Activities of Katrin LANGENSIEPEN related to 2021/2170(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on women’s poverty in Europe
Amendments (22)
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas women, in particular those in vulnerable situation, such as young women, women with disabilities, women with migration background, Romani women, women of religious or ethnic minorities as well as LBTIQ women, are at higher risks of poverty than men and other women; whereas they face additional and intersecting forms of discrimination when accessing education, healthcare, employment and social services and are thus exposed to a higher risk of poverty;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the COVID-19 crisis has had a severe impact on labour income and wealth and is halting improvements in AROPE; whereas support measures have cushioned the negative effects of the crisis in the short runvulnerable groups in precarious employment conditions such as sex workers and undocumented migrants were not taken into account for the implementation of the Covid19 recovery support measures; whereas the burden of the pandemic will be disproportionately borne by low-wage earners which will increase poverty and inequality across Europe;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas inequalities may increase when the support measures are progressively phased outwill continue to increase; whereas the medium-term impact of the crisis will depend on the degree of inclusiveness of the recovery; whereas social protection policies are vital elements of national development strategies to reduce poverty and vulnerability across the life cycle and to support inclusive and sustainable growth; whereas the recovery must include targeted strategies to support the most vulnerable and marginalised women in our societies in order to leave no one behind;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas women are over- represented in non-standard forms of work, in the hardest-hit sectors and among frontline workers in health and social care; whereas more women than men are in occupations that cannot be carried out remotely; whereas more women than men lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and whereas more women than men reduced working hours to ensure continued care for children and to provide for family members in need;
Amendment 32 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas fewer women are in full time employment than men (48% of women comparing to 64% of men) and marginalised women are even more excluded from full time employment 1a, whereas only 20,7% of women with disabilities and 28,6% of men with disabilities are in full-time employment; whereas persons with disabilities are systematically denied their right to work in the open labour market and are employed in sheltered workshops where they often do not have employee status, neither labour rights, nor a guaranteed minimum wage; whereas this is effectively a violation of both the UNCRPD and the Charter of Fundamental Rights; _________________ 1ahttps://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality- index/2021/domain/work/disability
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the burden of domestic unpaid labour, the discrimination in access to the labour market, low pay and low career prospects are barriers to achieving equal economic independence for women and men and can lead to higher risks of poverty and social exclusion; whereas the gender pay gap within the EU remains persistently at 14%; whereas there is no country where full gender equality is achieved;
Amendment 45 #
Draft opinion
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas poverty increases the risks of violence against women; whereas women faced with risks of poverty are more vulnerable and violence increases the risks of social exclusion; whereas the lack of economic resources creates dependency and deters women from leaving their abusers; whereas violence is one of the key reasons for women’s homelessness;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas the multiple gender gaps such as the so called "dream gap" or the "entitlement gap" and lack of women representation in leadership position condition girls career and education choices from an early age and therefore contribute to increasing inequality in certain sectors of the job market between men and women, in particular STEM careers;
Amendment 64 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Calls for an overarching European anti-poverty strategy, with ambitious targets for reducing poverty and a focus on breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty risks; calls for such a strategy to integrate an intersectional analysis and approach and set out targeted measures to support the most marginalised.
Amendment 72 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to reduce the burden of womenand responsibilities of women and actively support informal care-providers, the majority of them being women, by providing adequate income for carers and by ensuring accessible, affordable and adequate quality care and services for children, people with disabilities, the elderly and other dependants; calls on the Commission and the Member States to adequately fund public as well as not-for- profit social services and other social infrastructures and to ensure universal access to essential services for women, especially for vulnerable groups, as this would allow more women to participate in the labour market and would also contribute to reducing the risk of women and their dependents falling into poverty;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Stresses the need to ensure universal access to quality early childhood education and care to support gender equality in the labour market as well as children’s healthy development in the early years. Recognises that efforts are needed to address existing inequalities in access to quality early childhood education and care services and to facilitate access for those most in need, including single parent households – the majority of which are women – who usually have lower income and therefore are more prone to poverty due to high costs for childcare;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights that universal access to public, solidarity-based and adequate retirement and old age pensions must be granted to all; underlines the importance of public and occupational pension systemsand accessible to all, particularly to women as the average gender pension gap within the EU remains persistently at 35%; underlines the importance of public and occupational pension systems that take into account women’s contribution in unpaid care responsibilities and that provide an adequate retirement income above the poverty threshold and allow pensioners to maintain their standard of living; askscalls on the Member States to consider factoring child-raising and other informal care responsibilities into pension schemes when women and persons are not able to undertake paid work and make suitable contributions during such period payments due to their caring tasks;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that the recovery efforts should boost jobs and growth,invest in the care sector, boost quality jobs and growth, decent work, skills and training and the resilience and fairness of our societies, and should be complemented by a strong social dimension, paying attention to people, in particular young women, who have aomen with disability or who stay at home to care for a family memberies, women with migration background, Roma women, women of religious or ethnic minorities as well as LBTIQ+ women who care for dependents, as they are particularly at risk of falling into or remaining in poverty;
Amendment 102 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Calls for an obligatory EU framework establishing minimum wages, that allows for a decent standard of living for workers and their families, benchmarked at 60% of median wage and 50% of the gross average wage for all groups of workers and without variations or discrimination;
Amendment 105 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Highlights that in-work poverty discriminates women; urges the Commission to come forward with EU legislation to guarantee a minimum income for those most at risk of exclusion; calls on the European Commission and Member States in the upcoming Recommendation on Minimum Income to ban all discrimination in minimum income schemes in order to break the poverty-cycle of vulnerable families;
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Calls to prioritise and examine more systematically the in-work poverty rate, in relation to gender and specific groups, and calls to increase wages, increase employment security and against involuntary part-time work, countering discrimination in pay rates, including closing the gender pay gap, in order to ensure that decent work is a sustainable route out of poverty;
Amendment 109 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 d (new)
Paragraph 4 d (new)
4d. Calls on Member States, not least through the European Semester instruments, to build inclusive labour markets, with pathway approaches for vulnerable groups to quality jobs and employment, with decent wages and employment and social protection;
Amendment 110 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 e (new)
Paragraph 4 e (new)
4e. Welcomes the proposal for the Pay Transparency Directive, aiming at reducing the gender pay gap and therefore improving women’s financial stability, which could allow them to escape situations of domestic violence. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that such proposal covers as many workers as possible without discrimination. Reminds that higher participation into the labour market does not automatically close the gender pay gap. Stresses that the segregation of the labour market undervalues feminised sectors and leads to precarious working conditions for women in those sectors;
Amendment 112 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. RecogniStresses the crucial role of all European funds and programmes in the social area, particularly the European Social Fund Plus and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers; calls on the Member States to make full use of these funds , the Just Transition Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund; calls on the Member States to make full use of these funds and ensure that the most vulnerable groups, including young women, women with disabilities, women with migration background, Romani women, women of religious or ethnic minorities as well as LBTIQ women are specifically targeted in the designing and planning of the national plans and the implementation of funded projects; reminds the Members States that all EU-funded projects must comply with EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD);
Amendment 121 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to submit initiatives in line with the Commission’s recommendation on Effective Active Support to Employment and to promote women’s empowerment through accessible and inclusive education, vocational training and lifelong learning with specific attention to the most marginalised, as well as access to finance, female entrepreneurship and women’s representation in future-oriented sectors with a view to ensuring access to high- quality employment; calls for greater promotion of STEM subjects, digital education, artificial intelligence and financial literacy in order to ensure that more women enter these sectors and contribute to their development.
Amendment 130 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the European Council to unblock the Women on Boards Directive; stresses that women in leadership representation conditions girls and young women’s school and career choice and contributes to ending inequalities in certain sectors of the job market where women are less represented, as well as improving the working conditions of feminised sectors;