March 8: five reasons why it is right to strike

For years, the 8th of March has become Lotto March to represent a women's day, or rather one international women's day, increasingly devoted to the vindication of women's rights and no longer to the celebration, with mimosa attached, of women. The origin of this celebration, however, is all about the struggle at the beginning of the twentieth century between factories and suffragettes, between tragedies of exploitation and the denied right to vote.

As has happened in recent years, a strike was called by numerous trade unions on International Women's Rights Day. Excluding local public transport, schools and healthcare, public activities and private companies stop. Flc CGIL, Slai Cobas, Adl Cobas, Cobas Usb, Cobas Sub, Osp Faisa Cisal, Usi Cit, Clap, Si Cobas, Cub Trasporti, Uitrasporti, Usi 1912 and Uiltec Uil are members. Not one less reminds all women that the right to strike is always guaranteed even when there are no union representatives in the company.

The motivations? Here they are. This strike is «against all forms of physical, psychological and moral violence, against all wage and role discrimination in the workplace and in institutions, all war and the increase in military spending and in favor of quality public services, stable work, recognition of care work, wage increases in relation to the cost of living, health and safety and social status”.

Femicides

At least 100 every year in Italy lose their lives, leaving behind children, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. In 2023 the case of Giulia Cecchettin, but also the femicide of Giulia Tramontano, in total 120 women killed. In 64 cases, more than half, the murderer was her husband, boyfriend, partner or ex. In the first two months of 2024 there are 8 women who have they died at the hands of their partner and ex, 18 were killed in a family/emotional context. The data is from the Ministry of the Interior and it sounds cold. It doesn't say the word femicides, but that's what it's about, women killed by partners or exes or within families. This data has not changed over the years: almost a woman killed every four days.

The gender pay gap

A periodic remuneration survey by Odm Consulting, a HR consultancy company of Gi Group Holding, published in the Corriere della Sera, says that from the point of view of remuneration, the gender gap, the difference in treatment between men and women stands at 10%. .7% in 2023 in line with 2022. The difference becomes more marked among managers, where it reaches 12.9%, while among managers it is only 5.9%. Data from the INPS Observatory on private sector employees says that in 2022 the difference in pay between men and women in Italy reached 7,922 euros. The gap is significantly related to the greater presence of part-time work among female workers according to the report.

The role of care

According to the Nobel Prize winner for Economics Claudia Goldin, the key point is this: the care work that anchors women entirely, taking away their time. In Italy, women carry out 5 hours and 5 minutes of unpaid assistance and care work per day while men do 1 hour and 48 minutes. Equality is expected by 2066 at the current rate of change: men's contribution has increased over the last 20 years at an annual rate of 1.2 minutes per day, while women's contribution has decreased by 2.1 minutes per day. every year. In Italy in hetero couples, women usually carry out around 65% of the housework. Cooking, cleaning and other routine tasks are usually entrusted to women, while men tend to take care of finances and the garden. This is supported by Kate Mangino, an expert on gender issues, who wrote the book Equal Partners: Improving Gender Equality at Home. In all Member States there is a higher percentage of women than men who take care of childcare, housework and cooking.

Forced resignation

Precisely to manage the care work, the home and the family tend to leave external work aside. Over 44 thousand women left their jobs in 2022 and among the main causes is that of reconciling their employment with the time to dedicate to their children. It is mainly new mothers who leave. The INPS annual report on the validation of resignations of working mothers and working fathers, presented within the first three years of the birth of their children, says that, overall, the validated resignations stand at 61,391 units with an increase of 17.1 % compared to 2021. New mothers are 72.8%.

Missed welfare

There is a prime example to illustrate the lack of welfare that takes away women's jobs: the situation of nursery schools. They are few and increasingly expensive. In Italy there are not places for everyone in the public sector which is already expensive, an average of 500 euros per month, and when you have to turn to the private sector the expense increases. Research by Altroconsumo, from February 2024, two years after the previous one, photographed the situation of availability and fees of municipal nursery schools, of 285 private individuals in eight cities (Milan, Rome, Turin, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Naples and Palermo). In terms of coverage, the territorial gap is confirmed: over 31% on average in the Center and North, however far from the 45% of children attending quality educational services by 2030 which is the European objective already exceeded by France and Spain, the South and the Islands stop at 16%. In two years, hourly rates have increased on average by 8.8% with peaks of 11% in Rome, Milan and Genoa. The average monthly fee for a family with an ISEE of 30 thousand euros is around 500 euros in Milan and Turin, slightly less in Florence. In private nursery schools the average fee rises to 640 euros, which becomes 800 in Milan. In the Pnrr, Italy committed to creating 150 thousand new places in nursery schools, there were supposed to be 100 thousand more, but the Government cut due to the increase in costs and because some of the projects were not approved by Europe. The measures implemented so far by the executive are either linked to the ISEE, the nursery bonus for those with multiple children, or exclude part of the families such as the mothers' bonus which only goes to those with permanent contracts and risks cutting their wages. Single check for whoever receives it.