Activities of Lina GÁLVEZ MUÑOZ related to 2021/2170(INI)
Plenary speeches (2)
Women’s poverty in Europe (debate)
Women’s poverty in Europe (debate)
Reports (1)
REPORT on women’s poverty in Europe
Amendments (95)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas women in the EU arin the EU, the number of women in poverty is still higher than the number of men in poverty1a; whereas despite a reduction in poverty in the EU among both women and men, women continue to be disproportionally more affected by poverty and the risk of social exclusion than men, in particular women who experience intersectional forms of discrimination; whereas in 2020, the risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) in the EU was higher for women (22.9 %) than men (20.9 %), though in both cases it has decreased since 2015 (24.9 % and 23.1 % respectively); whereas since 2017, the gender- poverty gap has increased in 21 Member States12 ; _________________ ; whereas according to the data, poverty rates among women vary greatly between Member States; whereas owing to the strong correlation between female poverty and child poverty, 1 in 4 children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion; _________________ 1a Eurostat webpage entitled ‘Living conditions in Europe – poverty and social exclusion’, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Living_conditi ons_in_Europe_- _poverty_and_social_exclusion&oldid=54 4210 12 European Institute for Gender Equality, ‘Gender Equality Index 2020: Digitalisation and the future of work’, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020.
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment rate of women has even fallen more sharply than it did during the 2008 recession and has also resulted in a lower labour intensity, leading to significaccording to estimates for 2019 in the EU-27, women are particularly affected by the risk of poverty (AROPE), with the poverty rate standing at 17.1 % after social transfers; whereas since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, women have been disproportionately affected in the socio-economic sphere, including, in some cases, by loss of employment; whereas the employment rate of women has even fallen more sharply than it did during the 2008 recession; whereas this is, among other things, due to the increase of unpaid care, domestic and educational work carried out mainly by women, and has also resulted in ant increases in women’s poverty; whereas according to estimates for 2019 in the EU- 27, women are particularly affected by the risk of poverty (AROP), with the poverty rate steven before the COVID- 19 pandemic, the majority of people in temporary and part-time posts were women, especially in the service sector, and whereas the pandemic has reinforced this trend; whereas the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are not yet fully comprehended and whereas the socio- economic impact will continue to be experienced in the coming years; whereas it is therefore essential to examine female poverty in context of the handling at 25.1 % before social transfers and 17.1 % after such transfers; nd aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis; whereas measures taken to exit the financial crisis of 2008 have not been sufficient to reduce women’s poverty; whereas reductions in funding for social public services and lower wages disproportionality affect women, owing to their greater reliance on social public services and allowances;
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas women’s poverty in geners multidimensional, and thus also women’s poverty, is multidimensional, and thereforefor this reason we need to combat all causes and consequences of all facets of women’s poverty, including material deprivation, but also the lack of access to different resources and services, which limits their ability to fully enjoy their citizenship; whereas female poverty is directly incfludes not only material deprivation, but also a lack of access to many different resources and even an inability to fully exercise the rights of citizenshipenced by the lack of fair valuation of work mainly carried out by women, career breaks due to maternity leave or care responsibilities, unequal sharing of unpaid caring responsibilities and domestic work and segregation in education and subsequently in the labour market; whereas women’s poverty results in their exclusion from certain social and political aspects of life; whereas at the same time, the lack of adequate access to resources and services increases women’s risk of falling into or remaining in poverty, which shows the mutual interdependence between poverty and social and political exclusion;
Amendment 4 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas the impact of poverty on women and men differs and therefore indicators to better understand the feminisation of poverty such as age, life expectancy, income inequality, the gender pay gap, type of household and social transfers also need to be considered; whereas synergies between various actions carried out and political measures supporting gender equality in employment, education, taxation policies and housing can help to combat deep- rooted causes of poverty and social exclusion more effectively;
Amendment 5 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas investment in universal services, including care services, has a positive impact on women’s fundamental rights; a common EU approach to the care sector, in addition to Member State policies, would create significant added value; whereas women take on unpaid care work more often than men, and caring for children or dependents is therefore one of the most common reasons for women to reduce their working hours or withdraw from the labour market; whereas women more regularly put their careers on hold or take on short-term, part-time, precarious or even informal employment that can be adapted to a caregiving schedule, which affects their earnings, their contributions to their pension funds and thus has an impact on their economic independence in old age; whereas universal access to high- quality healthcare and social services and facilities at affordable prices, such as early childhood care and education or care for other dependent persons, is not only key for avoiding increasing poverty, especially for women, but is also critical for an economy that serves the public interest; whereas investment in these services therefore has a positive impact on women’s economic independence and their ability to participate in the labour market; whereas social protection measures are absolutely key for tackling female poverty, not only economically but also in its multidimensionality;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas poverty also makes women more vulnerable to gender-based violence; whereas this includes disproportionate vulnerability to trafficking and sexual exploitation; exacerbates the impacts of gender-based violence on women as increased economic difficulties make it hard for women in abusive relationships to leave their partner; whereas gender-based violence is a structural problem that can be found across all socio-economic groups and is independent of origin or belief; whereas poverty puts women at greater risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation as it makes them and their families economically dependent on their abusers; whereas gender-based violence also contributes to poverty and social exclusion as violence has consequences for health and can lead to the loss of one’s job and homelessness;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas women have a lowthe average gender employment rate gap stands aret 11.5 %, with women disproportionally highly represented in low-paid, precarious and dead-end job sectors; whereas the gender pay gap stands at 14.1 %; job sectors; whereas women are more represented in flexible work forms, atypical and flexible contracts (part-time work, temporary work, etc.); whereas women face pregnancy and maternity discrimination; whereas the gender pay gap stood at 14.1 % at EU level in 2019, though there were significant differences between Member States 1b; whereas the gender gap in earnings has increased in 17 Member States since 2010, while the gender gap in income has gone up in 19 Member States, leading to an overall increase in gender inequality in earnings and income in the EU1c; whereas about 10 % of the working population in the EU is at risk of poverty, and it is mainly women who are paid minimum wage or less than a living wage, owing, among other things, to the greater involvement of women in the informal economy; whereas combating undeclared work and setting adequate and fair levels of minimum wages that provide for a decent standard of living can help to reduce wage inequality, the gender pay gap and female poverty; _________________ 1b Eurostat webpage entitled ‘Gender pay gap statistics’, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Gender_pay_g ap_statistics 1c ‘Gender pay gap statistics’.
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the gender pension entitlements gap averages at almost 30 %gap averaged 29.4 % in 20191d as a result of the imbalances created by persistent lifelong inequalities; whereas this pension gap means that women are more likely to fall below the poverty line as they get older; , also bearing in mind that female life expectancy is longer than male life expectancy, deepening the consequences of poverty and social exclusion; whereas greater labour inclusion throughout a person’s lifetime will help to close the gender pension gap; _________________ 1d 1d Eurostat article of 3 February 2021 entitled ‘Closing the gender pension gap?’.
Amendment 9 #
Aa. whereas women across the Union are at a higher risk of poverty, primarily due to gender inequalities in the labour market experienced during the life course;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas Article 3(3) of the Treaty on European Union commits the Union to combating ‘social exclusion and discrimination’ and promoting ‘social justice and protection [and] equality between women and men’ in line with the social market economy concept; whereas the European Pillar of Social Rights action plan has the specific aim of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty by at least 15 million by 2030, including 5 million children; whereas the social, green and gender equality agendas are interlinked and share the goals of ensuring sustainable growth and a fair distribution of resources; whereas the discussions on the review of the current EU model of socio-economic governance is harmfshould toake into consideration the EU’s commitment to reduce inequalities and eradicate poverty, in particular women’s poverty resulting from a lifetime of discrimination;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. CPoints out that, according to Eurostat, there are currently 64.6 million women and 57.6 million men living in poverty in the Member States, which shows that the impact of poverty on women and men is different; calls on the Commission to develop an ambitious 2030 European anti- poverty strategy, with concrete targets for reducing poverty and a focus on ending women’s poverty and the risk of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty risks;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that women’s poverty also needs to be analysed from an intersectional approach, including migrant and ethnic origin, age, race and sexual or gender orientatwhich entails a gender-sensitive analysis that takes into account intersecting forms of discrimination on the grounds of characteristics such as social-economic background, migrant and ethnic origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; calls for the EIGE’s Gender Equality Index to be incorporated into the social scoreboard; calls on the EIGE to provide data disaggregated intersectionally and by gender, and calls on the Member States to use this data in order to better address country-specific challenges and develop national recovery plans, as well as to improve synergies among different packages, funds and policies;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls onWelcomes the Commission to put forward a ‘care deal for Europe’, which should’s announcement of a ‘European care strategy’, but calls on it to go beyond measures in the care sector and ensure a transition towards a caring economy that takes a holistic, gender-sensitresponsive and lifelong approach to care while envisaging legislative measures and , including measures to promote ecological sustainability, fair working conditions and adequate wages in order to maintain the attractiveness of work in the care sector, end discrimination, combat poverty, violence and abuse, set minimum standards and adequate quality guidelinvestment at EU level for care throughout a person’s lifetime and provide support for formal and informal carers, unpaid carers and the people they care for; calls on the Member States to create incentives for employers to promote a better work-life balance;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the pivotal role of women working in the social, care, cleaning, education, health and retail sectors that keep our societies functioning, as shown by the COVID-19 crisis; calls for typically female-dominated work to be reassessed and revaluated and for cross- sector gender- neutral job evaluation tools to be developed and applied in order to better assess and more fairly remunerate female- dominated work and ensure equal pay for equal work and work of equal value, while at the same time strengthening women’s entrepreneurship in small and medium-sized enterprises;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas poverty is female and is the result of a lifetime discrimination; whereas in Europe, more than 65 million women live in poverty compared to 57 million men, and women’s poverty creates child poverty;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 19 a (new)
Citation 19 a (new)
— having regard to the resolution of 4 June of 2021 of “Old continent growing older –possibilities and challenges related to ageing policy post-2020” https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/doc ument/A-9-2021-0194_EN.html
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights that in order to tackle the multidimensionality of women’s poverty, it is necessary to overcome the segregation of unpaid domestic care workwork and care responsibilities mainly performed by women and to introduce flexitime in order to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional life with their private life (time use policy); strengthen the fight against stereotypes in order to reinforce care service work-life balance measures and family-friendly working arrangements, such as adaptable working hours and the possibility of teleworking to promote the ‘equal earner-equal carer’ model (time use policy)1e,so as to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional life with their private life; urges the Member States to fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive so as to ensure a fair division of work and family life, and invites them to go beyond the directive’s minimum standards; stresses that in-work poverty needs to be addressed at its root causes, for example by promoting education and training, establishing minimum wages and ensuring social protection; calls on the Commission to urge the Member States to invest in qualitative education and training and support them in doing so, to share good practices and to pay specific attention to lifelong learning; _________________ 1e EIGE Gender Statistics Database, accessed on 30 May 2022. Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/gender- statistics/dgs/browse/ta/ta_timeuse
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. CStresses that climate change also has a big impact on female poverty as women are more dependent on natural resources and, since they constitute the majority of poor people in the EU, have fewer resources to protect themselves against the negative effects of climate change; regrets that a gender perspective has not been consistently introduced in the EU’s climate policies; calls on the Commission to mainstream gender equality into the EU’s climate change policies in order to ensureand legislation; is of the opinion that the Fit for 55 package policies and the social climate fund arshould be designed and implemented with a clear gender dimension and benefit women as equally as men;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to mainstream gender into all transport-related legislation, policies, programmes and actions and to include gender criteria and work-life balance in the design of mobility, housing and urban planningequality into all policies, programmes and actions and establish better work-life balance policies and adequate measures to guarantee women’s participation in the labour market, such as better maternity leave, significantly longer paternity leave periods, paid and non-transferable parental leave, flexible working hours, on-site childcare facilities, care services and remote working policies; stresses the importance of gender mainstreaming and tailoring the economic policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic to the specific needs of women and the structure of their economic activities;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to mainstream gender equality into all transport-related legislation, policies, programmes and actions and to include a gender perspective in the design of mobility, affordable housing and urban planning;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. UHighlights that homelessness among women should not be underestimated and misperceived as a minor social problem in the EU; points at the lack of comprehensive disaggregated data on the nature and extent of women’s homelessness, which makes this problem less visible; urges the EU and its Member States to integrate a gender perspective into policies and practices that address homelessness, and the lack of access to affordable and adequate housing and energy, and to develop a specific strategy to combat women’s homelessness and to ensure that services work appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of homeless womenies aimed at eradicating these problems by 2030, while ensuring that services work appropriately and effectively to meet the needs of homeless women; stresses the importance of recognising gender-based violence as one of the root causes aggravating the risk of homelessness among women, and stresses the need to look at how women’s needs intersect with broader socio-economic and structural barriers; calls on all actors to integrate a gender perspective into the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness; is convinced that the ‘housing first’ principle can play an important role in fighting homelessness and calls for these projects to be rolled out in all Member States;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Amendment 19 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to propose proactive measures through the European social funds and the European agricultural fund for rural development to promote women’s employment and socio-economic development in rural areas, the facilitation of access to social services and socio-economic development in rural areas; encourages the Member States, in cooperation with regional and local authorities, to reduce the risk of poverty among women in rural areas by empowering them and improving their quality of life through the provision of quality educational programmes and quality employment conditions, including teleworking and a decent income; calls for positive action encouraging women farmers in particular to stay in rural areas, including the promotion of community centres that can provide technical advice and assistance to keep farms operating and help them to survive and encourage young people to invest in agriculture and livestock to ensure its long-term survival;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to design a special programmefor a gender-sensitive approach to the digital transition; urges the Commission to use existing programmes and funding and make available additional funding where needed to fight against women’s digital poverty in order to equip women with the necessary skills to operate safely in the digital environment, and to improve their digital literacy;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to investigate barriers to female entrepreneurship and in particular to conduct a comprehensive analysis of women’s access to finance, helping to end female poverty in the European Union by empowering women to become entrepreneurs and founders of small and medium-sized enterprises contributing to the twin transition; notes that women’s entrepreneurship creates jobs, strengthens the single market and reduces unemployment; notes that a reduced bureaucratic burden for entrepreneurs removes barriers to ensure more women can start businesses; emphasises the importance of knowledge about entrepreneurship and practical experience in schools; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote women’s empowerment through education, vocational training and lifelong learning; calls, in particular, for greater promotion of STEM subjects and digital, artificial intelligence and financial literacy, in order to combat prevailing stereotypes and ensure that more women enter these sectors and contribute to their development;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Calls on the Member States to ensure that all new gender-fair fiscal policy, including taxation which has a clear gender dimension, tackles and eliminates socioeconomic and gender inequalities in all their dimensions; 1f; calls on the Member States to avoid gender discrimination in their tax policies and eliminate VAT on women’s sanitary goods, which disproportionally jeopardises the dignity of lower-income women, and thereby ensure that all women have access to these essential products; _________________ 1f Report by Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs of April 2017 entitled ‘Gender equality and taxation in the European Union’.
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Member States to take the gender dimension into account when reforming pension systems and adapting the retirement age and to consider the differences between the work patterns of women and men and, including all unpaid employment practices, taking into account the higher risk of discrimination of women in the labour market, in particular older women; urges the Member States to take specific measures to prevent and combat the risk of poverty for older and retired women resulting from population ageing and the proportion of older women in disadvantaged or vulnerable positions; calls on the Member States to include compensation for unpaid care work in their pension systems, for example through care credits or other measures added to the carer’s pension, irrespective of whether the care is provided to underage children, elderly persons or sick or disabled persons, while at the same time encouraging men to become carers;
Amendment 25 #
A. whereas in the EU, the number of women in poverty remains permanently higher than that of men [1]; whereas women in the EU are disproportionally more affected by poverty and the risk of social exclusion than men, in particular women who experience intersectional forms of discrimination; whereas in 2020, the risk of poverty and social exclusion (AROPE) in the EU was higher for women (22.9 %) than men (20.9 %); whereas since 2017, the gender- poverty gap has increased in 21 Member States12 ; whereas poverty rates among women vary greatly between Member States; whereas 1 in 4 children in the EU is at risk of poverty or social exclusion; [1] Living conditions in Europe - poverty and social exclusion https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Living_conditi ons_in_Europe_- _poverty_and_social_exclusion&oldid=54 4210 _________________ 12 European Institute for Gender Equality, ‘Gender Equality Index 2020: Digitalisation and the future of work’, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020.
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Welcomes the ongoing negotiations for the adoption of a directive on adequate minimum wages in the European Union; calls on the EU institutions to adopt an EU framework favouring the establishment or adaptation of a minimum wage per country based inter alia on a national basket of goods and services at real prices, including, among other things, adequate housing, healthy and balanced food, clothing, sustainable transport and energy, health and care and resources enabling people to meaningfully participate in society, culture and education, which would ensure a decent standard of living that would partially help to reduce in-work poverty, in particular for women; calls for fair and adequate minimum wages in the Member States as a necessary safeguard to ensure fairer wage distribution and to guarantee a wage floor protecting women and men in the labour market; is of the opinion that the creation of a minimum wage framework must be achieved and preserved through clear rules, transparent procedures and effective practices, using criteria and guiding indicators to assess adequacy and with the contribution of consultative bodies, among others, and the involvement of social partners;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines that gender mainstreaming has to be applied at all levels of the EU budgetary process in order to transform revenues and expenditures into social investment and to achieve gender equality and eliminate women’s poverty; Regrets that overall, gender mainstreaming has not yet been applied across the EU budget, as pointed out by the European Court of Auditors, and calls for this situation to be reversed as a matter of urgency; underlines that gender mainstreaming has to be applied at all levels of the policy cycle and must be based on reliable data; highlights the importance of the implementation of gender-responsive budgeting, including in all programmes in the 2022 budget, in order to achieve gender equality and eliminate women’s poverty; calls on the Commission, in this context, to accelerate the introduction of an effective, transparent and comprehensive methodology and to closely cooperate with Parliament in measuring relevant gender expenditure, as provided for in the Interinstitutional Agreement 1g, in order to be able to show tangible results for the 2022 budget and with a view to extending the methodology to all multiannual financial framework programmes; _________________ 1g Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission on Better Law-Making, OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p. 1.
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Points out that the EU’s fiscal capacity urgently requires therequires a potential revision of the current economic and social governance sto that it contributes to rereduce inequalities and female poverty and achingeve gender equalities and ending female poverty and does not just include austerity measuresy; calls for economic and social governance to be consistent with the achievement of gender equality objectives and for the ending of female poverty;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16 a. Notes that women’s economic independence plays a crucial role in their ability to escape situations of gender- based violence; calls, therefore, for the provision of support and protection measures to support women in these situations, the adoption of a comprehensive directive on preventing and combating all forms of gender-based violence, the addition of gender-based violence in the list of EU crimes, the EU ratification of the Istanbul Convention and the ratification thereof by Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia; stresses that a life free from violence is fundamental if women are to participate in the labour market, reach their full potential and be financially independent; condemns deliberate disinformation about tools and initiatives to combat gender-based violence in the EU; expresses concern that this disinformation is gaining a foothold in Europe and thus making it even more difficult to protect women from violence;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas women's poverty is the result of a lifetime of discrimination; whereas gender stereotypes still influence the division of labour at home, in education, in the workplace and in society and access to power and decision marking; whereas unpaid care and domestic work, mostly carried out by women, imposes a disproportionate burden on women; whereas globally, women make up over 70% of workers in the health and care sector; whereas this kind of jobs have been systematically undervalued because they have been and still are performed for free by women within the households; whereas women have lower pay in comparison to men; where women have more part-time contracts due to time poverty; whereas women are suffering in-work poverty that leads to higher risks of poverty and social exclusion due to low labour intensity;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas women are nearly four times more likely to work on a part-time basis than men and a fifth of women living in poverty are not active in the labour market due to caring and domestic responsibilities; whereas the overall employment rate of women is almost 12% lower than that of men and one third of women who are employed work part time compared to 8% of working men;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the employment rate of women has even fallen more sharply than it did during the 2008 recession and has also resulted in a lower labour intensity, leading to significant increases in women’s poverty; whereas according to estimates for 2019 in the EU-27, women are particularly affected by the risk of poverty (AROP), with the poverty rate standing at 25.1 % before social transfers and 17.1 % after such transfers; whereas the measures developed to exit of the previous crisis have not worked to reduce the endemic poverty situation of women; whereas austerity measures have always been proven harmful more to women than to men, women’s rights and gender equality in previous crises due to a greater dependence on social services and allowances;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas women are over- represented in non-standard forms of work, notably part-time work due to ongoing care responsibilities; whereas the largest growth in female employment over the last decade has occurred in female- dominated jobs and jobs held mainly by women already, including in the healthcare sector; whereas among frontline workers, 75% of workers working in the health sector in the EU are women; whereas Eurofound research shows that despite closing gender employment gaps, jobs are not becoming more gender mixed and that the share of EU employment in gender-mixed jobs (where neither gender share is >60%) declined from 27% to 18% between1998 and 20191a among frontline workers, 75% of workers working in the health sector in the EU are women; _________________ 1aEurofound (2021), European Jobs Monitor 2021: Gender gaps and employment structure, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
Dc. whereas one third of women in the EU do not have a paid job; whereas women earn 14.1% less per hour than men, constitute the majority of minimum wage earners in Europe and are as well one of the main sub-minimum wage earner; whereas the main contributing factors to the gender pay gap are the sectoral segregation of women and men and, the prevalence of women in part-time employment; whereas the gender pay gap ranged from a high of around 20% in Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Germany to a low of less than 5% in Italy, Romania and Luxembourg 1a ; _________________ 1aEurofound,2021: Understanding the gender pay gap: What difference do sector and occupation make?
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas poverty in general, and thus also women’s poverty, is multidimensional, and therefore includes not only material deprivation, but also a lack of access to many different resources and even an inability to fully exercise the rights of citizenship; whereas poverty results in social exclusion for women and lack of involvement in social life and political participation in terms of access to time, education, justice, lifelong learning, primary healthcare services, decent housing and nutrition, water and energy, digital sphere and finally condemns women in a kind of vicious circle of poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the COVID-19pandemic and its associated economic crisis have impacted women differently than men in the Union and the effects of the COVID- 19 crisis are putting in jeopardy the progress achieved in the past decades on the reduction of poverty and gender inequalities in the EU Member States; whereas according to EIGE young women were disproportionately hit by the Covid- 19 pandemic, with employment decreasing more than 10% for young women compared to 2.4% overall;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the multidimensionality of poverty affects more women than men, especially time poverty, generating a vicious circle that condemn women and their descendants to remain in poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas 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, as well as higher gender pension gaps; whereas according to Eurofound’s research across the EU as a whole between 2010and 2019, the proportion of female pensioners aged over 65 who were at risk of poverty was around 3 to 4 percentage points higher than the rate for male pensioners1a ; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/product s-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210203-1
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas the COVID crisis, has widened inequalities, opening a new gender divide[1]; [1] The coronavirus crisis: An emerging gender divide https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/ etudes/ATAG/2021/679100/EPRS_ATA(2 021)679100_EN.pdf
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas a review of COVID19- recovery policy initiatives is needed to prevent the increase of the men-women gap[1]; [1] Investigating the gender divide in the aftermath of COVID-19. Eurofound publication foreseen by 2022Q3
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C d (new)
Recital C d (new)
Cd. whereas women outnumber men at older ages within the EU-27 population: in 2019, there were more than twice as many very old women (aged 85 years or more) as very old men; whereas ageing developments will have profound implications for governments, business and civil society, impacting especially health and social care systems, labour markets, public finances and pension entitlements; https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics- explained/index.php?title=Ageing_Europ e_- _statistics_on_population_developments
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. Whereas Eurofound highlights the importance of policies that promote gender balance in (paid and unpaid)care work, including parental leave policies that increase male participation in unpaid care work, as well as the improvement of pay and working conditions in female- dominated sectors such as care;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Recital E d (new)
Recital E d (new)
Ed. whereas sector and working time are the main contributing factors to the one-third portion of the gender pay gap that can be explained; whereas women tend to work in lower-paid sectors and are much more likely to work part-time and to suffer the ‘part-time pay penalty’ as a result, and are also less likely to have supervisory responsibilities than their male counterparts, a third significant factor contributing to pay differences 1a ; _________________ 1aEurofound 2021: Understanding the gender pay gap: What difference do sector and occupation make?
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas figures show that on average in the EU, 29.5 %of women with disabilities are at risk of falling victim to poverty and social exclusion, compared with 27.5 % of their male counterparts;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to reduce the burden of women by ensuring affordable formal child care , especially for children under age of three and quality care and services for people with disabilities, the elderly and other dependants; calls on the Commission and the Member States to adequately fund public services and social infrastructure, as this would allow more women to participate in the labour market and would also contribute to reducing the risk of women falling into poverty;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas investment in universal services, including care services, has a positive impact on women’s fundamental rights; whereas the establishment of high- quality social services and facilities at affordable prices for early childhood education and care, or care for other dependent persons such as the elderly, is key for avoiding the increasing poverty, especially for women who are more dependant on those services because the structural inequalities in care responsibilities between woman and men; whereas social protection measures are absolutely key for tackling female poverty not only economically but in its multidimensionality;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H
Recital H
H. whereas poverty also makes women more vulnerable to gender-based violence; whereas this includes disproportionate vulnerability to trafficking and sexual exploitation so that women and their families end up being economically dependent of their abusers;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas women have a lower employment rate and are disproportionally highly represented in low-paid, precarious and dead-end job sectors; whereas the gender pay gap stands at 14.1 %; whereas since 2010 the gender gap in earnings has increased in 17 Member States, while the gender gap in income has gone up in 19Member States, leading to an overall increase in gender inequality in earnings and income in the EU[1] [1] Eurostat, Gender pay gap statistics, February2021.
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes, that the impact of lifelong limited economic dependence of women and gender inequalities in the labour market becomes most apparent among older age groups, especially if women are widowed or live alone; notes, that the gender gap in poverty levels to the detriment of women is highest in the 75 and older age group which is of particular concern given that women in the EU make up most of the ageing population;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Member States to ensure equal economic opportunities for women during and after the COVID- 19crisis; Stresses that the recovery efforts should boost quality jobs and growth, and the resilience and fairness of our societies, and should be complemented by a strong social dimension, paying attention to women who have a disability with inter-sectional approach, paying attention to more vulnerable groups, such as women who have a disability ,single mothers , older women, migrant women, young women or who stay at home to care for a family member, as they are particularly at risk of falling into poverty;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas the pension entitlements gap averages at almost 30 % as a result of the imbalances created by persistent lifelong inequalities; whereas this pension gap means that women fall below the poverty line as they get older; whereas female expectancy is longer than male life expectancy, as many women end up their life in solitude deepening the consequences of poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes, that one of the areas in which women have been disproportionately affected vis-a-vis men is an equal access to the economy since in Europe women tend to be overrepresented in the frontline of the pandemic and also in the services sector , which has been particularly affected by the current crisis and this has translated into an increase in the female unemployment rates and thus a high likelihood of poverty for women in the EU;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
Ja. whereas gender mainstreaming means taking into account the gender differences within the whole policy cycle, and to add an intersectional approach taking into account diversity within women and men when designing, implementing, evaluating policies, programmes, and projects, to enhance gender equality: whereas until now EU policies have not deployed a real mainstreamed policies nor included an intersectional approach;
Amendment 106 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Underlines, that even if overall women encounter a higher likelihood of poverty throughout their life courses, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased such likelihood since the governmental measures to halt the pandemic have had the most indirect impact on the economic sectors (such as gastronomy , hospitality, retail , care, domestic work etc.) in which women tend to be overrepresented;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J b (new)
Recital J b (new)
J b. whereas the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, has pointed out that European Union should develop a European Union-wide anti- poverty strategy that ensures a structural, broad approach to female poverty eradication, whereas a fairer social contract for the post-pandemic European Union is needed [1]including economic policies directed to decrease economic inequalities; [1] Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier DeSchutter https://www.europarl.europa.eu/cmsdata/ 236628/Report%20UN%20Special%20Ra pporteur%20De%20Schutter.pdf
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Notes with concern, that economic segregation and the disadvantages women face to enter and remain on the labour market are translated into lower wages, vulnerable working conditions , lower pensions and a greater likelihood of suffering from poverty and social exclusion during the life course;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas it is estimated that currently 1 in 10girls cannot afford sanitary products: whereas in its 2019 resolution(1), the European Parliament called on all Member States to eliminate the so-called care and tampon tax by making use of the flexibility introduced in the VAT Directive and by applying tax exemptions or 0 % VAT rates to these essential basic goods;
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. stresses, that not only women disproportionately lost their jobs at the onset of the pandemic ,but they have also encountered greater obstacles to re-enter and remain on the labour market in the period between the first two waves of COVID-19 pandemic and while employment prospects rose by 1.4 % for men, they merely increased by0.8 % for women during that period; stresses that young people, especially young women, lost disproportionately more jobs during the first wave of the pandemic; notes that previous crises have shown that entering the labour market during a recession can negatively affect young people’s labour market outcomes for a decade or more;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Notes that from a household perspective, measures to incentivise employment of women through the involvement of men in caring responsibilities, e.g. effective paternity leave schemes, stopping tax incentives that favour the single breadwinner model, can contribute directly or indirectly to lowering gender gaps both in employment and wages; Calls on the Member States to ensure an equally shared take up of parental leave by both parents which would allow women to increasingly engage in full-time employment and equally share household and childcare responsibilities;
Amendment 117 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the current EU model of socio-economic governance is harmful to the EU’s commitment to reduce inequalities and eradicate poverty, in particular women’s poverty resulting from a lifetime of discrimination; whereas the focus has to be on primary distribution as well as redistribution and the eradication of structural gender inequalities;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Member states to fully implement the European Pillar of Social Rights with a special focus on the headline targets of reduction of at least 15 million people at risk of poverty and social exclusion and of at least 78% of the population aged 20 to 64 in employment by 2030; calls on the Member States to be ambitious in their implementation of the Work-Life Balance directive, the European Child Guarantee and the Pay Transparency Directive, as well as the future Directive on Minimum Wages and Recommendation on Minimum Income;
Amendment 133 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Underlines, that low-income women , older women, migrant women and single mothers encounter greater inequalities that exist for women in general; calls on the Member States to adopt an intersectional approach to public policies, which will recognize the plurality of identities and realities existent in the EU;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Calls for an implementation of a comprehensive assessment of the impact of COVID 19 pandemic on poverty and gender equality in the EU, based on an gender- sensitive approach and sex disaggregated data collected by Member States and the EU institutions according to intersectionality criteria;
Amendment 136 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Calls on the Member States to eliminate taxes on sanitary products which jeopardizes the dignity of lower- income women disproportionately; deeply regrets that despite the proposed changes to VAT rules in 2018, a number of Member states have not reduced the VAT to sanitary products;
Amendment 137 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 d (new)
Paragraph 6 d (new)
6d. Stresses, that women are not merely the largest recipients of care during older age, but also the largest providers of care during the life course; calls on the Member States to consider and address the implications of the care economy on older women; calls on the Commission and Member States to speed up process of reaching the Barcelona targets everywhere in the EU to enable women’s participation in the labour market and quality, accessible and affordable care services for children;
Amendment 140 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 e (new)
Paragraph 6 e (new)
6e. Notes, that all the Member States have increased care packages during the pandemic and introduced special provisions for single-parent households; urges the Member states to extend such provisions during the recovery period;
Amendment 141 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 f (new)
Paragraph 6 f (new)
6f. Recalls that the proposal on adequate minimum wages aims at improving the income situation of working people, and women in particular; welcomes the proposal for a Pay Transparency Directive, which aims at reducing the gender pay gap and thereby improving women’s financial stability and economic independence in general, as well as enabling the women affected to escape poverty and situations of domestic violence;
Amendment 141 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Underlines that women’s poverty needs to be analysed from an intersectional approach, including migrant and ethnic origin, age, race and sexual or gender orientation; calls for the EIGE’s Gender Equality Index to be incorporated into the social scoreboard; calls on the EIGE to provide data disaggregated intersectionally and by gender, and calls on the Member States to use this data in order to better address country-specific challenges and national recovery plans, synergies among different packages, funds and policies is deserved;
Amendment 144 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 g (new)
Paragraph 6 g (new)
6g. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage labour market participation of women by lowering income tax and submitting initiatives to promote women’s empowerment, through education, vocational training and lifelong learning, as well as access to finance and female entrepreneurship and women’s representation in future-oriented sectors with a view to ensuring access to high- quality employment, decent working and employment conditions across all ages;
Amendment 145 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 h (new)
Paragraph 6 h (new)
6h. Believes it to be important for gender policies to address the gender imbalance in both paid and unpaid care work, to increase women’s participation in male-dominated sectors and to promote men’s employment in female-dominated sectors to address gender segregation of sectors; emphasises that the persistence of gender job segregation suggests that more needs to be done via education and training systems and other incentives to encourage young men and women to engage in occupations identified with the other gender;
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls on the Commission to put forward a ‘care deal for Europe’, which should take a holistic, gender-sensitive and lifelong approach to care while envisaging legislative measures and investment at EU level; including legislative initiatives and financial investment, in order to set minimum standards and quality guidelines for care throughout the life cycle, and providing benefits for formal and informal carers, unpaid carers and the people they care for in the framework of the European Care Strategy;
Amendment 148 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 i (new)
Paragraph 6 i (new)
6i. Calls for greater promotion of STEM subjects, digital education, vocational training, lifelong learning, artificial intelligence and financial literacy in order to ensure that more women enter in future-oriented sectors and contribute to their development;
Amendment 149 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 j (new)
Paragraph 6 j (new)
6j. Points out that women are particularly exposed to the housing crisis; emphasises that women’s homelessness is often less visible, and that it needs to be specifically addressed; calls on the Commission and Member States to develop a gendered approach in their National Homelessness Strategies in order to support women experiencing homelessness, who have often suffered complex trauma and face re- traumatisation, such as through domestic violence and abuse, separation from their children, stigmatisation and the lack of safe and secure spaces; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop a gendered approach in their housing policies, particularly by supporting women who face specific situations such as single parenthood;
Amendment 150 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 k (new)
Paragraph 6 k (new)
6k. Recalls that social distancing and quarantine due to COVID-19 have had a dramatic impact on the number of cases of violence against women, including increased incidences of domestic violence and child abuse; recalls that women’s economic independence has been proved to be a key tool for tackling gender-based violence; calls therefore on the Commission and the Member States to provide financial support for women victims of gender-based violence moving to independent living, and enhanced access to information on funding for affordable housing, as ways to improve their economic independence and standard of living;
Amendment 151 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 l (new)
Paragraph 6 l (new)
6l. Echoes the Commission prediction that, in the context of recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, fighting against extreme poverty, and especially tackling child poverty will become even more important in the coming years; consequently, insists that total of at least EUR 20 billion is invested in the European Child Guarantee in the period 2021-2027; calls on the Member States to make full use of the ESF+, in particular the funds available to support the most deprived persons, to address the forms of extreme poverty with the greatest social exclusion impact, such as homelessness, child poverty and food deprivation;
Amendment 152 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 m (new)
Paragraph 6 m (new)
6m. Calls for an overarching European anti-poverty strategy, with ambitious targets for reducing poverty and homelessness and ending extreme poverty in Europe by 2030, especially among children, in line with the principles laid down in the EPSR and the UN SDGs and building on the headline targets set out in the EPSR Action Plan;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls for incorporating multidimensionality when measuring poverty, including time poverty; calls EUROSTAT to coordinate with Member States the gender sensitive design and regular periodicity for the European Time Use Survey (ETUS);
Amendment 158 #
3 b. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote policies that aim to eliminate precarious work and involuntary part-time work in order to improve the situation for women in the labour market;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses the pivotal role of women working in the social, care and retail sectors that keep our societies functioning, as shown by the COVID-19 crisis; calls for typically female-dominated work to be reassessed and revaluated and for cross- sector gender-neutral job evaluation tools to be developed and applied in order to better assess and more fairly remunerate female-dominated work; urges a feminist approach to digital transition;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights that in order to tackle the multidimensionality of women’s poverty, it is necessary to overcome the segregation of unpaid domestic care work mainly performed by women and to introduce flexitimepromote the “equal earner – equal carer” model and to introduce time use policy in accordance with workers needs and collective bargaining in order to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional life with their private life (time use policy);
Amendment 175 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Highlights that in order to tackle the multidimensionality of women’s poverty, it is necessary to overcome the segregation of unpaid domestic care work mainly performed by women and to introduce flexitimea time policy in order to allow women and men to better reconcile their professional life with their private life (time use policy);
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Points out that it is essential to invest in education, lifelong learning and vocational training to ensure that they have access to high-quality employment and opportunities to reskill and upskill for future labour market demand; stresses the importance of more equally shared unpaid care and domestic work between men and women preventing the vicious circle of gendered labour market segregation;
Amendment 234 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to propose proactive measures through the European agricultural fund for rural development to promote women’s employment, the provision of social services and socio-economic development in rural areas;
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to design a special programme to fight against women’s digital poverty in order to equip women with the necessary skills to operate safely in the digital environment; and to improve women's digital literacy:
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Ask the Member States to eliminate taxes on female hygiene products and ensure all women have access to these essential products;
Amendment 257 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Member States to take the gender dimension into account when reforming pension systems and adapting the retirement age and to consider the differences between the work patterns of women and men and the higher risk of discrimination of women in the labour market, in particular older women; urges the Member States to take specific measures to prevent and combat the risk of poverty for older and retired women in view of population ageing and the proportion of older women in disadvantaged or vulnerable positions;
Amendment 262 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Highlights that gender reporting and mainstreaming cannot be mixed with social tracking and social investments; believes that gender equality deserves its own mainstreaming methodology in the framework of the RFF and recalls that the European Institute for Gender Equality has developed a suitable methodology; calls on the Commission to closely monitor this provision and for the inclusion of gender budgeting in the mid- term review of the current Multiannual Financial Framework and the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility;
Amendment 270 #
14 b. Develop EU funds to address the social impact of both the green and digital transition and especially to design policies tailored to ensure gender equality and end women’s poverty;
Amendment 275 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Underlines that gender mainstreaming has to be applied at all levels of the EUthe statistical development at all levels of the EU policy cycle, including budgetary process in order to transform revenues and expenditures into social investment and to achieve gender equality and eliminate women’s poverty;
Amendment 285 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Points out that the EU’s fiscal capacity urgently requires the revision of the current economic and social governance so that it contributes to reaching gender equalities and ending female poverty and does not just include deflationary bias and austerity measures;