With the far right gaining ground in parliaments and governments and women's rights threatened around the world, we spoke to four women who are fighting against this regression of rights in four areas: sexual and reproductive rights, labour rights, the rise of sexism among young people and new forms of hatred. Feminism and feminists as a dam against anti-rights discourse.

This year, March 8, International Women's Day, finds us in the midst of a wave of reaction due to the push that Donald Trump is giving to the most conservative positions both in the United States and in the countries and formations within his sphere of influence. In the dossier we speak with activists, professionals and scholars who, from their different fields, maintain positions on such relevant issues as cyberbullying or labor or reproductive rights. We also look at what is happening abroad, with the cases of the United States, Iran and Afghanistan, Korea and Argentina.

Thanks to the push of international organizations, health inequality affecting women has become one of the priority issues on the political agendas of governments in several countries. I spoke about it In this column we analyze cases of good practices, such as the strategy adopted by the UK Department of Health and Social Services to promote women's health. Today's article focuses on a more global perspective to characterize the magnitude of the problem, its causes, economic impact and possible solutions.

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.

When we talk about the gender gap —and the inequalities that separate men and women in the workplace— it may seem that the only important data is 19.5% of men earn more than women in CataloniaBut this gap and the consequences it brings have a much wider scope; and this was reflected this Wednesday in an event moderated by the ARA journalist Antoni Bassas and organised by the La Caixa Foundation by the triad of economists specialising in gender issues, Lídia Farré, Libertad González and Judit Vall. The three academics presented different studies and arguments to understand that the gender gap goes far beyond salaries.

This is the first International Women's Day in which companies with over 50 workers that have not a registered an equality plan can face fines of up to €7,500. Yesterday, Monday, was the deadline for all these companies to inform labour authorities of the implementation of this plan, which is regulated by law, within the company. Although the compulsory nature of this rule as such is not new – since 2007 companies with over 250 workers were required to have one – the threshold of the requirement, which has been decreasing until reaching 50 workers, is new.

The gender gap has narrowed by about two points compared to 2018, to 22.64% in 2019, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) interpreted by union Comisiones Obreras (CCOO). But as the study made by the union points out, the differences between young people have widened even more: female workers under 18 have gone from being paid 19.4% less than male workers in 2010 to 34.8% less in 2020, and those between 18 and 25, from 11.5% to 13.6% in the same period, according to data from the State Agency of Tax Administration.