The State Anti-Discrimination Office celebrates the day ‘Another look at women’s work’

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the State Anti-Discrimination Office, headed by con Noelia Cano, The day was celebrated on 10 March ‘Another Look at Women', to invite reflection on the need to incorporate a feminist perspective into the world of work, as well as to highlight the essential contribution of the Labour Inspectorate, as a public service, to the construction of Work environments free from all forms of discrimination.

The day was inaugurated by Cristina Fernández, director of the Agency, who gave way to a first conference entitled ‘Women, jobs and days’, taught by the teacher and philosopher Ana de Miguel Álvarez. Álvarez wanted to explain the need to know history to understand the inequalities between men and women that still persist in today’s society.

Reviewing the first demands of women – “sharing life and the sphere of the public with men” – and providing numerous references to Philosophy, from the time of the Greeks to the present day, Álvarez pointed out that the title of his lecture referred to the work of the Greek philosopher Hesiodo, ‘The Works and the Days’, in which he affirmed that women were “lazy and lazy”. From Hesiod to Adam Smith who, in the 17th century, laid the foundations of the free market, Álvarez wanted to focus on how “The scheme of the public and the private has not just been transformed”.

Álvarez used the myth of Ulysses, “the hero who travels for 20 years with certainty that Penelope is going to be waiting for him”, to explain the inequality that still persists. “The problem we have with the job today is that my girl students want to be like Ulysses. But Telemachus cannot go on the boat, the son needs a home, he needs care. Men don’t want to stop being Ulysses and women don’t want to be Penelope anymore. They don’t want to spend 20 years knitting. That’s the dilemma.”

In the second part of the day they intervened María José Díaz Luque (Regional Coordinator of Equality and Non-Discrimination and head of the Labour Relations and Equality Unit in the Provincial Inspectorate of Seville) and María del Mar Moreno Marín (Assistant Labour Inspector, Employment and Social Security Scale at the Provincial Inspectorate of Seville). (On the left in the photo below. On the right, Ana de Miguel Álvarez).

In the presentation “A successful experience in terms of the pay gap: discrimination against pregnant women” , Luque and Moreno Marín exposed to the attendees an inspection performance that they carried out and that ended with a situation of direct discrimination on the basis of sex Related to motherhood.

The investigation arose after a detriment on the salary of a pregnant nurse after the adaptation of your position.

After the investigation, it was observed that in four years (from June 2020 to October 2024) there were About 5,000 women potentially affected by this practice by the company.

To date, the regularization of the salary and social security situation of these women has been achieved.

(On these lines, group photograph of all the coordinators in matters of equality and non-discrimination of the different Autonomous Communities)