Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-08-Speech-2-021"
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"en.20050308.6.2-021"2
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"Mr President, over the years, the subordination of women, which we know exists in all areas of society, has been emphasised and debated on this day in particular. Each year, we have pinned great hope on all the words being translated into practical action. Certainly, progress has been made, but the basic patriarchal power system still exists.
It would certainly have made it easier to follow up the Fourth World Conference on Women if the President of the Commission had appointed a Commissioner for Gender Equality. The significance and scope of equality issues in all political areas required a Commissioner for Equality concentrating exclusively on equality issues. In spite of the fact that, unfortunately, there is at present no Commissioner responsible for equality issues, I would call upon the Commission in future to prioritise the work in pursuit of gender equality to the same degree as the work involving the internal market, goods, services, industry etc.
Part of the evidence of women’s subordination is male violence against women. The World Bank has estimated that violence against women is as frequent a cause of death as cancer. It is the cause of more ill health than malaria and road accidents combined. Most of us condemn such violence, but we must also get to grips with those values that facilitate the violence. We must tackle the culture that says that women must be accessible to men and that men are entitled to control women’s lives and bodies; the culture that identifies women’s bodies as goods that can be bought and sold. These assumptions underlie the everyday experience of many women and girls in Europe today. The names for that experience are trafficking
and prostitution, but it can also be called sexual slavery. That it is able to continue to exist is due to an unholy alliance between financial profit and a sexist and racist world view. On behalf of women in the Member States, I also regret the neo-liberal economic policy, with its deregulation and privatisation, which makes women’s situation still more difficult where both job opportunities and access to childcare and care of the elderly are concerned.
It is high time that the Platform for Action from Beijing were converted into practical policy. On the day that we have achieved these objectives, we shall hopefully be living in a society that does not need special women’s days. Then, every day will belong to women, men and children."@en1
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