Women’s struggle for equality
New branch of European Union of Women to open on the Costa Blanca
BRITISH expat Margaret Hales believes women must maintain their solidarity to help solve ongoing problems of inequality.
Speaking at the 31st meeting of the council of the European Union of Women in Vienna, she said in rural communities women continued to be isolated and struggling to achieve a successful work life balance.
Around 80 members of EUW from across Europe attended the council meeting where Margaret was re-elected the group’s president for a further two years.
The group was founded in 1953 and the council returned to the country of its birth, and celebrated by renewing its constitution.
And in her acceptance speech, Margaret said the issues facing women today were much the same as 1953 and the 'solidarity of women' was needed to combat them.
“We still struggle with the brunt of caring for relatives, young and old; we still, despite legislation across most of our countries, do not get equal pay for equal work; and still we are not at the table of decisions made, neither in diplomacy not in the running of businesses and commerce,” she said.
“The European Union of Women is the only organisation representing women across Europe to go to the United Nations in New York to attend the commission on the status of women.
“It is easy to think that, compared with Africa or arts of Asia, we have solved the problems of equality, of equal access to education and health. But rural communities and depopulation have left women in isolated situations in Spain and Poland, in Ukraine and Scotland. Women still struggle to achieve a work life balance wherever you look.”
The council welcomed Slovakia as a returning member of EUW and set up the processes to include Kosovo and Romania; the members also visited the Hungarian Embassy in Vienna to discuss its return to the ranks.
Margaret added: “After the Berlin Wall came down and Europe was reunited, women were then free to join our organisation. The last 40 years have seen a roller coaster time for countries growing up into democracies, revitalising their economies and implementing the changes necessary to join the European Union.
“Women now have time to reassess and with that reassessment comes the joy of working together with other women in common purpose.”
EUW in Spain is about to found a new branch in the Benitachell, Teulada Moraira area; enabling women from all nationalities to meet and discuss the empowerment of women in the modern context of the country they reside in.
To find out more information, contact Margaret at presidenteuw.margaret@gmail. com; there is also a Spanish website http://www.mujeres enigualdad.com/ and a Facebook page at https://www.face book.com/pg/European-Unionof-Women.