Women are playing a leading role in defending public health and saving lives in these difficult times of fighting against Covid-19. They do it together with many men, it is true, but in these areas I think that women have always shown that we are usually one step ahead. I would like to value this fact when we are about to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a date that was established to denounce the violence exerted against women around the world and to demand policies for its eradication.
When it comes to health, education, nature or the care of the elderly, children, the helpless or the disabled, women are always there. I am not going to assess now what is cultural or patriarchal in this reality, but the fact is that these unrecognized, valued and unpaid tasks until very recently have been acquiring, fortunately, the economic and social status they deserve due to the conquests that women have been achieving. However, there is still a long way to go and, therefore, we must accelerate the pace to reach an egalitarian country as soon as possible.
When the pandemic is over, I am sure that the process of rebuilding our economy will require amending social inequality and stopping and reversing the environmental cataclysm that looms over the planet. We will have to address these two enormous tasks at the same time, but, since we have turned healthcare personnel into our heroes, we must remember that healthcare is above all a female world, since seven out of ten people employed in the sector are women. With this I want to emphasize that equality must be one of the pillars of the social and economic reactivation of our country.
Autonomy and economic independence are essential for women's freedom, so I am convinced that the reconstruction of post-Covid-19 society must be based on bases that guarantee equal treatment and opportunities between women and men in employment and occupation. In turn, this means guaranteeing the conditions of access, permanence and promotion of women in the labor market and influencing the wage gap. And, of course, advancing towards equality also requires us to do more, much more, to eradicate sexist violence.
Countless women are on the front line fighting the coronavirus —along with many men, I insist—, but I often wonder if later, when the pandemic passes, we would not do the right thing by leaving the destiny of humanity mostly in the hands of women. Because right now, once again, they are giving a masterful lesson on how to face an almost apocalyptic crisis, despite the fact that, unfortunately, violence against women still persists.
Ariagona González, national deputy of the PSOE and Minister of Industry and Energy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote.
Ariagona González
