International Women’s Day 2016
By Despina Afentouli
Dr in Sociology – Journalist
“Woman, if you want to work manly, for your release from slavery, it is not enough to burn, to spread, to spend the gold, the myrrh, the incense to the new shrine.
Inside you first burn the triple statue which makes the servants, Habit, Profit, Prevention. […]”, wrote on his poem “Woman” the writer-poet Kostis Palamas (1859-1943), which, however, even nowadays remains current.
This year, 2016, the European Council devotes the International Women’s Day 2016 on the woman-refugee, who, under war conditions, abandons her house and her country, so as to survive, facing at the same time exploitation, violence and inequality.
In Greece, the consolidation of the right to vote and get elected at the Municipal elections in 1934, the women’s right to vote as well at the national elections in 1956, the modernization of the Family Law in 1983 (Law 1329/83), the establishment of the percentage per gender for [achieving] a balanced participation of men-women at the decision making procedure, as well as the creation of the Regional Committees of Gender Equality at each Region (“Kallikratis” Program), are some of the most important breakthroughs and achievements of the 20th and 21st century.
The road, however, is still long. The equal participation of women in the decision making centers is not self-evident, while women are rarely appointed to high leadership positions.
The consequences of the financial crisis have affected especially the women in our country [Greece], as the statistics of the Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) for January 2016, show that the registered unemployment for men is 39,67%, while for the women is 60,33%.
The woman, despite her conflicting roles as mother, spouse, employed and / or as an active citizen, confute every day the stereotypes in relation to her capabilities and continues to struggle [in] multiple [ways], so as to persuade for the self-evident.
Despite her achievements, through her struggles, [not only] at national, but also at international level, the road to woman’s fair treatment is perpetual and continuous.