46 Amendments of Julie WARD related to 2015/2228(INI)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas education for gender equality must aim to combat the 'feminisation of poverty' by overcoming gender stereotypes, and leading to an increased representation of women and girls and other genders in the economic, social, and political spheres;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
- having Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence ('the Istanbul Convention'),
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 13 a (new)
Citation 13 a (new)
- having regard to the results of the European Union lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender survey carried out by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and published on 17 May 2013,
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 23 a (new)
Citation 23 a (new)
- having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs on meeting the anti-poverty targets in light of increasing household costs, and the accompanying opinion by the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas poverty rates among women vary greatly between the Member States; whereas regardless of how specific the groups at risk are such as oelderly women, lone parents,single persons, single parents, lesbian women, bisexual women, transgender women and women with disabilities, the poverty rates among migrant women and women from ethnic minorities are the same throughout the European Union;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights that gender equality in education implies that girls and boys, women and men, are afforded the same chances and treatment in access, process and outcome for high-quality education, as well as positive measures by which structural, cultural, and intersectional gender inequality is overcome so that women and girls can be empowered through education;
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the EU LGBT Survey finds that lesbian, bisexual and transgender women face a disproportionate risk of discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity, in employment (19%), education (19%), housing (13%), healthcare (10%) and access to social services (8%); whereas this results in disproportionate risks to their economic and social well-being;
Amendment 39 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas living at risk of poverty translates into social exclusion in terms of access to public transport, primary healthcare services, decent housing and, education, life-long learning, and access to and participation in culture;
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls that gender mainstreaming at all levels of the education system is needed, including assessing the implications for girls and boys, women and men of any planned action and the need to let the concerns and experiences of all, form the design, implementation and evaluation of policies; notes the importance of women's representation in decision-making in educational institutions, including schools and universities;
Amendment 55 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that in all Member States the risk of poverty and social exclusion among children is strongly linked to their parents and carers’ level of education, and in particular to that of their mothers, their situation in the labour market and their social conditions; points out that a lack of education is a major risk factor for child poverty and social exclusion; notes that a number of family-related factors such as family instability and lifestyle, single parenthood, poor living conditions, physical and mental health problems and domestic violence can, moreover, increase the likelihood of young people giving up education and training prematurely;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls for the Commission and Member States to invest in formal and informal education and life-long learning to combat poverty and increase women's representation in traditionally male- dominated fields such as science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and entrepreneurship, which include positive female role-models and peer-to- peer mentor networks, thereby overcoming gender stereotypes and prejudices;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas women often take the responsibility for the care of elderly or ill family members as well as for children, resulting in their lower participation in the labour market, which consequently diminishes their overall income; whereas the establishment of high-quality childearly childhood education and care services and facilities at affordable prices reduces the risk of impoverishment; whereas few Member States have achieved or surpassed the Barcelona objectives;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas given the inter-generational dimensions of poverty, addressing the situation of girls and young women facing social exclusion and poverty is key to tackling the feminisation of poverty;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Recalls in particular the right of migrant and refugee children, both boys and girls, to have access to education; insists that any education policy put in place to address the intersection of gender equality and poverty, must also specifically take into account the situation of women facing multiple discrimination, such as women migrants and asylum seekers, women with disabilities, LGBTI women, Roma women, and women carers;
Amendment 67 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Emphasises the importance of men and boys being actively engaged on the issue of gender equality, and that formal and informal education and life-long learning programmes on gender equality must also engage boys and men, in order to help overcome the social exclusion and discrimination which exacerbate female poverty;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas the increasing risk of poverty is closely linked to budget cuts in education, social security systems and care services; whereas women and child have been hardest hit by the crisis and the austerity measures taken in several European countries;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas the stereotypes widely conveyed by society contribute to the feminisation of poverty; whereas these stereotypes are developed during childhood and are reflected in the choice of training and education and on into the labour market; whereas women are still too often confined to ‘'women-friendly’' tasks and remain under-represented in certain areas such as mathematics, science, engineering, and so on; whereas these stereotypes lead to discrimination in terms of regender-based discrimination;
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
Ia. whereas poverty and social exclusion, and women's economic dependency can be an exacerbating factor for violence against women and girls;
Amendment 98 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas meeting the Europe 2020 anti-poverty targets requires significant new political impetus; whereas these targets cannot be met unless anti-poverty policy includes a strong gender dimension;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the lack of affordable high- quality care, whether for children or for the sick or elderly, contributes to social exclusion, to the gender employment gap, the pay gap and the related pension gap; emphasises that equal access to childearly childhood education and care, and free, high-quality education and family support services is central to securing equal opportunities and breaking poverty cycles;
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the lack of affordable high- quality care, whether for children or for the sick or elderly, contributes to the gender employment gap, the pay gap and the related pension gap; emphasises that equal access to childcare and free, high-quality formal, informal, and non-formal education is central to securing equal opportunities and breaking poverty cycles;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Member States and the Commission to develop and utilise the available policy and financial instruments, including the Social Investment Package, to meet the Barcelona objectives; calls, in this context, for the Social Fund and the ERDF to be improved, for priority to be given, in the use of social investments and the EFSI regulation, to the establishment of public and private childcare facilities, and for the flexibility mechanism introduced in the context of the Stability and Growth Pact to be used for financing of childcare facilitiesearly childhood education and care (ECEC); proposes the creation of a specific line in the EU budget to fund, through a co- financing mechanism, incentives for specific areas where there is a shortage of childcareECEC facilities and where the female employment rate is extremely low;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Highlights that the lack of recognition of LGBTI families by many Member States, most notably by unequal marriage or partnership laws and parental recognition laws, results in lower incomes and higher costs for LGBTI people, increasing the risk of poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Urges the Commission to incorporate a more robust social dimension and a gender pillar in the European Semester;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Reiterates its disappointment of the withdrawal of the maternity leave Directive after many years of efforts to unblock the deadlock and thus guaranteeing a better protection for the European citizens;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement policies to promote the employment of women and the integration into the labour market of socially marginalised groups of women, in the light of the objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy, with an emphasis on life- long learning so that women have the access and opportunity to re-skill in the ever-changing labour market, an increase in the promotion of STEM subjects aimed at young girls to address existing education stereotypes early and combat long-term gaps in employment and pay, the development of affordable and high- quality public care services, flexible working time arrangements and measures to combat the segregation of men and women by occupation and sector;
Amendment 179 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission to conduct a study how procedures related to the official recognition of the gender reassignment of a person, or the absence of such procedures, affect transgender people's position on the labour market, particularly their access to employment, level of remuneration, career development and pensions;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Reiterates the role of education in combating gender stereotypes and in combating the stigmatisation of poverty and through women's inclusion in sectors where they have been under-represented such as science, technology, engineering, and entrepreneurship, and calls on the Commission to incorporate vocational training targets for women in the country- specific recommendations;
Amendment 207 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Stresses that the effects of poverty and social exclusion on children can last a lifetime and result in intergenerational transmission of poverty; stresses that in all Member States the risk of poverty and social exclusion among children is strongly linked to their parents’ level of education, and in particular to that of their mothers, and their parents’ situation in the labour market and their social conditions; stresses the need to establish a framework of support for teenage mothers, for whom leaving school early is a first step towards poverty; stresses the need to establish a comprehensive set of measures for tackling child poverty and promoting child well-being based on three pillars, namely access to adequate resources and reconciling work and family life; access to good quality services; and children's participation in decisions that affects them, and in cultural, leisure and sport activities;
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Believes that equal treatment legislation is a vital instrument to combat poverty resulting from marginalisation and discrimination of sexual and gender minorities; calls in this regard on the Council to adopt the 2008 proposal for a directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation; calls furthermore, for the explicit inclusion in any future recast of the Gender Equality Directives of a ban on discrimination on grounds of gender identity;
Amendment 215 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Reaffirms the importance of economic and financial education at a young age, which has been shown to improve economic decision-making later in life, including in managing costs and incomes; recommends the exchange of best practice and the promotion of educational programmes targeting women and girls in vulnerable groups and marginalised communities facing poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 b (new)
Paragraph 10 b (new)
10b. Believes that improvement in rights awareness should be part of the efforts to combat gender-based poverty and exclusion; remains concerned that rights awareness in the area of discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, and awareness of the existence of bodies and organisations offering support to victims of discrimination, is low; calls, in this regard, on the Commission to closely monitor the effectiveness of national complaint bodies and procedures in the context of the implementation of the gender equality directives with regard to gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment and the implementation of the employment equality directive with regard to sexual orientation;
Amendment 225 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Calls on the Commission promote best practice on taxation policy that takes gender impacts into account, and promotes gender equality, particularly VAT, and taxation of household income, which at times can subject lower earners to higher rates of taxation;
Amendment 227 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 b (new)
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11b. Stresses that data collection on household costs and income must be complimented by individualised data in order to account for gender-based inequalities within the households;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 c (new)
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11c. Insists that macroeconomic policy must be compatible with social equality policy, and that it must include a strong gender perspective; Reiterates that financial institutions such as the ECB and national central banks must take into account social impacts, including impacts on gender inequalities, when modelling and deciding on macroeconomic monetary policies, or financial services policies;
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 d (new)
Paragraph 11 d (new)
11d. Emphasises that access to credit, financial services and advice is key to empowering women facing social exclusion in entrepreneurship, and increasing their representation in the sector; calls on the Commission and Member States to take effective measures to facilitate that access, particularly with regard to vulnerable women facing multiple discrimination;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 e (new)
Paragraph 11 e (new)
11e. Restates its support for the initiative to formulate a guideline reference budget, and calls on the Commission to include gender-specific considerations when designing it, including the gender inequalities faced within households;
Amendment 231 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 f (new)
Paragraph 11 f (new)
11f. Reasserts the need to undertake research into female homelessness and its causes and drivers, as the phenomenon is captured inadequately in current data; notes that gender-specific elements that ought to be taken into account include gender-based economic dependency, temporary housing, or avoidance of social services;
Amendment 232 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 g (new)
Paragraph 11 g (new)
11g. Calls for more ambitious action to tackle energy poverty, which disproportionately affects single women, single-parent and female-headed households; Urges the Commission and the Member States to establish a definition of energy poverty which takes into account gendered aspects of the phenomenon, and to include it in the future recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive; Highlights the important role of community energy initiatives such as cooperatives in empowering vulnerable energy consumers, particularly women facing poverty and social exclusion and marginalisation;
Amendment 236 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Notes that women’'s economic independence plays a crucial role in their ability to escape situations of violence; calls for the provision of social protection systems guaranteeing the social rights of women who are victims of violence; Reissues the call for the EU and all Member States to sign and ratify the Istanbul Convention;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Believes that many aspects of female poverty remain unrecognised, including for example the exclusion of women from access to culture and social participation; considers that the severe material deprivation indicators relating toexclude access to culture are inadequate and that, and social participation, and are therefore provide an incomplete understanding of poverty; calls for more indicators shouldto be developed for assessing exclusion, in terms of social, cultural, and political participation, and particularly its influence on the vicious cirycle of poverty, and its inter-generational impacts;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Reasserts its call to the Commission to strive towards establishing a European Child Guarantee, ensuring that every European child at risk of poverty has access to free health care, free education, free childcare, decent housing and adequate nutrition; Emphasises that such a policy must address the situation of women and girls, particularly in vulnerable and marginalised communities;
Amendment 255 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Notes that the Youth Guarantee initiative must include a gender perspective, addressing the situation of young men, women and persons of all gender identities in education, training, and labour markets;
Amendment 258 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Encourages the Member States and the Commission to develop exchanges of best practice on legislative and budgetary instruments for combating poverty; with a focus on those groups at particular risk of poverty, including migrant women, women from ethnic minorities, single women, lesbian women, bisexual women, transgender women, older women and women with disabilities;
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Highlights the role of social enterprise in empowering and including women facing poverty and social exclusion and multiple discrimination;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Asks the Commission and the Member States to create stakeholder engagement processes that promote and facilitate the direct engagement of persons at risk of poverty and social inclusion, particularly women and girls, in policymaking on social inclusion at all levels;