Today, the 8th, will be March 8th, and this week, on behalf of the Social Observatory of the La Caixa Foundation, I moderated a round table on how gender inequality goes beyond the famous wage gap. Three examples: 74% of part-time jobs are held by women, and in 87% of cases, it is men who interrupt their professional careers to take care of their children. There is less research and therefore less data on the adverse effects of drugs on women than on men. And, on average, women spend eleven hours more per week than men on childcare, and another four hours on housework.
The data were coming in with precision, provided by three economics professors at the forefront of international research on gender issues, Lídia Farré, Libertad González and Judit Vall. One thing was clear: although we have made great progress, the glass ceiling has been cracked but not broken. How can we achieve this? When it came to solutions, intuitions appeared.
There are role models for professional success for women, which has broken certain stereotypes. Let's take the example of football: girls see girls playing on TV and see themselves reflected in Alexia Putellas and buy shirts with the name Aitana Bonmatí on them. And boys see that of course girls can play football. But do they see if everyone shares the housework? Not really. In other words, what we need now are male role models, role models for caring. And it goes without saying that the first role model for boys is at home. In short: men have assumed that women work outside the home but that men work equally inside the home is a subject still pending approval.
