After a year of research work between FUNDEPS and Comunicar Igualdad, with the collaboration of the Fundación Heinrich Böll, we present in Córdoba and Buenos Aires the partial results obtained on the participation of women and LGTBI people in media companies, universities and unions. The figures warn of their scarce participation in these sectors and the need to transform the rigid union and business structures that hinder their access and permanence.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

Within the framework of some intense weeks in which the women’s movement filled the streets with color and raised its voice claiming rights for so long postponed, on Friday, June 8 we presented in the Faculty of Communication Sciences some conclusions that make visible the permanence of gender violence within one of the most relevant areas in terms of their social role: media companies.

In this instance, the specialists Pate Palero (journalist, member of the PAR Network), Silvana Zanelli (journalist and trade unionist CISPREN), Sandra Chaher (journalist and Communication Director for Equality), Rossana Rodriguez (SATSAID union member Cordoba) joined. , Paula Morales (teacher and researcher specializing in gender and communication), Analía Barrionuevo (director of the Gender Program of the UNC) and Virginia Pedraza (lawyer and coordinator of the gender team of FUNDEPS).

During the talk, the current situation of women and people in the LGTBI community was discussed in terms of access to equal professional opportunities in the media, and the obstacles they face in accessing the positions of decision making and management positions. Possible actions were also proposed to reverse the situation of inequality from different spaces such as media companies, unions and educational institutions related to communication and the measures that the State can take to address the problem.

Some of these points were presented as results of our research in order to visualize the most problematic axes and to put them in discussion during the day.

Glass ceiling: women who do not have access to hierarchical positions

“(…) In the first 1,500 companies listed on Wall Street, there are more directors called John, Robert, William or James than female directors.” (D’Alessandro, 2017, p.101).

The scarcity of women in decision-making positions within companies is a feature that can be seen in many of the Latin American companies: only 4.2% hold executive positions and 8.5% board meetings, while the In most of the countries in the region, women participate in almost 30% in management positions. The media companies of our country do not escape this trend.

Of the 30 media companies analyzed in Buenos Aires and Córdoba, women participate in 27.72% of the property and managerial positions. However, this percentage becomes more unfavorable in the case of Córdoba: only 12% of women occupy these positions.

The panorama of the unions reflects figures of equal concern. In Córdoba, trade union leaderships that include media workers are occupied by 17.79%. Numbers worrying if we consider that, in 2016, women graduates of journalistic careers constituted 69.04%, but currently they only make up 23.29% of the media workers analyzed in the city of Córdoba.

As for transgender people, it was revealed that only one works in the media, which demonstrates the structural problems that cross this group and make it one of the most vulnerable, marginalized and precarious. Trans people are the most affected because they have greater structural impediments that make it difficult for them to obtain a decent job and complete their studies. In some media, there are policies to include diversity for people with disabilities, but not for trans people.

On the other hand, the institutes of journalistic formation showed their shortcomings in terms of specific and obligatory subjects on gender and of curricula that contemplate the gender perspective as a transversal axis to all the contents.

Why are there no more women in the hierarchical positions of media companies or unions? What barriers make up this glass ceiling that hinders women’s access to these positions?

One of the shortcomings detected within the analyzed media companies is the lack of a gender perspective and measures to guarantee equal opportunities, as well as their translation into institutionalized and sustainable policies that are capable of transforming labor structures. . This leads to the invisibility and reproduction of violence, especially the symbolic violence that is the one that silently and latent crosses the daily practices within the media companies.

These violence are made palpable in practices such as the selection and promotion of personnel. The lack of training in the areas of Human Resources perpetuates naturalized violence, making entry difficult, but particularly the rise of women to positions of hierarchy. In this framework, lobbying (carried out among those who already occupy hierarchical positions, most of them male) and the lack of clear promotion criteria are some of the most important factors when selecting personnel for decision-making positions.

Another barrier that makes up this glass ceiling is the sexual division of labor and its reproduction within the media and union companies. Thus, women occupy feminized positions or deal with “soft” issues, linked to the tasks of care and care (and frivolity) with which they have been associated. We speak of women personal secretaries, producers, in Human Resources and Institutional Relations, in the editorial offices of areas such as health, spectacles and gender, in the Ministries of Culture, Communication and Gender. This type of tasks and topics are considered of lower rank compared to those in which males predominate.

This makes it difficult for women to access others that allow them to gain experience and advance, even to those who have a professional training superior to that of their male peers. In this way, the glass ceiling and the sexual division of work impose gender roles, stereotypes and prejudices that are internalized by women generating a vicious circle that affects their confidence, self-esteem and personal initiative that demotivates and reduces the possibility of doing career within these companies.

This is possible because women are the most important and great supporters of a system and a labor market with a patriarchal matrix that forces them to relegate their professional careers to a second level in order to dedicate themselves to other unpaid work: that of the home. The women who are mothers and in whom they relay the tasks of care, demand greater flexibility through extended licenses, practices like the flex time or home office and the reduction of hours that, in some cases, implies a salary reduction and job insecurity. The result: Few women enter competitions in media companies or are part of lists in the unions to access higher positions, have fewer possibilities than men, and stay, at best, in the middle managers or in devalued positions, having lower salaries than men.

Inequality of gender and possibilities of transformation

The data obtained from this research demonstrate the persistence of structural gender inequalities that are reproduced within media companies and unions. However, these spaces revealed, for the most part, a clear interest in reversing this situation. Now the question is: how to achieve more egalitarian work spaces and union activism? How to mainstream the gender perspective in media companies, unions and journalism training institutes?

There are structural problems that the State has to counter. However, it is important that there is an articulation and commitment between different areas. In the first place, it is necessary to have effective public policies with a gender perspective that address and counteract structural gender inequalities.

Second, proactive policies on the part of media companies that imply the incorporation of a gender perspective that can be institutionalized are required. That is to say, that gender offices are created from where mechanisms to denounce cases of gender violence are implemented, which make the problem visible and give it a corresponding treatment.

Third, internal training in gender issues acquires importance, which involves not only trade unions and media companies, but also educational institutions dedicated to the training of communication professionals. These institutions have the role of training professionals who will then construct and communicate interpretations of realities. Great advances have been made in education regarding the incorporation of gender issues. However, in the case of Córdoba, although work is being done, the creation of curricula with a gender perspective and compulsory subjects that deal with the subject in a timely manner is still pending.

Finally, the Cordovan unions must enhance their role as spokespersons for the media companies, focusing on the pressures they have to make towards these companies, in terms of offering training and protecting those and those they represent, in order to guarantee rights and promote measures that exceed those already in place. For this to be a reality, it is necessary that these spaces also break with their own internal machista structures

In short, the greater presence of women and trans people in media companies and unions means that public policies aimed at achieving gender equity, representation and diversification and democratization of voices, equal opportunities, are also implemented. the transformation in the sexist logic involved in the selection of personnel and in the labor market itself, and the (de) construction of friendly and egalitarian work spaces that eliminate the reproduction of gender violence and the sexual division of labor.

Bibliography and links:

• D’Alessandro, M. (2017). Economía feminista. Cómo construir una sociedad igualitaria (sin perder el glamour). Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana.
• OIT (2017). La mujer en la gestión empresarial: Cobrando impulso en América Latina y el Caribe. Recuperado de: http://www.ilo.org/public/spanish/dialogue/actemp/downloads/events/2017/lima_conf/wibm_fullreport_2017_sp.pdf

To see the full video of the Conversation on equal opportunities in media: https://www.facebook.com/FUNDEPS/videos/1791850930878652/

Author

The parliamentary debate in the Chamber of Deputies of the Nation came to an end during the morning of Thursday, after a marathon session, and resulted in the expected average sanction of the law of voluntary termination of pregnancy. So it was that at 9:51, the numbers appeared on the screen and both the campus and the outskirts of the Congress erupted in shouts, applause, tears and hugs.

After 22 continuous hours of debate, with 129 positive votes, 125 negative and 1 abstention, the deputies present approved the consensus opinion that was generated within the framework of the plenary of the four commissions that dealt with the treatment of the project.

For almost two months, the Chamber hosted more than 700 exhibitors, giving a framework of great scope of vision and institutional quality that enriched and gave tools for the legislative debate. In this way, a consensus opinion was reached among the 9 projects presented, with a bill based on the one presented by the Campaign for Safe and Free Legal Abortion.

Deputy Daniel Lipovetzky, president of the Commission of General Legislation and who presided over the Public Hearings, opened the Session with a blunt speech about the reasons why abortion should be legal: “It is a historic day, for the first time it is going to treat a project of decriminalization and legalization of abortion in this room. In the first place, thanks to the women’s movement, the women of the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, who have been working for many years on a project that legalizes the voluntary interruption of pregnancy in our country. (…) The thousands of clandestine abortions that are done per year in Argentina are a problem that we have to solve. During the hearings, three health ministers from two different governments agreed that the legalization of abortion improves the quality of life of Argentine women. Therefore, there is no doubt about where our vote should be. In no way is this project unconstitutional: this project is absolutely compatible with our charter and international treaties. The opinion that proposes the rejection proposes to maintain a public health problem, hundreds of thousands of clandestine abortions per year, at least 43 deaths during 2016. Nobody legislates for death, we all legislate for life”.

The debate took place on the eve of the start of the World Cup, with millions of people putting their attention at the sporting event of the year. However, this did not prevent other hundreds of thousands of people from focusing their attention and energies on this project.

With a political context of economic adjustment and little commitment in terms of human rights and public inclusion policies, it is evident that feminism is a transversal struggle that managed to put and keep the issue on the political agenda of the country.

The vigil

During the day, women’s organizations and activists from across the country organized to see and hear the debate together, expectant and excited with their own World Cup semi-final. With shots in the schools, artistic interventions, tributes to historical activists, handkerchiefs, musical presentations and a lot of green, the feminist movement was more twinned than ever.

In Buenos Aires, the vigil was held in front of the Congress and hundreds of thousands of people, local and from all over the country, attended. In Córdoba, the meeting was held at the Anthropology Museum of the National University of Córdoba, which transmitted the debate while various interventions were carried out outside. It is estimated that thousands of activists passed through the day and night. In Cordoba, the celebrations were then taken to the classic corner of Patio Olmos.

When the voting ended, the excitement overflowed: so much struggle, so much militancy, historical, constant and intensified in recent months had results in the approval of the text of the law and the expected average sanction. The emotion of today will be the necessary energy to continue the fight that continues with the discussion of the project in the Senate.

Schools taken: the claim for Comprehensive Sex Education

The taking of schools reflects another claim that continues in force: that of the effective application of the Law of Comprehensive Sexual Education and its guidelines. But the students also spoke in favor of abortion: in the surveys that circulated during the days prior to the average sanction it was clear that in this struggle young people are protagonists, since 80% of the people consulted with ages between 18 and 35 years ruled in favor of it.

And in this sense there is a first conquest: Article 13 of the bill establishes that the State must ensure comprehensive sexual education, including responsible procreation, at all educational levels and paying special attention to respect for the diversity and cultural identity of the original peoples.

The IVE bill

The approved document retakes several points of the project of the National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion and of the 9 projects presented by other legislators, but also incorporates some observations made by the deputies during the different instances of debate.

We remind that this is the seventh time that the National Campaign has presented a project of decriminalization and legalization of abortion, since it was formed in 2005. However, none of the previous times had gone through the commissions and reached instances of debate. What happened in recent months is undoubtedly the fruit of a historic struggle that was decidedly deepened in recent years.

The project proposes to maintain the causes that the Penal Code currently recognizes for the legal interruption of pregnancy (causal violation and causal health), adds a reason for the case in which the non-viability of extra-uterine life of the fetus was diagnosed, and also adds an explicit affirmation that women and pregnant persons have “the right to access the voluntary interruption of pregnancy with the only requirement of the woman or pregnant person up to week fourteen (14), inclusive, of the gestational process.”

For the causes, it also explicitly incorporates issues that had been ordered by the Supreme Court in the FAL ruling: for the causal violation, the termination of pregnancy may be made “with the sole requirement and the affidavit of the woman or pregnant person before the health professional intervener “. For the health cause, it indicates that it corresponds “if the woman or pregnant person, considered as a human right, is at risk of life or health”.

In addition, the project establishes provisions to ensure that the interruption of pregnancy is carried out in a consensual, rapid and informed manner, that delays or obstacles can not be imposed, that privacy and privacy must be respected, the obligation of health professionals to guarantee the practice of equality throughout the country (with reference to the best practices of the World Health Organization) the limitation and regulation of conscientious objection (explicitly prohibiting the institutional), and referral to the Civil and Commercial Code for the case of minors.

It also provides for the creation of a registry of statistics and indicates that the public health sector and social work should incorporate the comprehensive coverage of the voluntary interruption of pregnancy envisaged in the present in all forms that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends

The opinion that had been signed on Tuesday to be treated in the session suffered minor modifications after its general approval in the venue. At the time of the article by article vote, some concessions were made to the requests of some deputies, for example, the investment of titles and the addition of explanatory questions.

The criminal code

The first title of the project contains all the provisions that modify or add questions in the Penal Code. First, it establishes penalties for third parties that cause the abortion of the pregnant person beyond week 14 without the consent of the woman and without any cause.

Then it incorporates a new offense and provides a penalty for the authority of a health establishment or health professional that will unjustifiably delay, hinder or refuse to perform an abortion in legally authorized cases.

Finally, it provides that the woman or pregnant person who causes her own abortion or consents to someone else causing it when it was performed after the fifteenth week of the gestational process, without mediating any of the causes, will be repressed with imprisonment from three months to 1 year.

However, it does not foresee any penalty for the attempt, and gives the judge the power to order that the penalty be suspended pending the reasons that prompted the woman or pregnant person to perform the interruption, their subsequent attitude, the nature of the fact and the appreciation of other circumstances that could prove the inconvenience of applying the penalty. Although it represents an advance that considers the reasons of the woman, it will require working and being attentive to what the judges could dictate and from what place and criterion they did it.

What the deputies said

Deputy Brenda Austin (UCR-PRO), one of the first signers of the Campaign project said in her speech: “Every day, right now, women of all ages and social classes in every corner of our country, abort: students, professions, unemployed, domestic employees, deputies, wives and couples of deputies, their daughters. This happens, denying it is so foolish that it hurts. We do not discuss our opinions here, what we are discussing is in what conditions they do it: those that have resources do it in private clinics and those that do not, in the middle of despair and in horrible conditions. The current Penal Code, which was thought by men in a Congress where women did not even have the right to vote, said it was a crime, thinking that with the threat of jail women would change their minds. The criminalization failed. It does not prevent women from aborting and aggravates the problem. Ladies and gentlemen, have you really put yourself on the skin and in the shoes of the women who make those decisions? Do you really feel sitting here in your pews with the right to judge them and force them to make one or the other decision? There are two options: one imposes freedom and another obliges women to act according to the beliefs of another sector, minority, but with much lobbying power in our country. Press the NO button, it does not save the two lives, it condemns women to clandestinity.”

Victoria Donda (Libres del Sur), another of the signatories and promoters of the Campaign in the Lower House project, said: “Human Rights are progressive, so if this is so clear in the International Treaties that have constitutional status, why? What is so difficult to pass a law that recognizes this right to women? Here we do not talk about abortion, yes or no. The underground kills: they are not voting for the two lives, they are penalizing the woman for exercising freedom.”

The Deputy Araceli Ferreyra (PPV), affirmed: “The abortion is the last crime with load of sort that is of the time of the carts. Of course there are no figures, if it is clandestine. We need legality so there are figures. Feminism is that radical idea that women are also people and we have the same rights. The criminalization of abortion violates half of the international treaties that guarantee the rights of women We are fighting for the rights of women so that they have sovereignty in all aspects of their lives, so that motherhood is a choice.”

On the other hand, the deputy Lucila de Ponti, (PPV), said: “Today we come to collect a debt. The one of Ana Maria Acevedo, a 19-year-old girl from Santa Fe, the one from Belén, 3 years imprisoned in Tucumán. The debt with María Campos who died recently in Santiago del Estero. The debt with Malena. With Cecilia, with Dora, with all the pioneers of the Campaign to whom her life went so that today in this area we are discussing this project. The debt of a State that chose to look the other way. Life, all lives, defend themselves by conquering and expanding rights, not denying reality. That is why the one who opposes abortion is not in favor of life, is in favor of hiding. If we get here, to the site, it is thanks to the movement of women who managed to install this issue on the street, in their homes, in schools, in universities. The thousands of women who are on the streets today asking the State to stop being absent.

We are not making history, we are passing through, it is they who are making history. The future is here, the time is now, let it be law.”

What’s next?

With the approval of the Chamber of Deputies, the IVE Law has a half sanction. The next step is the debate in the Senate. Although it is not known yet a precise date, according to transcended, it would be before the winter break. The law must be debated during this year, otherwise the average penalty falls.

The prognosis at the beginning of the year, when the subject was discussed, was not positive. There was talk of a majority of Senators against. However, the development of informative audiences along with the great social mobilization that accompanied the entire debate will undoubtedly change things. The two majority blocs of the Senate, agreed that the context is favorable for the sanction of the law of decriminalization and legalization of abortion. In fact, a message circulated through social networks affirming that the entire block of Senators and Senators of the Front for Victory – PJ will vote in favor, meeting a demand from society that has been expressed massively through the Women’s Collectives.

The sanction of a law of voluntary interruption of pregnancy means an advance in the recognition of the human rights of women and pregnant persons, fundamentally of the rights related to sexual and reproductive health and the recognition of their freedom and autonomy. But it also means providing a framework of legality not only to pregnant bodies to be able to decide safely and with guarantees, but also to health professionals to manage their activities safely, without losing sight of their obligation to respect and guarantee rights. .

This conquest of the women’s movement with its green tide is a historic landmark and there is no turning back. It’s a public health issue. It is a question of human rights. It is a matter of desire. Of free bodies. With shame to another part: the right to abortion, it will be law!

Contact

Mayca Balaguer, maycabalaguer@fundeps.org

Emilia Pioletti

Source of images

National Campaign for Legal, Safe and Free Abortion – Córdoba

Women raised their voices throughout the country. In Córdoba, this June 4, more than 60 thousand women filled the streets in a new mobilization.

“Below, we offer a google translate version of the original article in Spanish. This translation may not be accurate but serves as a general presentation of the article. For more accurate information, please switch to the Spanish version of the website. In addition, feel free to directly contact in English the person mentioned at the bottom of this article with regards to this topic”.

As for four years ago, yesterday the most emblematic mobilization of the women’s movement in our country took place.
This year the cry of Ni Una Menos was given in the framework of the debate on the legalization of abortion in Argentina and the main slogan was the claim for legal abortion, safe and free. It was the last mass mobilization before the debate in the Chamber of Deputies, which will take place on June 13: the last great pañuelazo.
But in addition to claiming that there is not one or less for clandestine abortions, women reinforced the historic claim of this date: enough femicides and sexist violence. The same day the Supreme Court of Justice made public the report of the Public Registry of Femicide of the Argentine Justice, which establishes that 251 direct victims of femicide were surveyed in the whole country during the year 2017. So far in 2018, the province of Córdoba already counts 9 victims.

Other struggles were also present, struggles from other latitudes: the recent conquest of Ireland by the referendum that opened the doors to the legalization of abortion was recognized, the Brazilian Councilor Marielle Franco was reminded, mass mobilizations were held against the Spanish justice that acquitted “the herd” and honored the Honduran environmental defender, Berta Cáceres.
Within the local demands, a larger budget was required for public policies to eradicate violence against women, better working conditions for women workers in this sector, access to justice for victims of gender violence and secular, scientific and sexual education. with a gender perspective.
Along with the claim for legal abortion, the delay of the Cordovan justice was denounced by not issuing around the judicialization of the provincial protocol for access to non-punishable abortion, which has been partially suspended for 6 years, profoundly impeding the right of women to access sexual and reproductive health services.
It was also emphatically claimed for the rights of the collective of sexual diversity, exclaiming loudly: enough of machismo, misogyny and homolesbobitransodio.
Lastly, Cordovan women, at a clear disadvantage due to the wage gap, raised their voices against fares and pension and labor reforms that deepen this inequality.

The revolutionary women’s movement again filled the streets and their cry was resounding: Live, free and with all the rights we want!

Photo: Assembly NiUnaMenos Córdoba

Author 

Mayca Balaguer

Contact

Virginia Pedraza – vir.pedraza@fundeps.org