On the occasion of March 8, more than 10,000 people marched in Paris on Friday to demand more equality between women and men.
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More than 10,000 women and men took to the streets of Paris on Friday March 8 to celebrate International Women’s Rights Day at the call of the Feminist Strike collective and five unions: CFDT, CGT, UNSA, FSU and Solidaires. Three hours after leaving Place Gambetta, the purple procession arrives at Place de la Bastille. Everyone, or almost everyone, wore an accessory of this color used worldwide to celebrate March 8.
Many passers-by are present to photograph the demonstrators. A procession also very noisy, with lots of music and feminist anthems sung throughout the afternoon, including the song of wage inequalities.
“Be at the same price as my male colleagues”
Odile knows this song by heart. She founded her business training and consulting organization 19 years ago. But she still doesn’t feel taken seriously by the men she works with: “I know that I cannot be at the same price as my male colleagues. I tested twice and both times I was given mind-blowing things like: ‘But you don’t have the skills.’ Whereas there, on these two tests, I had much more skills than my male colleagues. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
Inequalities which are still felt indirectly on salaries but also on pensions. Héloïse is project manager and she did the calculation: “As a woman, I know that when I retire, with an equal career path to a man, I would have at least 20% less on my pay slip and my pension.” Recently, the young woman left her old job and revised her way of applying: “I choose structures when I apply where I know that I can have transparency on the salary scale. And if this is not the case, ask why this is not the case.”
“It’s still catastrophic”
Many companies still do not play the game of professional and salary equality. The numbers speak for themselves and Youlie Yamamotoco-founder of the Les Rosies collective, repeated them loud and clear from her tank all afternoon, wearing overalls and a red kerchief with white polka dots on her head. “It’s still catastrophic since women are on average paid less than 24% compared to men. On equal full-time basis, it’s less than 15%, but it still remains extremely problematic, she laments. It also remains that retired women have at least 40% retirement in the end. Women represent the majority of part-time workers, fixed-term contracts and precarious jobs.”
Women actually represent 60% of people on the minimum wage. So many indicators which, taken together, place France 21st among European countries in terms of equal pay.