Presenatation 2 intro

In What Ways Has The Economic Crisis in Greece Impacted Women and Gender Equality Perspectives?

-According to Eurostat, while 25% of Greek men are unemployed, the percentage for women reaches 31.1%.

-Overall, Greece ranked 81st out of 136 countries in the Gender Gap Index.

-One in three women has been the victim of a beating -Incidents of violence against women have increased 47% this year.

Members of the Finance Ministry’s cleaning staff clashed with the police in Athens on Thursday. Nearly 400 laid-off workers want their jobs back.

Missing From The Picture -Austerity programs and bailout agreements have lead Greece into a deepr recession and socia crisis, while a promised recovery is posponed to an unknow future.

-Behind statistics and macro-economic calculations, different women (and men) live with unemployment, salary and pension cuts, poverty and deprivation or shrinking social rights and mounting everyday violence in the crisis-ridden neighbourhoods of Athens.

Suspended Bodies: -A significant part of austerity policies has to do with downsizing the state, which practically means dismissal of thousands of public sector employees. Among them, 595 cleaners of the Ministry of Finance and 1700 administrative employees of universities. Administrators have fought a bitter and inventive struggle, striking for 3 months at the end of 2013 against layoffs and suspensions and are now in a process of fierce negotiation with the Ministry of Education. Cleaners demonstrate in the streets for many months now, repelling police brutality and media misrepresentation of their struggle and demands. It is seldom, if at all, mentioned that these bodies in struggle are female4 - women of different ages, persuasions and backgrounds. These bodies do not passively accept the dictums of the Troika; they claim publicly their right to a decent job and to bear ble livelihoods.

-living with violence The insecurities of unemployment, income cuts and precarity are aggravated by everyday fear, particularly in some central neighbourhoods of Athens where the Golden Dawn has chosen to claim territoriality and control over space. These practices and hate discourse, apart from direct violence, seem to lead to a creeping acceptance of aggression and a fast slide towards more conservative attitudes part of which is rising sexism and the adoption and promotion of extreme sexist models, behaviours and discourses. In a context where violence becomes ubiquitous, violence against women, within families and in public, is also on the increase – albeit hidden in a conspiracy of silence. Data is rare but very telling: over the past three years one in five women have experienced bashing or beating by their partners, one in two has experienced sexual abuse including rape, one in ten serious injury, while verbal and economic violence are on the increase6. By the same token, visibility in public space becomes ever more difficult and ambiguous

http://www.ethnos.gr/article.asp?catid=22768&subid=2&pubid=64021502

The Invisible Army of Cleaners;

“What happens to non-submissive bodies” A Personal Story Konstantina Kuneva, 49 years old, is a cleaner and trade unionist.

She migrated from Bulgaria to Greece due to her son’s heart condition. Although she had studied art history, she started working for Oikomet, a company providing cleaning services, and worked in train stations. Eventually, her employers demanded that she and her colleagues sign incomplete forms, which were later presented as new contracts with reduced working hours. The actual hours of work hadn’t of course changed at all. Kuneva decided to organize in her trade union and as result faced numerous threats by her employers and was harassed over the phone. As a single mother, she asked to be moved from a night shift to a morning shift and a location closer to her home. Each and every time, she was denied.

In December 2008, a period when the economic crisis had ominously started to be perceived, she was attacked by two unknown men at the end of her shift, at midnight. They threw vitriol at her and made her drink it. As a result, she was hospitalized and comatosed with many of her internal organs severely damaged. She lost an eye and her esophagus is so wrecked that even today she has difficulties breathing and can only sleep sitting up. Oikomet was found guilty by Greek courts in July 2013 and Kuneva was granted 250,000 euros in compensation. Newspapers briefly mentioned the court’s decision, as they had briefly mentioned the assault, and the story barely made it to TV. Kuneva was depicted as a hero that had little to do with the real world or other immigrants: the courageous and hard-working single mother that dares to speak up and fight alone.

The media saw her as the exception, and not a real woman in very real circumstances shared by millions of people.

-A group of middle-aged cleaners have become heroes to Greeks hit hard by austerity for refusing to go quietly when their jobs were cut. They have clashed with police and camped for months in central Athens - their defiance springing from decades of lowpaid work and hard lives as mothers, wives, widows or divorcees.

-You wouldn’t know to look at it that the messy makeshift camp is the epicentre of a protest that’s touched a nerve in Greece -There’s a pop-up tent with an inflatable mattress, some plastic chairs, a table, a fridge and a microwave. Posters of red rubber gloves making fists or victory signs adorn the concrete pillars. A banner made from a sheet is splashed with big red letters: “Sit-in protest by the cleaners of the finance ministry.”

-Nearly 600 women who cleaned the ministry’s offices around the country were laid off 16 months ago in public-sector cuts demanded by Greece’s creditors. They are middle-aged mothers and grandmothers with no previous experience of activism, but their dogged persistence has caught the imagination of many thousands here whose lives have been derailed by the economic crisis.

-Numbers tell a different story. The Finance Ministry has hired private contractors to replace the redundant workers, even after the court decision ruling the women’s immediate re-hiring. This means that until the end of August, when the cleaners’ employment contracts expire, the state pays both the contractors and the cleaners – giving the latter 75% of their regular salary. This looks less like good logistics and more like a favor to those private cleaning companies - Cleaners in the public sector are targeted first to be sacked because they are seen as the weakest in society, who cannot support themselves. They are expected to go look for jobs in the private sector where they are paid at extreme low wages- 1.5 euros an hour and face sexual abuse.

-50 to 60 years old, many of them are single mothers, have slim chances of finding another job, do not qualify for a pension and will not be getting a compensation after being fired next month. On top of that, they are viciously attacked by riot police on a regular basis.

Fight for rights withot violence

We have will power and determination

Stop

They have camped outside the ministry around the clock since May, clashed with the riot police, and sprayed red footprints on the pavements to protest against domestic violence. Their red rubber gloves and purple flags are instantly recognisable at every demonstration

The street, the public space, as a place to voice your opinion and fight for your rights

Women in Protests

These examples shows the alternative ways women find to give voice to their opinion. Through humour, dance, music and passionate talks these women recreate the space of protest.

But still end up getting hurt

Build up of space over time

4-Installement of microwave

5-Restricted by the pressure and violent action of the police 3-Installement of a fridge

2- Installements of chairs and tables

1- Installement of tents