work. The Observatory JobPricing provided a statistic showing where there are the main differences in compensation between men and women in the four main levels: Executives, Managers, Employees and Workers.

http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2014/11/15/news/gender_gap_in_italia_soffrono_di_pi_le_impiegate_guadagnano_3mila_euro_meno_dei_colleghi-100571355/

As we can see in the chart, on the average we have a gap of 7.2% in wages, with men who earn about € 2,000 more than women. We can notice that, the biggest gap is in salaries of employees, with a discrepancy that exceeds 10%. In the sector of management, the gender pay gap is of about 8%, in fact, even if women manage to access to the highest positions of corporate hierarchies, they still earn € 8,000 less than their male colleagues.

February 28^th is the 59^th day of the year. February 28^th is the perfect day to celebrate the "European Day for equal pay 'for men and women. Data coming from the European Commission report are clear: "The gender pay gap, which is the difference between the average hourly wage of men and women in the whole economy, has remained almost unchanged in the last years and is still about 16%. The 16% a year, is tantamount to 59 days since January 1^st until today, so in other words, it is as if from the beginning of the year to February 28, women have worked "to zero wage" than men. 

Sources:

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/gender_pay_gap/140319_gpg_it.pdf

http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-pay-gap/index_en.htm

http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2014/11/15/news/gender_gap_in_italia_soffrono_di_pi_le_impiegate_guadagnano_3mila_euro_meno_dei_colleghi-100571355/

The figure of women during Fascism

During the early 20th century in Italy, the role of women and the structure of the family underwent a lot of change. When the Italian Fascist Party took control in 1922, there was a change in direction; women industrial workers were no longer accepted, and the party began a restoration of the traditional female role. 

The ideal of women as mothers and managers of the home became prevalent as the dominating values of fascism. The party used propaganda in order to promote the importance of family. The male-dominated Fascist Party had traditional misogynist views. As a result of fascist thinking about the role of women in the family, women faced poor treatment in almost all areas of daily life outside the home including politics, economics, and society. Even more, this type of treatment was upheld by fascist legislation that served to underline the male’s dominating rank. This legislation reinforced the patriarchal authority, barred women from paid wage labor, and took away their choice in decisions about reproduction. Motherhood quickly became associated primarily with the act of making babies rather than the traditional, maternal values like love, guidance, and care. Women became like machines. Procreation basically came to define their social role and the authorities were determined to implement these newly defined roles for women by suppressing illegitimate sexuality, like prostitution, from public consumption. In addition, they set up numerous policies and incentives to emphasize women’s roles as mothers. For example, abortion was considered a crime. The government also issued family allocations, maternity insurance, birth and marriage loans, and career preferment for fathers of big families, as well as organizing special institutions for infant and family health and welfare. Unfortunately, even though these policies to some extent recognized women as political subjects, they failed to grant real privileges to women.When Mussolini came into power, implementing these policies, his regime tactics proved to take a lot from women, acting to exploit them in various ways. This held true especially for working-class and peasant women. 

First, fascists sought greater control over the already traditional role of the female, particularly motherhood. For example, in 1934, a law was passed that expanded benefits and coverage for women employed in industry. As a result, these women were given a two-month paid “compulsory leave.” They were also guaranteed time off to breast-feed newborns until they were a year old and the government provided feeding rooms for nursing women working in factories that employed more than fifty working women so they could breast-feed their babies at work. Furthermore, women were allotted a lump-sum payment when they gave birth, which immediately gave them a two-month wage when they had a baby.  Additionally, to offset the costs of big families, the party looked to make childbearing seem as if it were a service to the state. To do so, the government set aside a day to honor mothers and distributed various posters that showed motherhood as a national duty for women. Thus, Mother’s Day came to celebrate prolific mothers and especially recognize those mothers who had the most children. Women were constantly reminded of the importance and honor of being a mother of many children. 

The government gave women a lot of incentives to have large families. However, unlike in liberal states, like Finland, that extended political rights with social welfare services, Italy did the opposite. Where the interest was to promote the Italian nation, the welfare of the infant superseded that of the mother. So, while propaganda insisted that, naturally, women were only contented in motherhood and that childbearing was a “biological destiny,” government social services doubted whether women were naturally the best nurturers and questioned the control traditionally given to female kinship and community networks over childbirth and infant nurturing. Consequently, Italian mothers of all classes were made to feel incompetent, apprehensive, and dependent - that they needed male intervention in order to make correct decisions about motherhood. 

Nevertheless, even with all the restrictions, there was evidence of women’s resistance to fascist policies. Even though many remained politically passive, a decline in birth rates shows that others did not submit to pro-natalist policies. Even when poverty and prejudices limited the use of the only legally available contraceptive, condoms, they turned to alternative measures such as makeshift abortions to stop pregnancies. Although these alternative practices were more dangerous, it showed that women were determined to maintain a conscious effort in controlling their fertility in a state that sought to dictate women’s positions and duties to the state.

In conclusion, it is clear that Fascism worked to bring women back into their traditional roles as mothers and managers of the home by means of new legislation and propaganda. The new fascist policies served to help women, but at the same time exploit them in various ways that benefited the state. 

The Tunisian woman during the French colonialism.

This week I will analyze the role of women in Tunisia during the French colonial period.

France by signing up of the Treaty of Bardo in 1881 established a protectorate in Tunisia. Tunisia was compelled having to give up in to this condition because of the weakness of its military and its resistance movements, all this was aggravated by the state of bankruptcy in which it poured.

The impact of colonial influenced hopelessly on local culture thanks to the assimilation of the Europeans uses and customs. The French penetration and the subsequent struggle for political dominance they found strong class conflicts and they bring out the woman question that it’s closely linked to the issue of nationalism.

For Tunisian women Western influence has different consequences that it cannot always be defined favorable. But this process has also allowed changes as the weakening and disintegration of the social traditions and of male patriarchy that excluded women from important areas of public life.

The debate on the contrast between Western values and those natives, and debates on nationalism merged with women's issues; it and the issue of the veil merge in the history of struggles for the game colonial and resistance to Western influences. Another factor that has influenced the issue of women it is related to the intellectual and cultural rebirth, Nahda.

Between the nineteenth and twentieth century all these factors have led researchers and Muslim intellectuals to question the woman issue. They begin to discuss the need for female literacy. This is because the liberation of women is a basic requirement for the modernization and the liberation of the whole society.

It call into question the legitimacy of polygamy and easy divorce for the men; this is because they try to start a process of modernization of Islam. To be able to achieve this it was necessary to abandon the anti-feminist practices produced by local culture and customs for the benefit of Europeans.

The discourse of colonialism does nothing but change the language of feminism making key motive of its attack on the Islamic societies that keep segregated women, why are societies deserve to be subjugated or replaced.

It is strongly criticized the meaning of marriage as a mere instrument of sexual fulfillment. The object of the colonial language is to attack local societies. At the same time the colonized are seen slaves of colonial domination that exerts a gratuitous violence against their traditions.

All this leads the educated classes and the upper classes to discuss the issue of women. At the end of the nineteenth century, the idea takes root that the emancipation of women is crucial to put end the negative influences of a society controlled by males.

The change of women in Tunisian society is highlighted by clothing. Women are more visible in the public and in the streets, and their custom is gradually changing. The women from the upper classes have the opportunity to visit European cities without having the obligation to wear the veil.

Despite all these changes, however, the role of women is always subjected to that of the male, based on the concept of Islam on the difference between the sexes. This is thought to be rooted above all in the tribes whereas in wealthy families the women should receive adequate education and she can assimilate the customs and traditions of the West.

To have a tangible change not only the company but also the Tunisian law must wait for 1956, with the declaration of independence and the reform of the Code of Personal Status.

Belgian Women during the Nazi occupation

This week, I have decided to focus on the situation of Belgian women during the German occupation of 1940-1945. One does not need to be an expert to know that living in this period was hell. Food was extremely scarce, and money was not abundant either. Tickets for food were given at the City Hall. Everyone had to go there with their Identity Card in order to know in which category they belonged: pregnant women were allowed the biggest ration of food; Jews were only allowed a tiny quantity. The only way to get more food was to buy some at the illegal black markets. During the Nazi occupation, Belgian women lived in constant fear. They tried their best to feed and protect their family while trying not to think about the fact that their husbands may never come back from the war.

 

One Belgian woman who decided it was time for her to take actions in order to do some good during the Second World War is Andrée de Jongh. Born in Brussels in 1916, Andrée was only 24 years old when the German occupation started. When the war broke out, she resigned from her previous job and began to work as a nurse for the Red Cross. She helped wounded soldiers to recover and when they were fit enough to walk again, Andrée sent them to safe houses.

However, nursing wounded soldiers was not enough for her. She wanted to do more to help them and so, she decided to found a resistance group. Women leaders of resistance groups were extremely rare. She knew how risky her project was, but she decided to go through with it anyway. In an interview she gave in 2000, Andrée recalls: "When war was declared I knew what needed to be done. There was nohesitation. We could not stop what we had to do although we knew the cost. Even if it was at the expense of our lives, we had to fight until the last breath." 

Andrée created an escape network for Allied soldiers, and especially airmen, to help them escape from occupied Belgium and to reach Britain. The line started in Belgium, crossing France, climbing the Pyrenees Mountains and then reaching the British consulate in Madrid, Spain. Her resistance group was called the “Comet Escape Line” because of the unusual speed at which she managed to help Allied soldiers escape. Over 3000 members joined the Comet Line. Allied soldiers were sent to Spain through the Comet Line in small groups to avoid being noticed. Andrée de Jongh accompanied these groups more than thirty times. She said that it was best if she made the journey with them because women attracted less attention from the German army than men and it would look less suspicious. She was so involved in helping these soldiers escaping that she even sold her own jewelry in order to afford the journey. In total, Andrée personally helped 118 Allied men to reach Britain.

But during one of her many journeys to Spain, Andrée got arrested by the Nazis. The Gestapo tortured her in order to get information out of her. She tried to struggle as long as she could but eventually she gave in. She admitted that she was the founder and the leader of the Comet Escape Line. As incredible as it may sound, when Andrée told the Germans the truth, they did not believe her. In their opinion, it was impossible that a woman was the leader of a resistance party. The image that society had of women at that time actually saved Andrée’s life. Instead of killing her right away, the Nazis sent her in a concentration camp. She was freed in 1945 when the war was over.

For her heroic efforts during the war, Andrée de Jongh received numerous rewards from the United States, Britain, France and Belgium. In 1985, this incredibly brave woman was made a Countess by the Belgian King Baudouin. She died in 2007 at the age of 90.

Sources:
https://books.google.be/books?id=yN_17svfqSQC&pg=PA126&lpg=PA126&dq=belgian+women+world+war+II&source=bl&ots=wU5AMQ7f1J&sig=3sKxMe3AbTGKsz_XoCrPcwsT1UY&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=nw6PVKOHBYX5UMGGg4AP&ved=0CFIQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q&f=false
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1566506/Andree-de-Jongh.html