May 1 response to questions raised by the project Pripublikarrak occasion on women factory workers Artiach:
What is the employment status of women today?
What has changed the employment situation of women in the service society compared to the industrial age?
The Artísimas we would not have enough data to respond specifically to them, but we offer some reflections on the labor issue that is central to our concerns as artists.
We believe that the concept "woman" boxed and limited to very different women living in Euskal Herria go through various and diverse work situations. Variants of ethnicity, gender and social class that traverse the world of work are determining factors with which we encounter when accessing or not a particular job. Those who belong to the working class, we see an idea that makes arguably our current employment situation: the precariousness
we suffer more than half of women employed in the territory, the latter accompanied by unemployment and poverty
that mostly women suffer .
On the other hand, believe that raising the issue as "employment status" automatically excludes domestic work of women. Domestic production generates wealth but this is not paid or accounted for Women hire or fire us from our work rather precarious but by the wealth produce out of it, that is, within the home. It seems clear that countries are more interested in the wealth generated by women within the home than in his job.
addition, domestic work of women acts as a cushion so that no tension in the labor market. Thus, public institutions also save on social infrastructure and services (day care centers, soup kitchens, homes for the third age ....) Social expenditures of public budgets benefit from increased women's work.
Keep in mind that the work is more than paid working hours in an "official market, it can be paid or unpaid, and that within the first are two very different economic realities: the official and black.
activity rates vary if we included the housework done by women. Of ten, seven women are considered "inactive" because they are not targeted in the lists of INEM. Of the three women remaining "active" to be reflected in the labor market, job seekers, one is unemployed and both have work. Surveys
Force active people are busy and stops that make efforts to enter the labor market. Inactive people are students, pensioners, disabled and housewives. Therefore, shows the social and institutional disqualification of housework, legitimizing the idea of \u200b\u200b"woman at home" being "non-productive women, remains, curiously, the work undertaken by women within the household basics for survival, human development, quality of life and quality of the workforce.
note that the need to quantify unpaid domestic work is a step towards achieving equality between women and men and the important thing is not only compensation, but the real social recognition and the distribution thereof.
When women go out into the working world in search of employment, the obstacles that today we are those considered "active" are greater than those of men:
First double workday (if you opted to devote to the art it will become triple or quadruple if we consider the issue of domestic responsibility .) Despite the incorporation of women into the labor market endures the imbalance in the domestic role, so that women spend far less time than men on unpaid productive activities and much more than these to the unpaid and reproduction.
Wage discrimination is another handicap to the women we met. The survey of salaries Industry and Services of the National Employment Institute reflects an average earnings per worker and month, for women less than 30% in the CAV.
When women perform work for others, are generally paid less traditionally female occupations and poorly paid. 84% of the Basque workers engaged in the service sector (commerce, hospitality, health, education ...), the industry 13.3%, 1.7% to the agriculture and 0.9% to
construction 77% of people working in the informal sector are women. Domestic work for others is an activity likely to work undercover. 80% of these workers are paid below Minimum wage, plus 70% is not listed in Social Security.
Unemployment is defined in the male and female bending being young women, especially those on the Left Bank, those with the highest rates of unemployment.
The current labor market policies, policies
"flexibility" sell us part-time work as a solution that allows us to combine paid work with our domestic responsibilities. Under this extremely curious to support women to integrate into the market / world of work (without leaving home) are hidden new forms of exploitation, as in most contracts such benefits are excluded from the agreement, certain social programs of the company and also usually offered at times incompatible with domestic work, thus creating new problems for women.
Finally, temporality
is another pillar of precariousness. Temporary contracts involving poorer working conditions for casual workers who lack basic rights such as holidays, leave a number or seniority.
* Women are the largest group of so-called "new poor" in the strike, work in precarious, particularly in sectors with higher risk of poverty: separated women, single parents, pensioners, widows, young ... These "new poor", defined as those still in employment, pension, allowance or social assistance do not have the resources to lead a dignified life.
"Work never missing. What we need is stable and worthy"
Data taken from the book: "Breaking the circle of exclusion" of the collective-Otxoak Berri published by Likiniano Elkartea 2001
