Women's strike in Switzerland to demand equality | E …

Today, all day, Swiss women go on strike (the second in the history of the country) and demonstrate it through concerts of whistles, strolls of strollers, giant picnics and other activities in big cities. includes a demonstration in Bern, in front of the federal palace, seat of the parliament. "We are going to strike." A strike of employees, a strike of the servants, a strike of the guards, a strike of the schools, a strike of the consumption, so that our work is visible, so that our demands are heard, so that the "Public space belongs to us all," said the organizers of the Women's Strike, all referents of a coalition of unions and civil society organizations.

In a country of just over eight million inhabitants, the organizers have proposed two ways to join the demonstrations to gather as many citizens as possible: those who can not stop the whole day can participate from 3:24 pm (local time). 10.24), a period from which, due to the disparity in wages between men and women, women work without pay.

The strike, which was called today in commemoration of the 1981 date when the Federal Constitution incorporated the principle of equality between men and women, is the second in the history of Switzerland. The previous one took place in 1991, ten years after the amendment of the Constitution: about half a million women participated, which, with their mobilization, ended up imposing some legal improvements. However, Swiss activists warn that the situation of parity is far in the country, which recently recognized in 1971 that women had the right to vote (in a referendum in which eight of the 26 cantons opposed), in 2003, the right abortion and in 2005 the legal protection of maternity leave.

In Switzerland, men earn on average 12% more than women, and the situation worsens when there are positions of greater responsibility, in which the gap rises to 18.5%, according to the International Labor Organization. Work (ILO). Official statistics have shown that with the arrival of a child, 780.6% of mothers work part-time, while 11.4% of parents opt for the same principle. In addition, one in seven women lose their job upon return from maternity leave. When they reach the retirement age, women receive only one-third of the funds earmarked for retirement and pensions.

Only 28.9% of the political positions in the Swiss federal government are held by women. For women, childcare is 60% of the time, while the number of daycares does not cover demand, in a country where, in addition, boys and girls under eight do not go to school. the school four times a week, because they do not have clbades on Wednesdays, while that from nine o'clock (and until the end of compulsory schooling) they are only in the morning.

In Switzerland, the Penal Code only recognizes that badual violence exists if there is penetration, so that it does not punish another type of abuse. In 1992, the law recognized that rape could exist in marriage; in 1996, the possibility of mutual agreement on divorce and shared parental responsibility was activated. According to Amnesty International, a woman is a victim of femicide at the hands of her partner or ex-partner every two weeks. One in five say they have been harbaded and have received macho comments.

According to a survey released earlier this month by Tamedia, 63.5 percent of the population supports the women's strike.