In March Socialist Resistance organised a meeting on Women and Austerity. Stefania Georgakakou Koutsonikou of the Greek radical left party Synaspimos, was one of the speakers.
Is an economist, familiar with the A
literature on austerity in general, I had not thought about how austerity affects women in particular. When we talk about austerity, especially how it is being implemented in Greece, we are talking about cuts in public spending - in particular welfare services. There are no cuts in military expenditure. These cuts have a direct impact on women in many different many ways. Rising unemployment for women Women's unemployment is rising. Women are largely employed at the lower levels in the public sector, in services such as healthcare (as nurses), education (in kindergartens) and low level administrative services. Those lower levels are the first services to feel the impact of the cuts. It is difficult to fire civil service workers In Greece, because they are protected by law, but the state is not hiring. Cuts in public spending mean that people are not being hired especially for jobs primarily held by women; women's unemployment is 24.5% whereas for men it is 18%. This means rising unemployment for young women in particular. In previous years these women would have been hired by the public sector but now they are unemployed. So, for the 15-29 age grouping, unemployment for women is at 45% as compared to men at 35% (a 10% point differential between men and women). Even though unemployment is higher, the percentage of women in the labour force is increasing. Being in employment is defined those that are working and actively looking for work; this is increasing for women. So given that unemployment is higher, it means women are actively looking for a job more than they used to do; this is because unemployment is generally rising in Greece and women need to find work to support their households, for example as men have lost their jobs. Rising unemployment has also directly affected working conditions. For example, the employers continuously press for longer hours and lower wages; they refuse to pay for overtime and they refuse to provide maternity leave. There have been cases where pregnant, women have been laid off just because they are pregnant, or cases where women have been asked to sign a form saying that they do not intend to get pregnant in order to get hired. Wage and benefit cuts As well as the direct reductions in wages, austerity measures have brought a series of cuts in different benefits. Benefits in Greece are different than here in Britain. In some cases, benefits may account for half of someone's wage. The rationale behind this is that basically that worker can receive the same amount of money, but only half of it consists of the basic wage and the other half is given as benefits. When a pension is calculated, it is based on the basic wage and does not include the benefits. As they pay the workers the same amount but only half is calculated towards pensions, they are able to pay a lower pension than would be the case if it were calculated on total income. The cuts in benefits are presented as something rational and justified in a period of crisis. However they translate as a further reduction of income on top of the basic wage cut already introduced as part of austerity LA HANOMIA LETYNON E POLICE CLIC As of March 2012, there will be a further 22% reduction in both basic wages and the benefits that are associated with the wage. There was already a 20% cut up until March 2012 and this will be on top of that. The benefits that are being cut include maternity benefit, kindergarten benefits, the marriage benefit, and even birth benefits (i.e., the amount of subsidy you get when give birth). The result will be twofold. Firstly, of course, a direct decrease in the family income. Secondly, also linked to the cut in public welfare spending, it will mean a loss of access, especially for those on lower income, to services. These include kindergarten, disabled peoples services, and even basic health care. This, combined with the decrease in income, means that those households that no longer have access to public services cannot even pay for private services. The social welfare state is being gradually wiped out and the responsibility for welfare expenditure is being systematically transferred from the state to households. As this happens, women usually take on the majority of the tasks being transferred away from the state. With lower household incomes and no public provision, they have to take care, not only of the children but also the elderly, disabled relatives and unemployed members of the family. In Greece, the family is considered as an extended unit. When young people are unable to find jobs, they move back in with their parents. Parents then have to support their children up to an older age. People as old as 35 might still be living at home with their parents. One additional consideration that is not often spoken about is the impact of the cuts upon immigrants. Most immigrant women do not work in the formal sector, so they will not suffer direct cuts in their pay. However, these women work in the informal sector, basically in private households providing household services, or childcare, caring for the sick and elderly. As these households now have lower incomes, they cannot afford to hire these women. So they are facing higher unemployment as well. Social impact of austerity The social impact of these policies is devastating. There have been numerous cases of women being denied access to public hospitals to give birth, as they do not have health insurance at all, or their health insurance does not cover birth.
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Women in labour are being sent away from hospital to give birth at home. It is only a matter of time before the maternal mortality rates start rising. We have seen (and this is scary) cases of women voluntarily giving up their children to foster homes or organisations, as they cannot provide for them. And there has been a At the same time, we have young women facing extremely high unemployment rates, horrible working conditions if they find a job and extremely low welfare provisions from the state. That leads to falling birth rates year after year and essentially deprives women of their right to child-bearing. We also have had a rise in the prostitution rate, which is extremely important, especially given the fact that prostitution in Greece is for the most part illegal and hence does not abide by health rules and regulations. We have thus had rising numbers of HIV cases and other sexual diseases are spreading. What needs to be done? These are the facts. These are some of the things that are happening in Greece. What do we need to do? There is double oppression for women, coming both from the state, which is wiping out the welfare services and transferring welfare provision to the households and from within the family, with women having to take the largest part of the responsibility now being borne by households. These are both issues that a radical women's movement should address. There is a need to differentiate between different women's movements, especially given some of the writings by so-called neo-liberal feminists. These women's movements widely argue for women's equality, especially in the public sphere and in politics. However, at the same time, they support and promote the economic and social policies of austerity that cannot but systematically produce inequality and oppression. The role of the radical women's movement and especially in periods of crisis and austerity) is to actively work together with all other movements, organisations and parties of the Left to organise the resistance of the working class against the attacks of capital. It should thus be a radical women's movement that can only exist as an organic part of the Left, fighting for gender equality and women's liberation, as parts of the strategies and programme of the Left towards socialism.