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Bread and Peace a still valid slogan

‘Bread and Peace’ is unfortunately still a valid slogan for International Women’s Day

“Bread and Peace” was demanded when March 8 in 1917 was formalized as the date to celebrate the International Women’s Day. This demand is no less urgent in 2022 when Russia has invaded its neighbour Ukraine.

At the second international Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen already in 1910, women rights advocate Clara Zetkin initiated the idea of International Women’s Day but the day was first formalized during a wartime strike in 1917 when Russian women demanded “Bread and Peace”. The strike started on March 8 (February 23 in the Julian calendar). A few days later, the Czar abdicated leading to the end of the czarist autocracy and women were granted the right to vote.

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This year the focus is on ‘breaking the bias‘, as explained on the official website. ‘Imagine a gender equal world”. Numbers from European Union’s statistical office Eurostat shows there is still also a long way to go.

  • The EU employment rate for men of working age was 77.2 % in 2020, exceeding that of women (66.2 %) by 11.0 percentage points with a variety between member countries. In Italy employment rate for men was 71.8% versus 52.1% for women and in Lithuania 77.5% versus 75.8%.
  • 229 million live in the EU. 51% of them are women with a variety between member countries. In Latvia 54% are women and in Malta it’s 48%.
  • Across the EU, women earn less per hour than men do overall. For the economy as a whole, in 2018, women’s gross hourly earnings were on average 14.4 % below those of men in the European Union (EU) and 15.3% in the euro area.
  • The gender pay gap varies significantly across Member States. In 2018, the gender pay gap ranged from 1.4 % in Luxembourg, 2.2 % in Romania, 5.5 % in Italy and 5.8 % in Belgium, to 20.1 % in both Czechia and Germany, 20.4 % in Austria and 21.8 % in Estonia.
  • But when it comes to life expectancy at birth, women are in the lead with 5.5 years. Women’s life expectancy is 84.0 years versus 78.5. Life expectancy at birth was in 2019 higher for women than for men in all EU member states, with the gender gap ranging from 3.1 years in the Netherlands, 3.3 years in Sweden, 3.4 years in Malta, 3.9 years in Ireland and 4.0 in Denmark to 8.5 years in Estonia, 9.2 years in Latvia and 9.6 years in Lithuania.
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