France is
to enact sweeping changes to its sexual equality laws on a par with granting
women the vote and legalising abortion, a minister declared on Friday.
The Telegraph, Henry Samuel, Paris, 30 Nov 2012
French Minister for Women's Rights and Government spokeperson Najat Vallaud-Belkacem leaves the Elysee presidential Palace Photo: AFP |
The
proposals will include "ABC of gender equality" lessons for children
as young as six, the threat of imposing compulsory equal pay for men and women
in the same jobs and tougher laws on domestic violence.
France's
women's rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said: "This will become the
third generation of equality legislation after women were given the right to
vote in 1944 and abortion was legalised in 1975."
She made
the comments on the day France called its first cross-ministry meeting on
women's' rights in 12 years.
New draft
laws outlined yesterday will allow the courts to accelerate restraining orders
and trials for violent male partners and provide females considered under
threat of violence with free emergency mobile phones to alert police.
Employers
will be inspected to ensure men and women receive equal pay, and could be
forced by law to raise a women's salary or lower a man's to ensure fairness in
large companies.
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And
starting next year, children will be given lessons in sexual equality while at
primary school from the age of six to 11. The aim, said Miss Vallaud-Belkacem,
was to "deconstruct stereotypes" deeply ingrained in French society.
France
trumpets being the guardian of human rights, translated in French as
"droits de l'homme" (men's rights).
But the
country currently languishes in 57th place in the World Economic Forum's 2012
gender equality report – well behind Britain, in 18th place, but also Venezuela
and the Kyrgiz Republic. It ranks almost last overall on the wage equality
index – 129th out of 135 countries.
Latest
studies suggest that women earn 27 per cent less than men for the same type of
job, one in three women has only part-time work and their pensions are 40 per
cent below that of men.
They
conduct the vast majority of household chores while only 27 per cent of French
MPs are female.
The assault
on sexism and for gender equality came in a week that France's former first
lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy declared: "We don't need to be feminist in my
generation." Instead she suggested a woman's place is in the home with her
children.
This led to
a viral twitter campaign against her remarks and a statement from Miss
Vallaud-Belkacem saying: "We need everyone to be a feminist. Feminism is
the fight for the equality of sexes, not for the domination of one sex over
another."
It came on
the day Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a one-time Socialist presidential hopeful,
reportedly neared a civil settlement with a New York maid who alleged he raped
her. The case, which erupted last year, sparked nationwide soul-searching into
French attitudes to sexism.
The changes
come just six months after MPs sparked outrage among feminists when some
wolf-whistled a female minister who walked into the parliamentary chamber
wearing a floral, knee-length dress.
In 2010,
former president Nicolas Sarkozy introduced a law meaning married couples could
be jailed for verbally insulting each other during domestic arguments.
The new
offence of 'psychological violence' – aimed at protecting women from abusive
men – covers violent threats, false accusations of infidelity and even insults
over a partner's appearance, and is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Earlier
this year, Mr Sarkozy's government also issued a decree abolishing the term
Mademoiselle from all official documents because it suggests a woman is
available and stems from the word "virgin".
The word –
the Gallic equivalent of "Miss" – forces women to reveal that they
are unmarried, the ministers said.
The same
law also banned the phrase 'nom de jeune fille' meaning 'maiden name' from all
paperwork.
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