March 8: we stop to move towards equality

What would happen in the world if we women for one day stopped all our activity, paid or unpaid? This question is the one at the base of the vindictive action that will take place next March 8, International Women's Day, which proposes a symbolic stop that highlights the power of female strength. The experience brings us face to face with an often ignored reality: women are responsible for the reproduction of the workforce, we take on the tasks of caring for people and maintaining homes. In short, we are indispensable for the daily functioning of the world. So why do we continue to suffer social and economic discrimination?

Inequality is real and obvious: it manifests itself when we socially and economically undervalue the work done by women, in the low presence of women in leadership and decision-making positions, in the difficulties in reconciling personal, family and work life, as well as in the very unequal distribution of family, domestic and care responsibilities. According to the dossier "The feminization of poverty. Claiming a gender perspective" from the Third Sector Table, women spend twice as much time as men on household and family tasks. In total, we devote almost the same amount of time to them (21:21 per week) as we spend on paid work (23:13 per week).

In the professional field, although it is true that it has begun to crack, the glass ceiling, a phenomenon directly linked to patriarchal society, continues above us. Women still have to overcome many more obstacles than men to reach executive or senior management positions. Even in a sector such as the social sector, especially feminized, we continue to find a significant inequality which manifests itself, among other things, in the fact that managerial positions continue to be held mostly by men. This is corroborated by the latest report of the NGO Coordinator in Spain. Among its main conclusions, it stands out that 70% of the paid staff are women, while the proportion reverses as it rises towards management positions. Those responsible for the governing bodies of the organizations are usually men (68%) and they also represent 57% of the boards of directors.

March 8 is the annual alarm signal that reminds us how far we are from achieving a fully egalitarian society. However, we have alarms throughout the year; they are part of our daily existence, conditioned by the masculinity that prevails in society. Only by working from the ground up will we be able to put an end to sexist automatisms and in this way tackle major goals such as putting value on the care economy, closing the wage gap, breaking the glass ceiling or eliminating job insecurity for women workers.